The Attractiveness of Political Markets: Implications for Firm Strategy. The Academy of Management Review 30(2

We conceptualize democracies as marketlike processes where demanders and sup-pliers of various public policies interact. Firms may enter political markets to seek new or to maintain existing policies that affect their current business operations or future opportunities. We contend that a firm’s decision to become politically active is influenced, in part, by the attractiveness of the political market, and we outline conditions that make political markets more or less attractive for firms to compete in to advance their interests. Why do firms engage in explicit political ac-tivities? Researchers find that firms highly de-pendent on government regulation or contracts for economic survival (Masters & Keim, 1985; Pittman, 1977), larger firms (Salamon & Seig-fried, 1977), and those operating in more highly concentrated industries (Masters & Keim, 1985) will be more politically active. Firms are mos