Reframing the Debate over Corporate Political Influence

A guide to how responsive politics, productive markets, and supportive communities are key to rebuilding American capitalism.

Developed with Erb Institute’s Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce, in consultation with academics and over 40 stakeholder groups from across the political spectrum, the Erb Principles for CPR offer a thought process for non-partisan, defensible decisions in turbulent times.  The principles of legitimacy, accountability, responsibility, and transparency provide actionable and non-partisan approach to weighing when, how and why to engage in political affairs, to manage risk and advance long-term value creation for business and society. 

The Good Lobby Tracker assesses the major corporate political responsibility initiatives, from sustainability frameworks to ESG ratings, to enhance their transparency, accountability and action-ability. It is designed to help business practitioners, investors, civil society advocates, regulators and other stakeholders select the best methods and standards when assessing the corporate political footprint of companies. 

Bain's thoughts on how CEO's can best navigate the current environment to achieve sustainability goals. 

The Framework on transformational governance provides guidelines to help companies deepen business values and strategies, policies and operations and internal and external relationships. The Framework applies to corporate functions from government relations and public affairs to legal and compliance and focuses due diligence processes applied to investment risks and opportunities and environmental and social considerations. The Framework helps to better align governments, civil society and businesses towards a common agenda of leaving no one behind. 

This article summarizes the impact of the second report from Freshfields on sustainable investing, titled, A Legal Framework for Impact.

Urges business to include climate policy advocacy aligned with their sustainability strategies. Advocates for science-based climate actions, including supporting legislation aligned with the 1.5°C temperature limit and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, emphasizing the importance of lobbying efforts aligning with these objectives.    

Civic Alliance assembled a robust playbook for companies to more representatively support a strong democracy. The playbook includes concepts to support one’s business case, questions to ask oneself in building an action plan, and concrete steps to better engage employees, consumers, and other stakeholders.

This report argues that the private sector has an indispensable and influential role in achieving a future free of racial and economic inequality in the US. Outlines guidelines to help business leaders and stakeholders articulate the need for corporate priorities on equity.

Strine and Lund argue that political spending hurts shareholder interests because it increases risks, is not transparent, and correlates with lower financial performance. They make the case that companies should either end all spending, obtain shareholder consent, or limit expenditures to PACs (which are strictly voluntary and have mandated disclosure).

Using the exodus of companies from Russia due to the war against Ukraine, Bennett argues that, with influential economic power worldwide, multinational companies should consider a new geopolitical corporate responsibility to help support international rules-based order when it is under stress or faces challenges. He explains that this order defines the international community in which nations should respect individual sovereignty and obey the law. 

The article maps out a non-partisan, principled conception of good corporate citizenship drawing on shared assumptions of the right and the left about the place of corporations in our society and the realities of corporate governance. That conception concentrates on how corporations’ own conduct affects the best interests of their stockholders, workers, communities of operation, consumers, taxpayers, and the environment. 

Provides a framework for boards to manage the reputational, legal, and financial risks of political spending, including misalignment with public commitments, shareholder backlash, and regulatory scrutiny. Emphasizes the need for transparency and alignment with a company’s stated objectives and strategic goals. 

This report reviews how 17 jurisdictions regulate corporate political engagement, highlighting gaps in transparency, oversight, and accountability. It calls for stronger governance and investor involvement to prevent undue influence.

In partnership with Chronos Sustainability, this article reflects a survey about (i) how investors identify and assess political engagement activities; (ii) how investors integrate political engagement into their stewardship activities; and (iii) challenges to engaging on responsible political engagement with investees.

Based on the fact that the assumption that business and politics can and even should be kept separate is no longer realistic, the authors outline steps that effective leaders should take to ensure strategic decisions in the space, which include: (1) develop robust principles to guide strategic choices; (2) address ethical issues early; (3) consistently communicate and implement their choices; (4) engage with and beyond the industry to shape the context; and (5) learn from mistakes to make better choices in the future.