Toward a View of Citizenship and Lobbying: Corporate Engagement in the Political Process

The way a company engages with the political process is directly relevant to its character, yet lobbying and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are often seen as separate. Taking a narrative approach, the author examines the automotive industry's processes around lobbying, in the light of legislation to restrict emissions of CO2 from cars in the European Union. The author uses the data generated through interviews to generate a narrative model of political engagement, and to start to apply Basu and Palazzo's process model of CSR. This article shows competing narratives within the industry, which range from broadly cooperative toward regulatory activity, to broadly instrumental. The author argues that lobbying needs to be included in the scope of corporate citizenship theorizing and discusses changes to corporate character.