Industry business associations: Self-interested or socially conscious?

Abstract

The number and scale of business associations focused on corporate responsibility and sustainability has grown dramatically in recent decades becoming influential actors in both national and international governance. Yet surprisingly little research exists on such organizations and recognition of the organizational lineage they share with special interest groups has yet to be examined - are industry business associations merely lobbies for their members’ own interests or are they viable self-regulatory institutions capable of addressing contemporary social and sustainability issues? This paper identifies, reviews and synthesizes fragmented insights from numerous literatures that address this question. Drawing on various streams of research within the political science, economics and management disciplines that provide diverse lenses on the phenomenon of business associations, it juxtaposes and groups them into two broad perspectives: business associations as special interest groups that are detrimental to society (“peril”); business associations as self-regulatory institutions capable of addressing contemporary challenges (“promise”).