Victoria Roberts
Research Mentor(s): Steven Samford
Mentor Department: Organizational Studies
Authors: Victoria Roberts, Isabelle Garcia, Steven Samford
Session: Session 5 (2:00pm – 2:50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 67
Abstract
A trend in multinational corporations points to greater investment in host countries’ politics. Through involvement in trade associations it seems many multinational corporations, particularly in Mexico, are making a shift from wielding primarily “passive†structural power to instrumental power. Structural power refers to political power corporations retain through profit-driven actions which affect policy makers expectations regarding overall economic well being. While, on the other hand, instrumental power includes direct political action such as lobbying, financing political campaigns, or even participating in media. The way in which these multinational corporations have been making this switch is through trade associations. By joining and participating in trade associations multinational corporations may be beginning to take on a new role. In this study we aim to conduct a broad survey aimed at trade associations to understand their work with multinationals. We seek to understand whether or not corporations are utilizing these associations to advance preferred policies and development in Mexico. In order to do this we have collected data on the trade associations within CONCAMIN, the largest conglomeration of trade associations within Mexico. Each trade association in CONCAMIN is industry specific which will give us a better understanding of how corporations in different industries behave. We have gathered data on each of the affiliated members, corporations, in the associations on the mergent intellect database. All of this information will be helpful for detailing the questions in the survey and interviews. The surveys and interviews are meant to give us insight into the workings of these complex business and political structures in Mexico. Building our understanding of how multinational corporations’ new part in host countries will or will not play a role in future development in trade-oriented countries, such as Mexico.
