Focus on Focus Groups: A method to understand interest group interaction and policy learning

The extent to which interest groups interact to compete and collaborate is understudied in the interest group literature. While much is known about the formation of lobbying coalitions, or competitive counteracting advocacy efforts, very little is known about the learning dynamic that surrounds the relationship between interest groups. Part of the reason for this gap in the literature is that, in interest group research, the primary unit of analysis tends to be the organisation, hence the interactive dynamic is only secondary. In this study, we move the attention to the interaction between interest groups as a unit of analysis, and use a method that is well-suited to understand group dynamic: focus group interviews. We explore whether and when, this so far underexplored research methodology represents a meaningful way to explore interest group interactions. To this end, we use advocacy learning - understood as the sharing experiences and best practices with competitors and peers - as primary example of interest group interaction. We exploit the fact that the Covid-19 crisis has been a major shock to which all organisations had to adapt. When faced with such major challenges, do organisations share their experiences with the implementation of internal strategies to adapt to the crisis circumstances or do they remain silent fearful that others will emulate their actions and gain an advantage? We explore this question by conducting 12 focus groups in 3 European countries (NL, IE, DK) with over 40 interest organisations. To explain the conditions for information sharing and learning, our research design manipulates the composition of the focus groups based on two factors related to the diversity of the focus groups, namely diversity in terms of group types and sector of activity of the groups. In this way, we explore to what extent advocacy learning is affected by the presence of competitors in the focus group. Our results shed light on the so-far underexplored dynamic of learning in interest group interaction. At the same time, we test the usefulness and scope conditions of a research methodology that, despite its potential, has received very little attention in group research.