Corporate Political Activity: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

This paper reviews the diverse literature on Corporate Political Activity (CPA) in firms and develops a framework that integrates and details the existing research in this growing field. We conduct a systematic analysis of extant CPA literatures to order them into three domains that have implications for organizational performance. The paper is structured into three domains within the CPA research community that require more investigation: resources and capabilities focus, institutional focus and political environment focus and discusses the contributions of each to our understanding of CPA in pursuit or defense of competitive advantage. We suggest that the internationalization of business, including the more recent emergence of developing country economies, presents scholars with the challenge of understanding CPA in more varied institutional settings. The paper contributes by creating more clarity in the CPA field and concludes with a discussion of future research agendas.