Essays in political text: new actors, new data, new challenges

The essays in this thesis explore diverse manifestations and different aspects of political text. The two main contributions on the methodological side are bringing forward novel data on political actors who were overlooked by the existing literature and application of new approaches in text analysis to address substantive questions about them. On the theoretical side this thesis contributes to the literatures on lobbying, government transparency, post-conflict studies and gender in politics. In the first paper on interest groups in the UK I argue that contrary to much of the theoretical and empirical literature mechanisms of attaining access to government in pluralist systems critically depend on the presence of limits on campaign spending. When such limits exist, political candidates invest few resources in fund-raising and, thus, most organizations make only very few if any political donations. I collect and analyse transparency data on government department meetings and show that economic importance is one of the mechanisms that can explain variation in the level of access attained by different groups. Furthermore, I show that Brexit had a diminishing effect on this relationship between economic importance and the level of access. I also study the reported purpose of meetings and, using dynamic topic models, show the temporary shifts in policy agenda during this period. The second paper argues that civil society in post-conflict settings is capable of high-quality deliberation and, while differing in their focus, both male and female can deliver arguments pertaining to the interests of broader societal groups. Using the transcripts of civil society public consultation meetings across former Yugoslavia I show that the lack of gender-sensitive transitional justice instruments could stem not from the lack of women’s 3 physical or verbal participation, but from the dynamic of speech enclaves and topical focus on different aspects of transitional justice process between genders. And, finally, the third paper maps the challenges that lie ahead with the proliferation of research that relies on multiple datasets. In a simulation study I show that, when the linking information is limited to text, the noise can potential occur at different levels and is often hard to anticipate in practice. Thus, the choice of record linkage requires balancing between these different scenarios. Taken together, the papers in this thesis advance the field of “text as data” and contribute to our understanding of multiple political phenomena

Empirical Health Law Scholarship: The State of the Field

The last three decades have seen the blossoming of the fields of health law and empirical legal studies and their intersection--empirical scholarship in health law and policy. Researchers in legal academia and other settings have conducted hundreds of studies using data to estimate the effects of health law on accident rates, health outcomes, health care utilization, and costs, as well as other outcome variables. Yet the emerging field of empirical health law faces significant challenges--practical, methodological, and political. The purpose of this Article is to survey the current state of the field by describing commonly used methods, analyzing enabling and inhibiting factors in the production and uptake of this type of research by policymakers, and suggesting ways to increase the production and impact of empirical health law studies. In some areas of inquiry, high-quality research has been conducted, and the findings have been successfully imported into policy debates and used to inform evidence-based lawmaking. In other areas, the level of rigor has been uneven, and the best evidence has not translated effectively into sound policy. Despite challenges and historical shortcomings, empirical health law studies can and should have a substantial impact on regulations designed to improve public safety, increase both access to and quality of health care, and foster technological innovation

CSR, Big Data, and Accounting: Firms' Use of Social Media for CSR-Focused Reporting, Accountability, and Reputation Gain

The rise of Big Data, particularly social media, is engendering considerable disruptions in the ways in which firms and stakeholders communicate about firm-relevant issues. The effect of social media appears to be particularly strong in the domain of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This thesis presents three empirical studies on Fortune 200 firms use of social media to engage in CSR-related activities. All three studies rely on original 2014 data related to the 42 CSR-focused Twitter accounts maintained by the US-based Fortune 200 companies comprising 18,722 firm messages and 163,402 messages sent by members of the public. This thesis first examines the outcomes of firms social media-based CSR engagement, building a theoretical argument about the reputational benefits, or reputational capital, acquired by firms through the messages they send on social media. It then turns to an investigation of the publics discussion of the companies CSR activities; this second study relies on inductive analyses to build insights into the nature of the firm-centered CSR messages sent by members of the public, the nature of firms reactions to these public messages, and the relationship between the two. The third and final study refines and then empirically tests the causal model developed in the second study. Collectively, these three studies shed light on the nature of the micro-reporting and micro-accountability behaviors that appear to characterize firms CSR efforts on social media sites. The thesis concludes with a summary of the implications of these new behaviors for the accounting and CSR literatures

Stock market reaction to corporate political activity : when companies confront the government

