ABSTRACT
Firms' non-market strategies have been discussed from various theoretical perspectives. In particular, the relationship between corporations and politics has attracted much scholarly attention. Two schools of thought seem particularly noteworthy. On the one hand, the corporate political activity (CPA) literature has emphasized that firms interact with governments in a variety of ways, for instance, by trying to influence policy outcomes. On the other hand, recent discussions in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have highlighted that CSR should be understood politically, because firms increasingly provide public goods (e.g., education) and engage in business regulation, thus assuming state-like obligations. Although political CSR and CPA share a common interest in studying the link between firms and politics, surprisingly little reflection has gone into exploring the relationship between both concepts. This chapter shows how both approaches to the study of corporations as political actors differ.
