Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures, Boxes and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Notes on Contributors
- Part I Introduction and overview
- Part II Firm-level
- 2 Competitive advantage and the regulation of dominant firms
- 3 Delegating regulation: Supply-chain management, partnering and competition policy reforms
- 4 Diffusion of corporate governance regulation: France, Germany, the UK and the USA
- 5 Corporate governance after Enron et al.
- 6 Tackling healthcare fraud!?
- 7 Watchdog and proxy war campaigns against firms
- 8 Oil and conflict: Lundin Petroleum's experience in Sudan
- Part III Industry-level
- Part IV Country/International level
- Part V An observation in closing
- Index
7 - Watchdog and proxy war campaigns against firms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures, Boxes and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Notes on Contributors
- Part I Introduction and overview
- Part II Firm-level
- 2 Competitive advantage and the regulation of dominant firms
- 3 Delegating regulation: Supply-chain management, partnering and competition policy reforms
- 4 Diffusion of corporate governance regulation: France, Germany, the UK and the USA
- 5 Corporate governance after Enron et al.
- 6 Tackling healthcare fraud!?
- 7 Watchdog and proxy war campaigns against firms
- 8 Oil and conflict: Lundin Petroleum's experience in Sudan
- Part III Industry-level
- Part IV Country/International level
- Part V An observation in closing
- Index
Summary
Firms are increasingly facing campaigns by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) over a broad range of issues such as the environment, labor, human rights, consumer rights and animal rights. The number of international NGOs has increased by 400% in the last decade and the number of mentions of NGOs in the Wall Street Journal has increased twenty-fold during this period. Corporate managers often fail to appreciate the deeper dynamics behind these campaigns and, as a result, respond to them in ineffective or even counterproductive ways. These managers are also often surprised at how effective small – and often ideologically radical – NGOs can be in tackling much larger firms. In this chapter I will (1) differentiate between two very different types of campaigns – watchdog campaigns and proxy war campaigns, which need to be understood and responded to in very different ways; (2) explain how it is that these small “David” NGOs can beat “Goliath” corporations; and (3) provide some guidance for managers on how to avoid and respond to these campaigns. The discussion presented here draws on three years of qualitative research including interviews, case studies and a large-scale global survey of NGOs that have campaigned against firms.
Differentiating watchdog campaigns from proxy war campaigns
Early neo-institutional theory focused on how organizations, in order to gain and maintain the legitimacy necessary to survive, must conform to institutional demands in the form of norms and rules.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Strategies, Markets and GovernanceExploring Commercial and Regulatory Agendas, pp. 115 - 133Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008