Book contents
- Corporate Political Responsibility
- Reviews
- Corporate Political Responsibility
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Section I Foundations of Corporate Political Responsibility: Metrics for Disclosure and Good Governance
- Section II Transparency: Causes and Consequences
- Section III Accountability: Linking Corporate Social Responsibility, Employee Relations, and Corporate Political Responsibility
- 6 Responsible Lobbyists?
- 7 License to Give
- 8 Multinational Companies as Responsible Political Actors in Global Business
- Section IV Responsibility: Corporate Political Responsibility and Climate
- Section V Implementing Corporate Political Responsibility: Opportunities and Challenges
- Index
- References
6 - Responsible Lobbyists?
Corporate Social Responsibility Commitments and the Quality of Corporate Parliamentary Testimony in the UK
from Section III - Accountability: Linking Corporate Social Responsibility, Employee Relations, and Corporate Political Responsibility
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 November 2023
Edited by
Book contents
- Corporate Political Responsibility
- Reviews
- Corporate Political Responsibility
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Section I Foundations of Corporate Political Responsibility: Metrics for Disclosure and Good Governance
- Section II Transparency: Causes and Consequences
- Section III Accountability: Linking Corporate Social Responsibility, Employee Relations, and Corporate Political Responsibility
- 6 Responsible Lobbyists?
- 7 License to Give
- 8 Multinational Companies as Responsible Political Actors in Global Business
- Section IV Responsibility: Corporate Political Responsibility and Climate
- Section V Implementing Corporate Political Responsibility: Opportunities and Challenges
- Index
- References
Summary
Transnational corporations have come under pressure to show that their lobbying behavior is consistent with their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies. Few empirical studies, however, have examined how companies coordinate their CSR and public policy activities or how aligned these activities are towards common goals. We address these questions by evaluating the testimony that large corporations have given to relevant UK parliamentary committees. Using an original coding frame, we assess the extent to which companies with strong CSR credentials align their testimony with the norms of the sustainability field as well as how supportive high CSR companies are of state interventions into the market. We find consistent differences in how high and low CSR companies lobby before these parliamentary committees. High CSR companies are more likely to discuss and support specific policy measures than their low CSR counterparts and to offer more fleshed out justifications for their policy positions.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Corporate Political Responsibility , pp. 157 - 187Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
References
Albareda, L. & Waddock, S. (2018). Networked CSR Governance: A Whole Network Approach to Meta-governance. Business & Society, 57(4), 636–75.Google Scholar
Anastasiadis, S. (2014). Toward a View of Citizenship and Lobbying: Corporate Engagement in the Political Process. Business & Society, 53(2), 260–99.Google Scholar
Anastasiadis, S., Moon, J. & Humphreys, M. (2018). Lobbying and the Responsible Firm: Agenda‐Setting for a Freshly Conceptualized Field. Business Ethics: A European Review, 27(3), 207–21.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, F. R., Berry, J. M., Hojnacki, M., Leech, B. L. & Kimball, D. C. (2009). Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benton, M. & Russell, M. (2013). Assessing the Impact of Parliamentary Oversight Committees: The Select Committees in the British House of Commons. Parliamentary Affairs, 66(4), 772–97.Google Scholar
Bernstein, S. & Van der Ven, H. (2017). Best Practices in Global Governance. Review of International Studies, 43(3), 534–56.Google Scholar
Binderkrantz, A., Christiansen, P. & Pedersen, H. (2015). Interest Group Access to the Bureaucracy, Parliament, and the Media. Governance, 28(1), 95–112.Google Scholar
Chaqués-Bonafont, L. & Muñoz Márquez, L. (2016). Explaining Interest Group Access to Parliamentary Committees. West European Politics, 39(6), 1276–98.Google Scholar
Coen, D. (2007). Empirical and Theoretical Studies in EU Lobbying. Journal of European Public Policy, 14(3), 333–45.Google Scholar
Delmas, M. & Friedman, H. (2023). Disclosure of Political Responsibility with Regard to Climate Change. In Lyon, T., ed., Corporate Political Responsibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Den Hond, F., Rehbein, K., de Bakker, F. & Lankveld, H. (2014). Playing on Two Chessboards: Reputation Effects between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Political Activity (CPA). Journal of Management Studies, 51(5), 790–813.Google Scholar
Doty, E. (2023). Practitioner Views of CPR: Towards a New Social Contract. In Lyon, T., ed., Corporate Political Responsibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Eising, R. (2007). The Access of Business Interests to EU Institutions: Towards Elite Pluralism? Journal of European Public Policy, 14(3), 384–403.Google Scholar
Favotto, A. & Kollman, K. (2020). An Expanding Conception of Social Responsibility? Of Global Norms and Changing Corporate Perceptions. In Hansen-Magnusson, H. & Vetterlein, A., eds., The Rise of Responsibility in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 188–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Favotto, A. & Kollman, K. (2021). Mixing Business with Politics: Does Corporate Social Responsibility End Where Lobbying Transparency Begins? Regulation & Governance, 15(2), 262–79.Google Scholar
