Publications

December 2020
Article

Unwanted Attention: Swiss Multinationals and the Creation of International Corporate Guidelines in the 1970s

By: Sabine Pitteloud

During the last decade, we have seen an increased opposition to globalization. Within this wave of criticism, firms and more specifically multinational corporations have been major targets, accused of multiple wrongdoings, such as social dumping, fiscal evasion, job... View Details

Keywords: Multinationals; Guidelines; Lobbying; Business History; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Global Range; Switzerland

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January 2013 (Revised March 2016)
Case

The Private Company Council

By: Karthik Ramanna and Luis M. Viceira

Financial Accounting Foundation chairman Jack Brennan is under pressure from private-company interests to set up a new body—the Private Company Council—to determine separate GAAP for private companies. PCC advocates—including the US Chamber of Commerce—argue that... View Details

Keywords: FASB; Lobbying; Political Economy; Accounting; Government and Politics; Leadership; Financial Markets; Accounting Industry; Financial Services Industry; Public Administration Industry

Educators

April 2017 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Victor Wu

Through the challenges facing Target, the case examines ways in which corporations can become involved in political and legislative debates and processes, ranging from campaign contributions to lobbying to political activism. In 2016, Target CEO Brian Cornell must... View Details

Educators

Article

Thin Political Markets: The Soft Underbelly of Capitalism

By: Karthik Ramanna

"Thin political markets" are the processes through which some of the most complex and critical institutions of our capitalist system are determined—e.g., our accounting-standards infrastructure. In thin political markets, corporate managers are largely... View Details

Keywords: Business And Society; Lobbying; Sustainability; Leadership; Economic Systems; Accounting; Business and Community Relations; Financial Institutions; Business and Government Relations

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2021
Article

Les multinationales comme catégorie politique: les années formatrices (1970-1990)

By: Sabine Pitteloud

While multinationals are emblematic economic actors driving the current globalization process through the organization of production in global value chains, they appear to be important political actors as well. This article provides an historical perspective on such... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Corporation; Lobbying; Investor Protection; Multinational Firms and Management; Business and Government Relations; Governance

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Research Summary

Overview

A growing body of strategy and management literature emphasizes the importance of non-market strategy, not only as a stand-alone strategy but also as a part of integrated strategy in dealing with frequent regulatory change and political/regulatory actors and agencies.... View Details

Keywords: Non-market Strategy; Lobbying; Business ＆ Government Relations; Global Strategy; Institutions

2015
Book

Political Standards: Corporate Interest, Ideology, and Leadership in the Shaping of Accounting Rules for the Market Economy

By: Karthik Ramanna

There are certain institutions underlying our modern market-capitalist system that are largely outside the interest and understanding of the general public—e.g., rulemaking for bank capital adequacy, actuarial standards, accounting standards, and auditing practice. In... View Details

Keywords: Business And Society; Financial Institutions; Financial Reporting; GAAP; IFRS; Lobbying; Capitalism; Sustainability; Accounting; Finance; Business and Government Relations; Leadership; Accounting Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States; China; India

December 2013
Article

Legislating Stock Prices

By: Lauren Cohen, Karl Diether and Christopher Malloy

We demonstrate that legislation has a simple, yet previously undetected impact on stock prices. Exploiting the voting record of legislators whose constituents are the affected industries, we show that the votes of these "interested" legislators capture important... View Details

Keywords: Legislator Incentives; Voting; Return Predictability; Lobbying; Motivation and Incentives; Government Legislation; Stocks

2023
Article

Let's Coordinate! The Reinforcement of a ‘Liberal Bastion’ within European Industrial Federations, 1978-1987

By: Sabine Pitteloud

This article focuses on the establishment in the 1970s of a new international private governance forum, the so-called ‘Interlaken Conferences’, which gathered together the leading figures of the Industrial Federations of the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria,... View Details

Keywords: Business Interest Association; Lobbying; Neo-Liberalism; Neocorporatism; Coordination; Economic Policy; Business and Government Relations; Labor Unions; Economics; Policy; Europe

June 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Supplement

Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity (B)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Victor Wu

Supplements the (A) Case. View Details

2014
Working Paper

Crony Capitalism, American Style: What Are We Talking About Here?

By: Malcolm S. Salter

This paper seeks to reduce the ambiguity surrounding our understanding of what crony capitalism is, what it is not, what costs crony capitalism leaves in its wake, and how we might contain it. View Details

Keywords: Democracy; Industrial Governance; Institutional Corruption; Crony Capitalism; Lobbying; Campaign Finance; Costs; Cronyism; Business Ethics; Campaign Finance Reform; Revolving Door; Economic Systems; Ethics; Political Elections; Financing and Loans; United States

SSRN

25 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

A Few Firms Have Outsized Influence in D.C.

in the twisted web of Washington fundraising and lobbying that can definitively prove dollar x bought result y. Perhaps that's why there has been such little empirical research among economists on the issue. "The whole perspective of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

2022
Book

Les multinationales suisses dans l'arène politique (1942–1993) [Swiss Multinationals in the Political Arena (1942–1993)]

By: Sabine Pitteloud

En décembre 2020, les Suisses votaient sur l’initiative populaire « pour des multinationales responsables ». Cet épisode récent a rappelé que la régulation de l’activité des sociétés multinationales fait l’objet de luttes politiques, auxquelles participent les... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Enterprise; Multinational Companies; Multinational Corporations; Lobbying; Business ＆ Government Relations; Labor Relations; Relocation; Offshoring And Outsourcing; Corporate Regulation; Transnational Regulation; Multinational Firms and Management; Business and Government Relations; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; International Relations; Food and Beverage Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Switzerland

2022
Working Paper

Multinationals and Varieties of Capitalism: When U.S. Giants Stepped into the Swiss Coordinated Labor Market in the 1950s

By: Sabine Pitteloud

This working paper investigates unintended consequences of U.S. FDI in Switzerland in the 1950s-1960s: the increased competition that U.S. firms generated within the national labor market and the challenge their hiring practices constituted for the institutional... View Details

Keywords: Multinationals; Capitalism; Business ＆ Government Relations; Foreign Direct Investment; Immigration Policy; History; Switzerland; Americanization; R＆D; Labor History; Labor Market Institutions; Tax Havens; ＂USA,＂; Business Interest Association; Lobbying; Labor and Management Relations; Business History; Multinational Firms and Management

SSRN

18 Dec 2019
News

Harvard Study on Economy Recovery Squandered

18 Dec 2019
News

Heads in the Sand

03 Apr 2016
News

Did EMC’s sale push noncompete reform over the edge? Not exactly

03 Dec 2010
News

7.9% of U.S. consumers bought item on smart phone

2023
Working Paper

Much Ado About Nothing? Overreaction to Random Regulatory Audits

By: Samuel Antill and Joseph Kalmenovitz

Regulators often audit firms to detect non-compliance. Exploiting a natural experiment in the lobbying industry, we show that firms overreact to audits and this response distorts prices and reduces welfare. Each year, federal regulators audit a random sample of... View Details

Keywords: Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Price