Corporate Political Activity: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

This paper reviews the diverse literature on corporate political activity (CPA) and develops a framework that details and integrates existing research in this field. A systematic analysis of extant CPA literatures is conducted to order them into domains that have implications for organizational performance. The paper is structured into three such domain emphases, which require further research investigation: resources and capabilities focus; institutional focus; and political environment focus. The contribution of each to an understanding of CPA in pursuit or defence of corporate competitive advantage is discussed. The authors also suggest that the internationalization of business, including the more recent emergence of developing country economies and companies, presents scholars with the challenge of understanding CPA in more varied institutional settings. CPA practices continue to expand as commerce goes increasingly global and, consequently, involves a wider array of political actors and institutions. The paper contributes by increasing the clarity of CPA classification, reflecting on the implications of a multi‐polar world for CPA research and advancing future agendas for scholars in this research community.     

企业社会业绩内部评价体系研究

在企业社会责任受到广泛关注的现在,企业社会业绩内部评价正越来越成为事关企业生存与发展的新课题.由此,构建了一个服务于企业生存与发展要求的企业社会业绩内部评价体系,该体系由理念层面评价(指企业关于社会责任的看法评价),行为层面评价(指企业社会责任管理及企业行为评价),结果层面评价(指企业对社会的影响评价),战略性评价(指从企业战略角度对企业社会业绩的总体评价)等4部分组成.     

论企业伦理责任在企业社会责任中的核心地位

企业社会责任受到国内外广泛关注已有时日,但企业社会责任定义尚未有共识;企业社会责任实践与企业社会责任观念提出初衷不尽一致的状况依然存在。究其原因,与企业社会责任的核心是什么这个问题一直没有得到应有的重视不无关系。由此,首先界定了企业伦理责任并回答了相关问题;其次,论证了为何企业伦理责任是企业社会责任的核心;最后,讨论了明确提出企业伦理责任及其在企业社会责任中的核心地位对未来研究和实践的重要意义。     

The Science of Policy Analysis in a Political and Ethical Perspective

Public Organization Review -     

Corporate Political Activity and Firm Performance: The Moderating Effects of International and Product Diversification

Prior research has found that corporate political activity (CPA) can both positively and negatively impact firm performance. Combining agency theory with the resource-based view, we examine the relationship between domestic lobbying (a key form of CPA) and firm performance by explicating the moderating effects of international and product diversification. We argue that expansion into international and product markets increases a firm's resources and reduces agency costs in domestic lobbying. Our results, based on a sample of 737 firms, show that lobbying is positively associated with performance for firms that are diversified in both international markets and along product-lines; whereas lobbying is counter-productive for purely domestic and undiversified firms. Our results contribute to the literature on the firm performance implications of corporate political activity by highlighting the roles of international and product diversification.     

Political Modernisation and Policy Arrangements: A Framework for Understanding Environmental Policy Change

Since its emergence in the early seventies, the environmental policy domain has substantially changed in terms of its content, organisation and instrumentation. Hitherto these changes have been studied primarily as strategic responses of the actors involved. This article aims to conceive recent changes in environmental policies in terms of political modernisation on the one hand, and in terms of the renewal of policy arrangements on the other. Political modernisation refers to structural processes of changing interrelations between state, market and civil society, and to new conceptions and practices of governance. Policy arrangements refer to the substance and the organisation of policy domains in terms of policy discourses, coalitions, rules of the game and resources. This analytical framework aims to do justice to policy dynamics caused by both strategic and structural factors. It therefore provides new perspectives on the understanding of recent changes in environmental policy and also proves to be helpful in improving those policies. Professor Bas Arts holds the chair of the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Professor Pieter Leroy holds the chair of the Department of Political Sciences of the Environment at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Dr. J.P.M. van Tatenhove is Associate Professor at the Environmental Policy Group of Wageningen University, the Netherlands.     