Favotto, A. & Kollman, K. (2022). When Rights Enter the CSR Field: British Firms’ Engagement with Human Rights and the UN Guiding Principles. Human Rights Review, 23(1), 21–40.Google Scholar
Favotto, A., Kollman, K. & McMillan, F. (2021). Is Virtue Its Own Reward? Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to British Policymakers. Paper presented at the biennial ECPR Regulation & Governance conference held (virtually), 23–25.Google Scholar
Fuchs, D. (2013). Theorizing the Power of Global Companies. In Mikler, J., ed., The Handbook of Global Companies. Oxford: Wiley & Sons Ltd., 77–95.Google Scholar
Geddes, M. (2018). Committee Hearings of the UK Parliament: Who Gives Evidence and Does This Matter? Parliamentary Affairs, 41(2018), 283–304.Google Scholar
Gill, S. (1995). Globalisation, Market Civilisation, and Disciplinary Neoliberalism. Millennium, 24(3), 399–423.Google Scholar
Global Reporting Initiative (2016). GRI G4 – GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines: Reporting Principles and Standard Disclosures. Amsterdam: GRI.Google Scholar
Green, C. P. & Homroy, S. (2022). Incorporated in Westminster: Channels and Returns to Political Connection in the United Kingdom. Economica, 89(354), 377–408.Google Scholar
Hall, P. & Soskice, D. (2001). Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hayes, A. F. & Krippendorff, K. (2007). Answering the Call for a Standard Reliability Measure for Coding Data. Communication Methods and Measures, 1(1), 77–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helboe Pedersen, H., Halpin, D. & Rasmussen, A. (2015). Who Gives Evidence to Parliamentary Committees? A Comparative Investigation of Parliamentary Committees and Their Constituencies. The Journal of Legislative Studies, 21(3), 408–27.Google Scholar
Ketu, Y. & Rothstein, S. (2023). Practicing Responsible Policy Engagement: How Large U.S. Companies Lobby on Climate Change. In Lyon, T., ed., Corporate Political Responsibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kinderman, D. (2012). ‘Free Us Up So We Can Be Responsible!’ The Co-evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility and Neo-liberalism in the UK, 1977–2010. Socio-Economic Review, 10(1), 29–57.Google Scholar
Lawton, T., McGuire, S. & Rajwani, T. (2013). Corporate Political Activity: A Literature Review and Research Agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(1), 86–105.Google Scholar
Lock, I. & Seele, P. (2016). Deliberative Lobbying? Toward a Noncontradiction of Corporate Political Activities and Corporate Social Responsibility? Journal of Management Inquiry, 25(4), 415–30.Google Scholar
Loconto, A. & Fouilleux, E. (2014). Politics of Private Regulation: ISEAL and the Shaping of Transnational Sustainability Governance. Regulation & Governance, 8(2), 166–85.Google Scholar
Lyon, T., Delmas, M., Maxwell, J., et al. (2018). CSR Needs CPR: Corporate Sustainability and Politics. California Management Review, 60(4), 5–24.Google Scholar
Lyon, T. & Mandelkorn, W. (2023). The Meaning of Corporate Political Responsibility. In Lyon, T., ed., Corporate Political Responsibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGreal, C. (2021). How a Powerful US Lobby Group Helps Big Oil to Block Climate Action. Guardian, 19 July.Google Scholar
McWilliams, A. & Siegel, D. (2001). Corporate Social Responsibility: A Theory of the Firm Perspective. Academy of Management Review, 26(1), 117–27.Google Scholar
Montgomery, A., Lyon, T. & Barg, J. (2023). No End in Sight? A Greenwash Review and Research Agenda. Organization & Environment, (early view).Google Scholar
Mueckenberger, U. & Jastram, S. (2010). Transnational Norm-Building Networks and the Legitimacy of Corporate Social Responsibility Standards. Journal of Business Ethics, 97(2), 223–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pope, S. & Wæraas, A. (2016). CSR-washing Is Rare: A Conceptual Framework, Literature Review, and Critique. Journal of Business Ethics, 137(1), 173–93.Google Scholar
Scherer, A. G. & Palazzo, G. (2011). The New Political Role of Business in a Globalized World: A Review of a New Perspective on CSR and Its Implications for the Firm, Governance, and Democracy. Journal of Management Studies, 48(4), 899–931.Google Scholar
Scherer, A. G. & Voegtlin, C. (2023). Multinational Companies as Responsible Political Actors in Global Business: Challenges and Implications for Human Resource Management. In Lyon, T., ed., Corporate Political Responsibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Steiner, J., Bächtiger, A., Spörndli, M. & Steenbergen, M. (2005). Deliberative Politics in Action. Analysing Parliamentary Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Van den Broek, O. (2021). Soft Law Engagements and Hard Law Preferences: Comparing EU Lobbying Positions between UN Global Compact Signatory Companies and Other Interest Group Types. Business and Politics, 23(3), 383–405.Google Scholar
Van der Ven, H. (2015). Correlates of Rigorous and Credible Transnational Governance: A Cross‐Sectoral Analysis of Best Practice Compliance in Eco‐labeling. Regulation & Governance, 9(3), 276–93.Google Scholar
Vogel, D. (2010). The Private Regulation of Global Corporate Conduct: Achievements and Limitations. Business & Society, 49(1), 68–87.Google Scholar
Walker, E. (2023). What Drives Firms to Disclose Their Political Activity? In Lyon, T., ed., Corporate Political Responsibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Walker, E. & Rea, C. (2015). The Political Mobilization of Firms and Industries. Annual Review of Sociology, 40, 281–304.Google Scholar
Werner, T. (2015). Gaining Access by Doing Good: The Effect of Socio-political Reputation on Firm Participation in Public Policy Making. Management Science, 61(8), 1989–2011.Google Scholar
World Commission on Environment. (1987). Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar