Corporate Political Activity and Foreign Firms: The Role of Issue Salience

• In Event: Knowledge and Legitimacy in Trade Politics

Abstract

Foreign firms are increasingly more likely to participate in the US political system, whether through lobbying, campaign contributions, or public stances on political issues. However, it is unclear how individuals evaluate corporate political activity by foreign firms. In this paper, we examine individual attitudes towards the political activity of multinational firms. We argue that individuals may be more tolerant of foreign corporate political activity when it involves favorable stances on issues that are high-salience for an individual. We evaluate this hypothesis using a survey experiment with a representative sample of US voters. Our experiment provides evidence that liberal voters are more likely to support corporate activity by foreign firms that act to promote liberal policies. We then use novel AI tools to examine how issue salience affects voters’ responses. Individuals that received a personalized treatment highlighting high-salience issues were more likely to support corporate political activity. This suggests that voters are willing to tolerate some degree of political activity that aligns with the voters' preferences. Our research sheds new light on the political causes and effects of corporate political activity. This research also suggests novel implications for the use of AI in research.

Authors

• Andrey Tomashevskiy, Rutgers University

• Volkan Tibet Gur, Rutgers University, New Brunswick