Radar Screens, Astroturf, and Dirty Work: A Qualitative Exploration of Structure and Process in Corporate Political Action

This study seeks to discover whether negotiation with sociopolitical actors external to the firm is sometimes an important determinant of firms' public policy preferences. The research problem, then, is one of interpreting observations of corporate political action in light of extant literature and differences in the structure and process of corporate political strategy making. This article outlines the methods involved in a qualitative inquiry, a representative presentation of the data, and an interpretation of their meaning for scholarly understanding.