Detecting and Understanding Donor Strategies in Midterm Elections

What explains how political donors decide where to give? Existing research indicates that people donate money to express support for a preferred political “team” and enjoy the emotional benefits of participating in politics. While this explains why people donate, it does little to help understand the different strategies that donors may pursue. In this paper, we use data on individual decisions as to where to allocate contributions to provide fresh insight into the strategies donors are pursuing. Our approach yields a much more nuanced view of campaign finance by showing how differently situated donors pursue divergent contribution strategies. Of particular note, we identify an influential class of engaged and wealthy political donors that spreads their dollars widely, especially focusing on giving to out-of-jurisdiction candidates. This illustrates just how influential the recent elimination of aggregate contribution limits may be in allowing a small share of donors to be broadly influential.

Embracing uncertainty to fuel innovation

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to document an interview with Soren Kaplan.Design/methodology/approachThe article is an interview with Soren Kaplan, author of Leapfrogging, which offers a divergent contribution to the current discussions about innovation.FindingsBusinesses avoid uncertainty and especially surprises, but the interview discloses that these can often be used to create competitive advantage.Originality/valueThe interview shows how embracing unexpected situations can bring about business change and innovation.