An Examination of ‘Irregular Competition’ between Corporations and NGOs
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12250672 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alasdair Marshall (0000-0002-9789-8042, corresponding author), Richard Telofski, Udechukwu Ojiako (0000-0003-0506-2115), Maxwell Chipulu (0000-0002-0139-6188) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 371-391 |
| Publication date | 2011-08-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Voluntas Revista Internacional de Filosofia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2179-3786 • E-ISSN: 1573-7888 |
| Publisher | Springer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11266-011-9205-5 |
| OpenAlex | W2076196181 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 61 |
The purpose of this article is to develop a theory which frames the demands of civil society in such a way as to better enable corporate subjects to manage and navigate ‘irregular’ engagement from activist organizations. Activist NGOs engage in advocacy at times by mounting, facilitating or encouraging popular social campaigns and actions against targeted corporations. In many cases, radical ‘direct action’ tactics are adopted, taking such approaches, NGOs may capitalise on the broader, more ethically diverse strategic possibilities open to them than are available to their corporate adversaries. We employ institutional theory to map out this asymmetric distribution of strategic possibility. We theorise NGOs and corporate subjects as effectively ‘competing’ with one another to maximise their own strategic possibilities and to minimise those of their opponents, in the perennial battle for hearts and minds that plays out between NGOs, corporate subjects, and broader civil society actors who ultimately determine boundary rules for NGO-corporate conflict. Within this context we explore the normative challenge arising from the possibility that corporate subjects might seek to tip the competitive balance by learning from how the military has adapted to successfully engage with ‘irregular’ adversaries through what is often termed ‘asymmetric’ or ‘irregular’ warfare. Should corporations follow a similar adaptive process, by mirroring the ‘irregular’ strategies of activist groups? Drawing evidence from the military experience, we suggest—perhaps counter intuitively—that such adaptations can create new opportunities for conflict resolution and for building sustainable cooperation between former adversaries
Battle · Business · Civil society · Competition (biology · Context (archaeology · Mirroring · Normative · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · War, Ethics, and Justification
Competition for competence and interpartner learning within international strategic alliances
The resource-based view of the firm
Ideologically motivated activism
Economies of Signs and Space
Doing Good? The Politics and Antipolitics of NGO Practices
Communicating Global Activism
The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits
Unconventional competition – drawing lessons from the military
Learning about Advocacy
Global Civil Society
French NGOs in the Global Era
Negotiating the Boundaries of Voluntarism
Values and the Legitimacy of Third Sector Service Delivery Organizations
Interstate Systems, World-Empires and the Capitalist World-Economy
Non-governmental organisations, power and legitimacy in international society
The NGO Scramble
Implications of government funding of advocacy for third‐sector independence and exploration of alternative advocacy funding models
The Company as a Separate Legal Entity
Corporate and state responses to anti‐oil protests in the Niger Delta
Advocacy Organizations in the U.S. Political Process
Unconventional Warfare
Setting the Advocacy Agenda
Advocacy by Nonprofit Human Service Agencies
Governance to Governmentality
Politics beyond the State Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics
Incentives in Collective Action Organizations
Chaoplexic warfare or the future of military organization
Power Shift
A less modest witness
The Legal Environments of Organizations
Social Movements
Corporate Security Begins in the Community
Organizational population dynamics and social change
From hegemony to affinity
Approaching adulthood
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,1 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2016 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |