Asymmetric Regulation, Managerial Discretion, and Corporate Political Strategies

Abstract There is a lack of research about the political strategies used by firms in emerging countries, mainly because the literature often assumes that Western-oriented corporate political activity (CPA) has universal application. Drawing on resource-dependency logics, we explore why and how firms orchestrate CPA in the institutionally challenging context of Nigeria. Our findings show that firms deploy four context-fitting but ethically suspect political strategies: affective, financial, pseudo-attribution and kinship strategies. We leverage this understanding to contribute to CPA in emerging countries by arguing that corporate political strategies are shaped by the reciprocity and duality of dependency relationships between firms and politicians, and also by advancing that these strategies reflect institutional weaknesses and unique industry-level opportunities. Importantly, we shed light on the muttered dark side of CPA. We develop a CPA framework and discuss the research, practical and policy implications of our findings.

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The role of corporate political strategies in M&As

Journal of Corporate Finance ◽

10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.01.009 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 43 ◽

pp. 260-287 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Ettore Croci ◽

Christos Pantzalis ◽

Jung Chul Park ◽

Dimitris Petmezas

Keyword(s):

Political Strategies ◽

Corporate Political Strategies

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Corporate Political Strategies and State Owned Enterprises (SOEs)

International Journal of Strategic Decision Sciences ◽

10.4018/ijsds.2016040101 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Bernardo Meyer ◽

Victor Meyer Jr.

Keyword(s):

Political Action ◽

Home Country ◽

Single Case ◽

International Markets ◽

Political Strategies ◽

Competitive Strategies ◽

Engineering Company ◽

Data Collection And Analysis ◽

Corporate Political Strategies

Management literature is replete with cases of companies that use competitive strategies in the markets in which they operate. However, organizational success often depends on other variables, such as political action, which has been neglected in more detailed studies in strategy literature in general. Researchers such as Epstein (1969), Mizruchi (1992), Schuler (1996), Hillman and Hitt (1999), Blumentritt (2003), Boddewyn (2003), Hadani (2007) and Tian, Hafsi & Wu (2009) have stressed the importance of political strategies, claiming that organizational decisions and actions are influenced in practice by them. In the competitive international markets corporations use political strategies to influence stakeholders in order to conquer segments of the market that they focus on and also to prevent from other adverse interests. In this context, home country governments also assist domestic MNC's international ventures using their state owned enterprises (SOEs). This paper aims to examine the political strategies practiced by a Brazilian multinational engineering company in its international operations in its dealings with home country state owned enterprises. The methodology employed was the single case study, using a qualitative approach for data collection and analysis at a large Brazilian multinational engineering company. The findings revealed that political strategies directed at SOEs from home governments are critical to a company's internationalization process.

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Policy Uncertainty and the Dual Role of Corporate Political Strategies

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2935258 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Chansog (Francis) Kim ◽

Incheol Kim ◽

Christos Pantzalis ◽

Jung Chul Park

Keyword(s):

Dual Role ◽

Policy Uncertainty ◽

Political Strategies ◽

Corporate Political Strategies

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Corporate political strategies in Europe: The determinants of firms' access to the European Commission

Business and Politics ◽

10.1017/bap.2019.15 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 307-338

Author(s):

Amanda M. Alves

Keyword(s):

European Commission ◽

Negative Binomial ◽

Negative Binomial Regression ◽

Political Knowledge ◽

Sustainable Competitive Advantage ◽

The European Union ◽

Political Strategies ◽

Binomial Regression ◽

Political Environments ◽

Corporate Political Strategies

AbstractCorporate political strategies have been used extensively by firms attempting to shape their political environments. In this context, access to targeted policymakers is essential to allow their deployment. Thus, we propose to study the determinants of access to the European Commission representatives. This research builds on the resource-based view (RBV) of firms to argue that political knowledge is a valuable resource to increase firms' degree of access to the European Commission. To test our hypotheses, we built a novel dataset merging firms characteristics with lobbying meetings information, and analyze it through negative binomial regression. The results suggest the importance of political knowledge, emphasizing that it may represent a source of sustainable competitive advantage. This study highlights interesting information that broadens the understanding of corporate political strategies in the European Union.

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