财务欺诈风险特征筛选框架的建立和应用

本文从金融科技大数据出发,以人工智能的吉布斯随机搜索(Gibbs Sampling)算法为工具,在大数据框架下建立了针对公司财务欺诈风险的特征因子筛选的一般处理方法与特征提取推断原理,并结合上市公司的财务报表数据进行实证分析,结合从2017年1月到2018年12月证监会对上市公司财务报表信息披露违规的数据样本,筛选出刻画财务欺诈的特征因子并进行了验证测试,支持财务欺诈的识别。本文提出的框架和模型方法可以加强和提升对上市公司财务欺诈风险的识别能力,并实现对公司财务在欺诈方面的探测与预测(Detecting and Predicting)功能。     

The Good,the Bad,and the Ugly of Corporate Personhood and Corporate Political Spending: Implications for Shareholders

In the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) decision, the Supreme Court rendered an opinion verifying the legality of unions and corporations to spend funds from their general treasuries to finance independent expenditures related to political and electioneering communications. Such speech and communications are constitutionally protected by the First Amendment, according to Justice Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion (558 U.S. 22, 2010). The dissenting opinion questioned whether such rights should accrue to corporations, since corporations differ from constitutionally‐protected “natural persons” (dissent, 558 U.S. 50 at 2, 2010; Johnson 2011 ). The decision ignited a firestorm of controversy, which renewed interest in the legal concept of corporate personhood. This article reviews key findings in the Citizens United v. FEC case, then describes the historical, legal, and theoretical concepts of corporate personhood with the goal of unbundling the nuanced consequences of the majority and dissenting opinions of the Citizens United v. FEC case. The analysis then turns to a shareholder perspective, with particular emphasis on the implications for shareholders’ rights and responsibilities. It concludes with an exploration of options available to shareholders concerned about how to respond when a corporation uses its resources to communicate political opinions at odds with their own.     

Engaging Stakeholders Through Corporate Political Activity: Insights From MNE Nonmarket Strategy in an Emerging African Market

As interest increases in the political engagement between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and emerging economy host governments, less is known about wider MNE stakeholder engagement and the development of nonmarket capabilities in institutionally fragile environments. This study investigates how MNEs engage stakeholders through corporate political activity (CPA) during the pro-market reform of Uganda's electricity generation sector. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews, archival materials and fieldwork notes, and is analyzed using an NVivo-supported grounded analytic method. We find both proactive and reactive leveraging of CPA to manage diverse stakeholders. We argue that the host government remains the most important political stakeholder in the early phases of reform, but changes in institutional and political environments necessitate strategic adaptations as the reform process progresses. These adaptations include the need for local engagement and the accommodation of multi-level stakeholder pressures. Our findings contribute to an understanding of corporate political capabilities in Africa's emerging markets, and illustrate how these capabilities can be strategically leveraged to effectively manage diverse stakeholders.     

Accountability and Creating Accountability: a Framework for Exploring Behavioural Perspectives of Corporate Governance

What is board accountability, and how is such accountability created? This response to Roberts, McNulty and Stiles suggests a framework for exploring behavioural perspectives of boards and corporate governance. The contribution of this framework is to develop a terminology that may help us accumulate knowledge and provide directions for a research agenda. The consistent use of a terminology, the accumulation of knowledge and an accepted research agenda among a core group of scholar are some of the first steps in developing a promising research field with considerable potential to create actionable knowledge. The framework can help us sort some of the research, concepts and anecdotes that have been presented in efforts to open the black box of board research.     

