Is Virtue its Own Reward? Corporate Social Responsibility and Access to British Policymakers.

The question of which interest groups gain access to policymakers - and on what basis - remains one of fundamental importance to scholars of representative democracy and those interested in the quality of democratic decision-making. Research has shown that private firms and business associations in contemporary democracies devote more resources to lobbying and are consistently over-represented among the groups that policymakers meet with and invite to give evidence during the policy process (Baumgartner et al 2009). Despite their prevalence, there is less research on which firms engage in the political process and succeed in gaining access to policymakers. In this study, we examine a potential determinant of corporate political access that has received limited attention to date, namely a firm’s socio-political reputation. Over the past two decades firms and especially large, transnational corporations have come under increasing pressure to demonstrate that they are responsible social actors that seek to make profit while contributing to—or at least not detracting from—the public good. While research suggests that a firms’ reputation for corporate social responsibility (CSR) can help the organization maintain good relations with its customers, employees, and investors (Minor & Morgan 2011), surprisingly little research has examined how this reputation for responsibility affects firms’ relations with policymakers. Specifically we explore the relationship between the CSR reputations of large transnational corporations listed in the FTSE350 and the access these firms are granted to UK policymakers in both the executive and legislature. For this purpose, we created a novel database containing information about which large firms, British politicians have invited to give testimony to the committees of the UK (Westminster) parliament and to meet with government officials between 2010 to 2017. We further collected information about firms’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings as well as media reported scandals. We use descriptive and multivariate statistical analysis to shed light on the extent to which firms’ reputation for responsibility translates into political access as well as how the influence of a firm’s socio-political reputation varies across the legislature and executive offices. We identify a clear, positive relationship between ESG ratings and firm access, and demonstrate that the effects of negative CSR controversies depend on the venue in question. We complement this quantitative analysis with interview data taken from 20 UK legislative and executive officials to gain insight into why a company’s reputation for social responsibility is valued by some policymakers as well as how a company’s CSR policies and commitments shape its interactions with policymakers.