Law-abiding firms often attempt to conceal their corporate political activity (CPA), yet the concealment of CPA has not been matched by our understanding of the phenomenon. We develop a theoretical framework consisting of three components to analyze firms’ strategy of CPA concealment. First,...

This paper examines political lobbying and investigates firms' decisions regarding whether to employ internal functionalities (i.e., to “make” or insource), to contract with external professionals (i.e., to “buy” or outsource), or to do both (i.e., to “make and buy” or plural...

Corporate political connections (CPCs)—ties that firms forge with political actors—directly affect firms, political actors, and various stakeholders in societies. This topic has been studied extensively in multiple disciplines including management, economics and finance, political science,...

We examine how a firm's market-oriented capabilities (in areas such as R&D or marketing) and consumer focus foster its effectiveness in pursuing political activities. We then explore the sustainability of any advantage that firms may gain from their political actions. We develop a conceptual...

We develop a political path dependence model that integrates the network embeddedness perspective and the literature on corporate political strategy to understand how firms adapt their political connections when anticorruption efforts lead to the turnover of government officials. We posit that...