Toward a view of complementarity trust and policy influence effects of corporate social responsibility and corporate political activity

Liedong, T. A., Ghobadian, A., Rajwani, T. and O'Regan, N. (2015) Toward a view of complementarity trust and policy influence effects of corporate social responsibility and corporate political activity. Group & Organization Management, 40 (3). pp. 405-427. ISSN 1059-6011 doi: 10.1177/1059601114560064

Abstract/Summary

The extant literature argues that nonmarket strategies can establish, sustain, or enhance a firm’s competitive advantage. Less clear is how and why effective nonmarket strategies influence a firm’s competitiveness. Moreover, the extant literature tends to examine the two building blocks of nonmarket strategy—corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activity (CPA)—separately. In this article, we extend trust to the nonmarket environment. We analyze how CSR and CPA complement each other to create strong trust between firms and the polity, and how they consequently influence government policy. We show the mediating role of trust in policy influence, and argue that CSR and CPA should be aligned for the successful influence of salient government policy.