Insights

Recent immigration enforcement raids have led to large disruptions in local communities, affecting spending at local businesses. Our research, which uses data from the Deportation Data project combined with card spending data, indicates that spending at local businesses in states where community ICE arrests have been most concentrated has been affected by these raids, with card spending falling nearly two percentage points in these states after January 2025. Given that these spending declines represent lost revenue, companies have a fiduciary responsibility to mitigate the harm of immigration enforcement.

Modern business education has a critical deficiency: it fails to teach the interconnected roles of corporate lobbying in policymaking and government regulation in the market. Students often rely on naive, binary views that paint government and business as inherent adversaries. In truth, vibrant markets require government guardrails to prevent excessive market power and the externalization of costs, and constructive corporate lobbying can serve the public good. Business schools must evolve to equip future leaders with the political acumen necessary to navigate complex social challenges with an eye to corporate political responsibility.

Drawing on his new book, Nordic Capitalism: Lessons for Realizing Sustainable Capitalism, Robert G. Strand explores how the Nordic societies evolved toward an effective form of democratic capitalism rooted in negotiation, cooperation, and power-sharing, with business leaders embracing a role as stewards of democracy and capitalism. He considers what lessons this experience offers American business leaders for advancing Corporate Political Responsibility.

A behind-the-scenes look at the practical steps that companies can take to manage their climate policy footprint.

When well-funded campaigns across the partisan spectrum are actively seeking to demonize both corporate sustainability initiatives and their absence, there has never been a greater opportunity for companies and civil society leaders to find common cause.

To help you foresee and mitigate risk, we have created a "Principled Influence Pulse Check" based on our Principled Influence Guide.

Lisa Hendrickson explores the growing influence of trust-based “whisper networks” in politically and culturally polarized environments, and how shared ethos, candid dialogue, and relationship-driven engagement are helping leaders build resilient communities.

David Silver challenges both business critics and corporate leaders to repair a fractured relationship with democracy. He argues that firms have distinct democratic duties—including responsible political engagement, respect for democratic institutions, and, when necessary, the defense of liberal democracy itself.

Corporate engagement in democratic matters is inherently delicate. Companies depend on stable institutions, predictable regulation, and social trust, yet when they enter the democratic sphere, they risk accusations of overstepping their role or unduly influencing public debate.

At Third Side Strategies, we focus on providing support to companies, boards, and investors in making the hard decisions about when and how their companies engage in the public sphere. The best way to understand how to implement what we call corporate political responsibility governance is to see what it looks like in real life. That is why we are so fortunate to have been able to sit down with Jonathan Johnson, former Chairman and CEO of Overstock, active board member, and former Utah gubernatorial candidate, to talk about his experiences putting the third side into action.