Political Strategy Choices: Cognitive Influences in the Brazilian Ethanol Industry

Abstract

While a considerable body of work has been developed on the cognitive influence in strategic decision processes, there are rare attempts to do so in the corporate political action (CPA) or political strategy. We argue that cognition has an important role on corporate political action decisions due to the complex and uncertain nature of the business-government relations. We also argue that cognition is especially important on situations of repetitive interaction of actors. In this article, we use the comparative case study method to examine cognitive influences on CPA choices for different groups within the Brazilian ethanol industry. Our study describes that different cognitive communities share different frames in interpreting cues from the political actors and that those frames influence their political decisions, enforcing the importance of cognitive influences in political strategy.