Strategic Seminar（2014-08）

Topic：Culture in politics:a dual-embeddedness approach to managerial political involvement

Speaker:Jianhua Ge,University of North Carolina-Charlotte

Time:Friday,12 December, 08:30-10:00 am

Location: Room 216, Guanghua Building 2

Abstract:

Why do corporate leaders enter politics? An implicit assumption in the extant literature is that managers engage in politics to enhance the value of the firm. Scholars thus focus on structuralfeatures and the “pipe” function of political connections, rguing that political networks can channel information and resources and produce power and competitive advantages. To better understand the manager’s incentives in pursing political onnections, this study extends the literature and proposes a dual-embeddedness approach to simultaneously consider (1) both structural and cultural aspects of political connections; (2) both instrumental and expressive use of political connections;and (3) both collective and individual incentives of political connections. Building on this approach, the analysis of managerial political connections in China reveals that managers get involved in politics for both corporate-performance-enhancing incentives and personal-status-enhancing incentives. Moreover, this study also shows the impact of these two incentives in pursuing politicalconnections is further moderated by political capital, cohort, and political credential of managers.

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