Research Papers

How and why do large firms participate in politics at home, abroad, and at trans- and supranational levels? We present a new research project that investigates this question by tracking the behaviour of 2,000 transnational corporations across different types of activities (lobbying, campaign contributions, corporate social responsibility) and venues (national, EU and UN). Our research design and unique comparative database serve to explain firms’ decisions to participate in a variety of political activities including less instrumental, voluntary efforts to improve their human rights and environmental policies and performance. In addition to data on firm size, headquarters and industry, as well as on relevant country-level factors such as the institutional and cultural environments of host and home countries, we collect information about firms’ lobbying activities, campaign contributions and corporate social responsibility activities across the different political venues. We complement our strategy with qualitative interviews with firm managers, regulators and NGOs to gain insight into the motivations behind, and the effects of, the theoretically underspecified activity of CSR. By simultaneously analysing business lobbying at different levels and venues, our study aims to contextualize analyses of European lobbying.