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The purpose of this paper is to improve upon lobby theory by learning from a failed lobby campaign in which the lobbyist managed to annoy and anger key constituencies.

The paper is a qualitative case study, conducted on attempts made by the Norwegian oil industry in 2002‐2004 to achieve a tax amendment. Qualitative interviews were carried out with oil industry representatives, two former ministers, political advisers, and members of parliament, and with journalists who had followed the campaign.

The main argument being put forward in this paper is that lobbyists should use insights from stakeholder theory.

The paper is a single‐case study and it is difficult to generalise its findings. This invites more research.

The paper combines lobby theory with an approach suggested by stakeholder theory which might temper single‐minded advocacy that is too preoccupied with getting immediate political results, and help organizations to remember that it is important to develop good long‐term relations with stakeholders.

The paper has potential to improve lobby theory and efforts.

Digital transformation, and the use and pervasiveness of social media in particular, have changed society. Politicians and political institutions increasingly use social media channels; hence political communication is changing as well. Continuous availability through smartphones and other devices has not only led to more information exchange between political and public actors, but also lobbyists, who classically communicate remotely, are also starting to respond to these changes and use tools such as Twitter, Facebook and the like. Against this background, this study provides insights into the effects of digital transformation, especially social media, on lobbying in Germany. Data were gathered from 15 interviews and seven focus groups with lobbyists and political decision makers in Berlin. The analysis shows that digital lobbying operates within a novel logic, due to the public context of social media. It is the human element that becomes the decisive factor in digital lobbying due to the social aspect in social media. Accordingly, investigating digital lobbying is critical to establish implications for theory and for practice.

Leveraging lobbying theory, the authors analyze responses to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) proposal suggesting the removal of state and local governmental accounting from the content tested on the uniform certified public accountant (CPA) examination. Furthermore, the authors compare the responses to a prior exam content review to place the uniqueness of the more recent response in perspective.

The authors examine 181 comment letters obtained from the AICPA website. In addition, the relative concentration of governmental entities across the USA is studied for correlation with the response rate.

Consistent with lobbying theory, the authors find that participating governmental entities overwhelmingly argued for the retention of governmental accounting. In contrast, most other groups of respondents (accounting firms, state societies, etc.) had at least one letter that agrees with the removal of the content.

While the letter writers appear to be successful in retaining the governmental accounting content on the CPA exam, the majority of the detailed content has been placed within a specialized area on the new version of the CPA exam, expected to be deployed in 2024. This means that fewer CPA candidates will be exposed to governmental accounting than under the current regime. It has implications for governmental units seeking qualified candidates to fill their staffing needs especially as fewer universities offer governmental accounting courses.

The study critically evaluates the theory of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation in an attempt to provide directions for future research. Using the extensive structured review of literature using the Scopus database tool, the study reviewed 79 articles, and in particular the topic-related 57 articles were analysed. Nine journals contribute to 51% of articles (29 of 57 articles). In particular, the three journals published 15 articles: Critical Perspectives on Accounting (7), Accounting, Organizations and Society (4), and Journal of Applied Accounting Research (4). In total, 83% (47 of 57) of the articles were published 2009–2018. A total of 1,168 citations were found from 45 articles since 12 articles were without citations. The highest cited authors were Ball (2006) – 410 citations, Kothari, Ramanna, and Skinner (2010) – 135 citations, and Napier (1989) – 85 citations. In particular, five theories have been used widely: institutional theory (13), accounting theory (6), agency theory (3), positive accounting theory (3), and process theory (2). Future studies’ focus could be on theory implications in IFRS adoption/implementation studies in a country or a group of countries’ experience. Future studies could also focus on various theories rather depending on a single theory (i.e. institutional theory).

Extant work on lobbying primarily focuses on who is lobbying and is lobbied as well as strategies of how to exert influence. More fundamentally, we address (1) what drives firms to engage in lobbying activities at all and (2) what factors determine the alignment of corporate lobbying. More concrete, we investigate why and also how firms do lobbying. Another intention is to further anchor this highly relevant instrument of business practice in the scientific discourse of strategic management.

It turns out that the dynamic, systemic, cognitive, and holistic rationale of the competence perspective is a very strong contributor of fresh thoughts to the debate on lobbying as a strategic means. We adopt this perspective by specifically making use of the Competence-based Theory of the Firm (CbTF) in order to scrutinize this issue in theoretical terms. Especially path-dependent developments when building and leveraging a firm's resources and competences as well as resource/competence specificity cause organizational inertia and limited adaptability to changing environmental conditions. Instead of passively adapting to changing environmental conditions, lobbying activities directly aim at entrepreneurial and goal-oriented attempts to exert influence and to steer changes in the relevant business environment, basic conditions underlying every market process, or institutional migration paths at points of inflection. Acknowledging their discretionary potential to act, agents seek to achieve a strategic fit between market requirements and the output they are able to render based on their competences by using the lever of manipulating their environment.

