The More You Give, the More You Get? The Impact of Corporate Political Activity on the Value of Government Contracts

SMC Author

Michael Hadani

SMC Affiliated Work

1

Status

Faculty

School

School of Economics and Business Administration

Department

Management and Entrepreneurship

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Publication / Conference / Sponsorship

Business and Society Review

Description/Abstract

Firms have been relying on corporate political activity (CPA) to achieve access and to affect public policy change for decades. Most research on CPA and public policy outcomes has implicitly assumed that access afforded by CPA results in an either- or (dichotomous) policy outcome such as votes or election outcomes. Based on recent research on how CPA can be a strategic signal to government agencies, however, it is possible that CPA may in fact, have a linear association with public policy outcomes as opposed to merely a dichotomous one, and we explore this relationship in the unique public policy context of government contract awards. We specifically analyze how higher levels of CPA impact the financial value of government contracts awarded to firms. Utilizing the S&P 1500 sample for 16 years (1997–2012) we find that CPA has a one to one association with the value of contract awards, indicating that CPA and public policy outcomes can be linked in ways that motivate firms to continuously invest in CPA, to maximize their political rents. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this finding in light of extant research on CPA and its direct impact on public policy outcomes.

Scholarly

yes

DOI

10.1111/basr.12122

Volume

122

Issue

3

First Page

421

Last Page

448

Disciplines

Business | Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Economics | Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations

Comments

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/basr.12122/full

Original Citation

Hadani, M., Munshi, N. and Clark, K. (2017), The More You Give, the More You Get? The Impact of Corporate Political Activity on the Value of Government Contracts. Business and Society Review, 122: 421–448. doi:10.1111/basr.12122

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