Toward a View of Complementarity: Trust and Policy Influence Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Political Activity

Liedong, Tahiru Azaaviele; Ghobadian, Abby; Rajwani, Tazeeb; O’Regan, Nicholas

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2014. 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.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 18, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Nov 28, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: May 18, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: May 24, 2016
• Journal: Group and Organization Management
• Print ISSN: 1059-6011
• Electronic ISSN: 1552-3993
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 40
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 405-427
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601114560064
• Keywords: complementarity, trust, CSR, corporate political activity
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/842951
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601114560064
• Contract Date: May 24, 2016