Preface: Corporate Political Strategy (II)Author(s): Nicolas DahanSource: International Studies of Management & Organization, Vol. 35, No. 3, CorporatePolitical Strategy (II) (Fall, 2005), pp. 3-5Published by: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40397634 .

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Preface

Corporate Political Strategy (II)

This is the second part of a two-part issue dealing with corporate political strategy, with all the papers emphasizing the role of resources or assets in formulating and implementing such strategy.

Overview of this issue

This issue opens with two general pieces offering broad perspectives on cor- porate political activity. Thiétart's landmark piece, entitled "The Strategic Mix and Its Syndromes," is a translation of the original 1981 paper. This presents a comprehensive theoretical framework that integrated the economic, political, and organizational dimensions of corporate strategy. His political dimension was referring more to internal politics than to external ones. How- ever, this paper has had a lasting influence on the strategy field and corporate political activity (CPA) research in France and beyond, as exemplified by Salorio, Boddewyn, and Dahan's paper in the first part of this series (ISMO, vol. 35, no. 2), which drew on Thiétart's paper to present the strategy cube in three dimensions.

Attarça's paper, "A Contribution to the Modeling of Corporate Political Environment Dynamics," offers another general framework aiming to en-

compass all types of corporate political activities. He covers the nonmarket environment of the firm by identifying three types of relationships between firms and stakeholders: competition, influence, and agency. This model thus encompasses a greater variety of relationships than is usually included in

corporate political activity models. Attarça then details the resources and skills necessary for such relationships to be implemented. His paper con-

Nicolas Dahan is assistant professor of international business at Ramapo College of New Jersey, School of Business, 505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah, NJ 07430-1680 (e-mail: ndahan@ramapo.edu).

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4 NICOLAS DAHAN (FRANCE)

eludes by providing a classification of political arrangements that determine the kind of political activity performed by firms.

The next two papers are empirical studies covering extensive periods of time and adopting a historical methodology. Ghertman and Hadida's "Insti- tutional Assets and Competitive Advantages of French over U.S. Cinema, 1895-1914" offers a fresh view of the shaping of the modern cinema indus- try by drawing upon neo-institutional economics and transaction-cost theory. Skippari's paper, "Intrafirm Variation and Change in the Political Strategies of a Multidivisional Firm," contributes to the study initiated by Shaffer and Hillman (2000) on corporate political action in multidivisional firms. In such a context, the interplay between internal and external politics is highest, which brings us back to Thiétart's opening paper.

Prospects for future works

There are many literature reviews of corporate political strategy that suggest avenues for future research (e.g., Boddewyn 2005; Getz 1997; Hillman, Keim, and Schüler 2004; Shaffer 1995; Vogel 1996). We are, therefore, not going to rehash the familiar ideas but will focus on a couple of original ones.

First, U.S. and European research on corporate political strategy comes from two opposite methodological extremes. While in the United States many empirical studies have been quantitative (often cross-sectional studies based on large samples), most of the empirical European research has been qualita- tive (longitudinal case studies based mostly on interviews). Both sources of research would benefit from more diversity in research methodologies. Most important, what has remained the exception everywhere is comparative re- search across several national settings, although Hillman and Keim (1995) and Rival (2003) have paved the way for much needed research.

Second, it has now become clear to observers that the nation-state is no longer the only important public authority, because national sovereignty is being lost to supranational bodies such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Codex Alimentarius, and the European Union (EU). As the attri- butions of such supranational bodies are extended, their governance mecha- nisms are criticized and reformed, leading to evolving patterns in the political activity undertaken by firms. Another contender to the nation-state system where elected politicians are the traditional main decision makers is the in- dependent regulatory agency. This breed of public authorities is developing fast in Europe, lagging behind North America in this regard. There are now more than three dozen such agencies in France, and many more in the rest of Europe and at the EU level. This is a new type of political arrangement, and

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CORPORATE POLITICAL STRATEGY 5

specific studies are required in order to understand how corporate political activity is modified in these new settings.

Another possible area for future research is the use of information tech- nology for political influence. This is a strong trend on both sides of the Atlantic, and the lag in the adoption of practices is much shorter in this area than with "traditional" methods. It is becoming a standard tool, used first by NGOs for advocacy and more recently adopted by firms under the pressure of these first movers. "Cyber-lobbying" or "e-lobbying" should be seriously studied, as it is no longer a fad or a minor technique. It can have a significant impact on public decisions, as an increasing number of cases clearly show.

Nicolas Dahan Ramapo College of New Jersey

References

Boddewyn, J. 2005. "The Internationalization of Corporate Political Action: Back and Forth." Working paper, Baruch College, City University of New York.

Getz, K. 1997. "Research in Corporate Political Action: Integration and Assess- ment." Business & Society 36 (1): 32-72.

Hillman, A., and G. Keim. 1995. "International Variation in the Business-Govern- ment Interface: Institutional and Organizational Considerations." Academy of Management Review 20 (1): 193-214.

Hillman, A., G Keim, and D. Schuler. 2004. "Corporate Political Activity: A Review and Research Agenda." Journal of Management 30 (6): 837-857.

Rival, M. 2003. "La Prise en compte de l'environnement politique par les entreprises françaises et anglaises: des stratégies de lobbying plurielles mais récurrentes" [How French and British Firms Take Their Political Environment into Account: A Plurality of Recurring Strategies for Lobbying]. Paper pre- sented at the twelfth annual Association Internationale de Management Stratégique conference, Tunisia, June.

Shaffer, B. 1995. "Firm-Level Responses to Government Regulation: Theoretical and Research Approaches." Journal of Management 21 (3): 494-5 14.

Shaffer, B., and A. Hillman. 2000. "The Development of Business-Government Strategies by Diversified Firms." Strategic Management Journal 21 (2): 175- 190.

Vogel, D. 1996. "The Study of Business and Politics." California Management Review 38 (3): 146-165.

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