Empirically, propositions are derived and validated with an integrated set of qualitative empirical methods applied in the German healthcare system between 2004 and 2008.

Presents a modern definition of lobbying suitable for the use of organizational lobbyists and a theory of lobbying as conflict accommodation which arouses ethical considerations. A contingency model of effective lobbying strategies and dynamics of lobbying is developed and tested in a multiple‐case study. Finnish interest group representatives are interviewed to construct cases based on their lobbying efforts on political issues at the national and the EU‐level of political decision making. It is concluded that the definition of lobbying corresponds well to the activities of the interviewees' associations and that it is fruitful to apply the theory of conflict resolution in the study of lobbying. The new model of lobbying reflects the reality excellently. It can be used as a tool for planning and evaluating lobbying in different political issues and at different levels of political decision making.

This paper examines the lobbying behaviour of UK managers who commented on Accounting Standard Board proposals to re‐introduce full provision deferred taxation accounting. Although there were no direct cash‐flow implications associated with these proposals, they had the potential to affect a company’s reported net income and revenue reserves. Using published comments and financial statements data, the paper tests: (a) the conventional positive accounting theory gearing hypothesis, using debt/equity ratios and (b) a new dividend hypothesis that is presented in the paper. The findings did not provide support for the gearing hypothesis and are therefore consistent with recent work of various other authors. However, the new dividend hypothesis was supported and the paper therefore suggests that the potential impact that an accounting treatment has on the revenue reserves of a company, and thus its dividend paying capacity, is a plausible reason for observed lobbying behaviour in the UK.

This paper develops a typology of argumentation strategies used in lobbying. Unlike in other strategic communication functions such as crisis or risk communication, such typologies have not been proposed in the sub-field of public affairs.

The article synthesises the strategic communication, political communication and policy studies literature and employs exchange theory to explain the communicative-strategic exchange in public affairs. It showcases its explanatory potential with illustrative examples from Big Tech lobbying.

The paper describes that categories of argumentation strategies that a public affairs professional will choose are based on the contingency of the issue, policy objective and lobbying objective. The descriptive typology will require empirical testing to develop further.

The paper describes how public affairs professionals influence public policy through their argumentation strategies, which sheds light on the usually opaque activities of lobbying.

The proposed typology is the first of its kind for the field of public affairs. Beyond, it contributes communication-scientific insights from a rhetorical tradition to strategic communication research and other social science fields where lobbying is studied, e.g. policy studies.

The central question in this article is: do recurring types of corporate lobbying strategies exist (in the same way as for generic strategies, for example)? The objective of this research is to define a typology of lobbying strategies implemented by French and UK firms, and then to discuss to what extent firms' political strategies are universal or country‐specific.

An empirical study examined 679 lobbying campaigns (also known as “political action”) of French and UK firms. They were grouped into categories and described using statistical data analysis techniques (multiple correspondence analysis and classification).

The results highlight a pattern in the corporate lobbying phenomenon: five types of lobbying strategy (that can be described and illustrated) exist for French firms, and four for UK firms. Tentative explanations can be put forward: implementation of lobbying strategies appears to depend on the type of issues addressed (which could be universal), but also on the country's political environment (which could be country specific). The study shows the interdependent influence of organisational resources, economic structures and the political environment (laws and the role of the state) on firms' lobbying strategies. Thus, societal effects theory could be applied to firms' political strategies, which are global and local at the same time.

Lobbying public decision makers is an increasingly widespread managerial practice, but has so far attracted little research attention in Europe.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the institutional context on the awareness and practice of responsible lobbying and to compare relevant factors in the USA and the EU. This paper aims at integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) and lobbying research.

A conceptual framework is presented and exemplified by the USA and the EU context. The research is informed by institutional theory that points to external factors creating profoundly different contexts in which firms operate.

The degree of responsible lobbying is likely to vary across nations and regions, particularly due to factors that impact responsible lobbying by shaping the relation between the state and firms, i.e. type of government and lobbying system as well as degree of government intervention, and factors that have indirect effects by shaping the degree to which stakeholders such as employees, consumers and non-governmental organizations push responsible lobbying.

The link between lobbying and CSR has been long neglected by scholars and practitioners, but is now gaining more attention. Research on this topic is valuable because it helps to ensure the credibility of CSR and alleviate public criticism of lobbying.