The corporate political activities of multinational enterprises: the automotive industry and environmental regulations in the European Union

Society's concern over the negative impact of business activities on the naturalenvironment has significantly increased and, as a result, environmental regulationshave grown considerably both in number and scope. As these policies affectbusinesses and their competitive environment, firms are interested in shaping thenature of such legislation through corporate political activities (CPAs).This thesis investigates the CPAs of MNEs in the automotive industry that aredirected towards environmental regulations in the EU. Using the resource-based viewas its theoretical framework, it investigates six research questions that address thecharacteristics, determinants and consequences of these CPAs in relation to threeregulatory areas (pollutant emissions, CO2 emissions and end-of-life vehicles). Casestudy analysis is based on 71 interviews with stakeholders from the automotiveindustry (the entire population of 11 MNEs from the Triad regions that are politicallyactive in Brussels) and related industries, EU institutions and civil societyorganisations, representing the societal triangle (market, state, civil society).The thesis finds that the 11 automotive firms engage in CPAs to inform policymakers,and because of the impact that regulations have on their businesses. Whilstthe firms attempt a cooperative approach, in reality this is not always the case:whereas individual company and association activities should lead to a united voice,this does not occur when it comes to important company-specific technologies andparticular environmental policies. These regulations are viewed by companies asboth a costly burden and as opportunities, though non-corporate respondentsperceive that MNEs see them only as costs. The main (political) resources andcompetences used in CPAs are found to be human resources (including the relatedresources of expertise, contacts, trust and reputation, i.e. social capital), andtechnological resources. Regulations and the technological resources influencingCPAs are directly and uniquely linked to the product portfolios of MNEs. Thesedifferences in technological resources and product ranges account for most of thevariance in MNEs‟ CPAs rather than the respective countries of origin within theTriad.