Corporate Unity in American Trade Policy: A Network Analysis of Corporate-Dyad Political Action

Abstract

This essay examines factors that produce political unity among large U.S. corporations advocating free trade. Expanding on old debates, these data and analyses validate the importance of organizational and class cohesion approaches to corporate political action. Methodologically, the political unity of pairs (dyads) of firms in trade policy activism is analyzed with quadratic assignment procedure regression. Shared membership in prominent policy networks and board interlocks positively predict corporate political unity across three areas of trade policy influence, from the executive branch to the legislature. Non-network organizational indicators also significantly predicted corporate trade policy activism. The findings support business unity accounts of corporate political action and suggest that higher levels of firm embeddedness within intercorporate networks facilitate collective corporate political action.