An Integrational Framework of Organizational Moral Development,Legitimacy, and Corporate Responsibility: A Longitudinal,Intersectoral Analysis of Citizenship Reports

In this article, we outline a unique conceptual framework connecting legitimacy types (Suchman, 1995 ), theories of corporate responsibility (Brummer, 1991 ), and levels of organizational moral development based on Kohlberg's ( 1971 ) moral development stages. In addition, based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) categories, we found empirical support for our framework, by content analyzing Fortune 500 corporate citizenship reports from four different industries (i.e., chemicals, motor vehicle/auto parts, pharmaceutical, and utilities), at three data points (i.e., 2002, 2007, and 2012). Our analysis indicates that motor vehicle/auto parts and chemicals industries are at a higher developmental level, and portray moral legitimacy along with social demandingness corporate responsibility in recent years; while the pharmaceutical and utilities sectors are at a lower developmental level, showing signs of pragmatic legitimacy, alongside classical and stakeholder corporate responsibility strategies. This article contributes to the current organizational moral development literature by developing and finding empirical support of a conceptual framework of organizational moral development, legitimacy, and corporate responsibility. In particular, our findings provide a deeper understanding of the differences in moral development levels across four focal industries over a 10‐year timespan.     

转型经济背景下的企业政治战略:国有企业和民营企业的比较

本文应用Oliver和Holzinger关于政治战略的分析框架,在整合企业战略制度观和资源观(特别是动态能力视角)的基础上,解释了国有企业和民营企业的政治战略选择模式和机理,论证了规模和制度转型的权变效应,并发展了一系列命题.具体而言:(1)规模越大,国有企业选择前瞻型政治战略的倾向增加,选择防卫型政治战略的倾向降低;而民营企业选择预期型和前瞻型政治战略的倾向增加,选择反应型政治战略的倾向降低.(2)制度转型程度越大,国有企业选择反应型和防卫型政治战略的倾向增加,选择前瞻型政治战略的倾向降低;民营企业选择预期型政治战略的倾向增加,选择反应型政治战略的倾向降低.本研究是构建国有企业和民营企业政治战略选择模型的首次尝试,揭示了转型经济背景下企业政治战略选择的独特性,不仅拓展了企业战略制度观的应用领域,更重要的是探讨了企业战略制度观中一个重要但研究不足的议题——企业如何适应制度变革和规制转移.在政策意义方面,本研究指出,制度转型和企业规模对国有企业和民营企业的影响分别具有相互抵消和加强的效应,因而政策制定者需要同时考虑微观层次的企业改革和宏观层次的政策变革.     

A Model for Managing Corporate Sustainability

The world is faced with unprecedented global economic, environmental, and social challenges. Sustainable development has emerged as an organizing principle for addressing these issues. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is seen as the business contribution to sustainable development. The article defines CSR as an organization's efforts to secure resources and legitimacy for survival or competitive advantage by managing nonmarket and nonregulated issues arising from complex social and environmental problems. Supporting this definition, the “sustainability issue management” (SIM) model is presented to help managers and researchers assess and manage CSR issues. Based on ecological economics, the tool originated from a larger study. The model is used to explain and discuss how the UK Government's National Indicator 185 (requiring carbon reporting from Local Authorities) shaped the action of a supplier to Local Authorities. The case illustrates how the SIM model can help both managers and researchers understand and manage CSR issues.     

A Framework for the Complexity of High-Multiplicity Scheduling Problems

The purpose of this note is to propose a complexity framework for the analysis of high multiplicity scheduling problems. Part of this framework relies on earlier work aiming at the definition of output-sensitive complexity measures for the analysis of algorithms which produce “large” outputs. However, different classes emerge according as we look at schedules as sets of starting times, or as related single-valued mappings.     

A Framework for Analysis of Production Authorization Card‐Controlled Production Systems

A framework for the analysis of manufacturing systems operating under a production authorization card (PAC) system is outlined. The PAC system provides a single model, which encompasses a broad variety of control strategies, including Kanban and CONWIP. This paper describes a framework for the performance analysis and comparison of both specific and families of control strategies. The framework starts with system performance measures estimated by simulation. These simulations in turn provide training data for neural network metamodels. The metamodels allow for a variety of analysis and optimization approaches, including the construction of optimal policy curves, which can provide considerable insight into the systems under study.