The purpose of this study is to investigate the market reaction to Corporate Political Activity (CPA) using an event study methodology to determine the impact of a specific event on firm’s abnormal stock returns. The sample consists of The Standard & Poor's 500 Index, US-based companies which signed the declaration We are still in, to express their disagreement with the government’s decision to pull the United States of America out of the Paris Agreement, announced on 01.06.2017. Daily stock return data is used in order to calculate the Cumulative Average Abnormal Return (CAAR) and Cumulative Abnormal Return (CAR) for the event window [0,1], including the day of the event and the following day. The main results indicate that there is no market reaction to the studied event. Furthermore, the study presents the results of Hierarchical Multiple Regression models used to investigate the relation between CARs and firm-related factors such as size, reputation, industry regulation and previous engagement in CPA. It was proven that none of these aspects has a significant influence on the studied market reaction.O objectivo deste estudo é investigar a reacção do mercado à Estratégia Política Corporativa, por meio de uma metodologia de estudo de eventos, para determinar o impacto de um evento específico nos retornos anormais da cotação de mercado de uma empresa. A amostra consiste em empresas americanas listadas no índice Standard & Poor’s 500 que assinaram a declaração We are still in, para expressar o desacordo em relação à decisão do governo de retirar os Estados Unidos da América do Acordo de Paris, anunciada a 01.06.2017. Os retornos da cotação de mercado diários são utilizados de forma a calcular os Retornos Médios Anormais Acumulados e os Retornos Anormais Acumulados para a janela de evento [0,1], incluindo o dia em que as empresas assinaram a declaração e o dia seguinte. Os resultados principais indicam que não há uma reação do mercado ao evento estudado. Além disso, o estudo apresenta os resultados de modelos de Regressão Múltipla Hierárquica usados para averiguar a relação entre os Retornos Anormais Acumulados e factores empresariais como o tamanho, a reputação, a regulação da indústria e os envolvimentos prévios em estratégias políticas corporativas. Foi provado que nenhum destes factores tem uma influência significativa na reação de mercado estudada

Entrepreneurship in instituitionalised settings: The roles of hospital benchmarking

Purpose: The paper aims to analyse the roles of benchmarking by and of public hospitals in relation to ranking and institutional entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach: Neo-institutional theory informs the study in particular its recent concern with entrepreneurship and strategic change. A qualitative design and method are employed incorporating primary and secondary data. Sources of evidence include: semi-structured interviews, documentation, observation and archival records. Interviews are a primary source and during site visits, 44 interviews were held. Findings: The study offers evidence of how professionals using and recalculate benchmark data and experiment in a free/relational space that is isolated (protected from intrusion), interactive and inclusive. This free space enables a collective to use performance numbers as a reference for identifying superior practices that remedy difference and inform change. A free space is one where power relations are reworked and hierarchical accountability being pushed a bit sideways. Originality/value: The extant literature is also still coming to terms with institutional entrepreneurship and change that happens via a collective, especially in mature fields, as well as the conditions that enable this. A lack of attention to micro-institutional change and practices is a major shortcoming in extant studies. The present study deals with micro-institutional change via new practices identified through a collective

Policy integration for sustainable development: Agenda 2030 meets Region Skåne

In an effort to promote sustainable development work in Region Skåne, the regional government seeks to integrate Agenda 2030 into their Regional Development Strategy (RUS). This paper compares the two policies, using qualitative content analysis to problematize the prospects of policy integration. Applying theories from policy integration, policy transfer and policy diffusion, the analysis covers four dimensions of policy integration: the frame, the interactive, the substantive and the motivational dimension. Key insights from the study showcase that RUS’s international character opens it to integration: both policies share a humanistic worldview, emphasize liberal market dynamics, environmental improvement, increased sciences funding and expanded infrastructure. Simultaneously, they have differing understandings on matters of openness, governance and sustainable growth. There are also substantial challenges: Agenda 2030’s qualitative indicators for sustainable development need to be concretized into the local context of Skåne. Pressing deadlines regarding Agenda 2030’s environmental ambitions must be assessed according to Skåne’s ability to match them. Lastly, the highly competitive character of RUS should be weighed according to what is best for sustainable development on a global level. The thesis concludes that policy integration would not resolve the imbalance between the economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainable development in Region Skåne

