Four thematic work streams (implemented part-time between May 2019 and July 2023) mixed a variety of methods and approaches to respond to the main research questions outline above.
An eco-system perspective was applied to map interest, influencing strategies and expectations of different relevant stakeholder groups and assemble a comprehensive account of how normative expectations about what constitutes responsible corporate political conduct have evolved over time and are likely to further evolve in the future. Two main insights from this work are that:
a) expectations are gradually evolving from process- (e.g. transparency) and general principles (e.g. truthfulness) to more specific, substantive commitments (e.g. respecting democratic principles and planetary boundaries;
b) a novel corporate political accountability ecosystem is in the making that covers corporate governance, consumer- and investor protection as well as various market regulation mechanisms and that is likely to be much more effective and influential than conventional money-in-politics regulation around lobbying registers or legislative footprints that face sever enforcement and coverage issues.
A number of scoping exercises, paired with qualitative expert interview analysis have been conducted to gain a better understanding of patterns and trends in corporate political practice. One major insights from this workstream is the surfacing of the almost completely overlooked, yet highly relevant and consequential area of corporate judicial activity – how companies deploy lobbying and public relations tactics to influence the judiciary. Other interesting insights pertain to the role of corporate political activity for start-up platform companies and need to focus more attention on the role of lobbying agents such as law firms and business associations who play very important roles in the corporate political activity world and influence both practices and their impact yet remain rather underexamined with regard to their own internal dynamics and normative expectations that should apply to their own conduct in this area.
A speculative outlook that combines evidence analysis of emergent trends and speculative scenario-construction has been deployed to map a plausible for how the role of business as political actor will develop over the coming five years. Termed full-stack citizenship 2028, this outlook describes a scenario in which due to increasing polarization, populism and digitally-leveraged political communication businesses will increasingly become vehicles and staging grounds for political activity by consumers, workers, company leaders and investors. This scenario is highly ambivalent, as it on the one hand portends the disruptive politicisation of ever more spheres of life yet at the same time also comes with considerable appeal to move closer to a central ambition of liberal democracy: citizens will be able to much more closely align their lives as economic actors with their political convictions as a prerequisite for human efficacy and flourishing. This idea of full-stack citizenship has already animated a lively debate in the policy and practitioners’ community.
Aside from academic working papers and submissions the insights and findings of the projects have been disseminated in a number of blogposts, workshops (CBS, various online), conference (e.g. ECPR) and policy-related events, including at the OECD, the Good Lobby Summer School, a workshop at HEC Paris on lobbying the judiciary.
On basis of the BIZPOL work the principal investigator has been invited as expert participant into the process of developing guidelines for responsible corporate political engagement (2023/24).