Credibility in CSR communication: concepts, methods, analyses

In globalized markets, norms for legitimate behavior are scattered and businesses must satisfy often conflicting demands of various stakeholders simultaneously. This is why communicating their Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) in a legitimate way is challenging. The present is also a high time for a debate of CSR issues and an era of public scrutiny and mistrust, catalyzed by real-time communication technologies and a 24/7 news cycle. Instances of non-credible communication, the misuse of CSR for marketing exercises, and corporate scandals with large environmental and social impact have sparked skepticism and mistrust toward CSR communication and its tools, particularly CSR reports. As a result, companies and stakeholders are trapped in the “credibility gap” of CSR reporting, which is harmful for both: stakeholders cannot satisfy their information needs regarding CSR and companies can hardly convey their CSR activities in a credible manner. Even though credibility is central to CSR communication and despite the fact that communicating non-credibly has lasting negative consequences for companies, there is no consensus about the concept of credibility and barely any studies exist that tackle credibility gaps systematically. This dissertation endeavors to investigate the issue of credibility in CSR communication theoretically, methodologically, and empirically. In particular, it analyzes companies’ and stakeholders’ perspectives of the “credibility gap” in CSR reporting. It explores concepts and methods to investigate how companies can communicate credibly and provides empirical evidence on the state-of-the-art of CSR reporting in Europe. To this end, it combines concepts from business ethics, management studies, political theory, and communication sciences and triangulates various methods. This dissertation is structured in four individual chapters framed by an introductory part and conclusions. The key findings can be summarized as follows. Chapter I proposes that communication is at the heart of CSR by highlighting Habermasian communicative action theory as the backbone of political CSR theory. Furthermore, it discusses how credible CSR communication leads to moral legitimacy and thus provides the conceptual foundation of this dissertation. Based on this theoretical advancement, the chapter develops a typology of CSR communication tools clustering them into deliberative and instrumental as well as published and unpublished tools. Chapter II presents quantitative content analysis as a suitable method to generate novel insights in business ethics, and especially CSR, research. Given the diametrical advantages of human- and software-based coding procedures, a concurrent mixed methods approach is proposed. To account for the need of ethical reasoning in business ethics research, the chapter suggests that quantitative content analyses be followed by an ethical interpretation of the quantitative results. Chapter III analyzes, for the first time, the “credibility gap” in CSR reporting from the perspective of the company, by applying quantitative content analysis as proposed in Chapter II. To this end, the credibility of CSR reports from 11 European countries is analyzed based on a multidimensional operationalization of credibility along Habermasian theory. Parametric statistical analyses reveal that European CSR reports are credible at a mediocre level. It is the content of the reports that matter for credibility, while the impact of contextual, format, and firm-level factors is secondary. Furthermore, voluntary standardization impacts credibility positively, whereas legislation does not yet have the same positive effect. Addressing the stakeholders’ perspective, Chapter IV develops a measurement scale to test the perceptions of credibility of CSR reports. In doing so, the chapter builds on a novel conceptualization of credibility along the Habermsian validity claims. The scale development comprises nine stages including a literature review, a delphi study, and three validation studies applying exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to arrive at the final 16-item PERCRED (perceived credibility) scale. Participants in the final study perceived CSR reports to be rather credible, regardless of whether the same reports had been found credible or non-credible in Chapter III. The PERCRED measure can help companies and researchers deepen the understanding of why CSR reports are often perceived as being non-credible tools. The findings of this dissertation demonstrate that the “credibility gap” equally exists from the companies’ and the stakeholders’ perspectives. To eventually bridge it, striving for true, sincere, appropriate, and understandable communication by all parties is a viable avenue. Describing credibility as a communication quality and perception construct along the four sub-dimensions truth, sincerity, appropriateness, and understandability advances the understanding of credibility in the communication sciences. This dissertation contributes to theory development in the emerging field of CSR reporting by presenting credible CSR reports as facilitators to re- and maintain legitimacy and by systematically examining this notion from the perspective of companies and stakeholders. The thesis further advances political CSR theory as it empirically confirms the impact of voluntary standardization and stresses the role of the nation state. The findings of this dissertation also hold implications for public policy makers to level the playing field in CSR reporting in order to reach credibility consistently; companies are provided with a tool to measure credibility perceptions of their reports and to better evaluate the roots of stakeholders’ criticism and mistrust