Politics If You Dare: Antecedents of Political Activity by Emerging Market Tycoons

Why do business actors in emerging markets engage in corporate political activity (CPA)? We use the case of Ukraine, an emerging market at the forefront of the current geopolitical standoff, to examine the antecedents of party financing and political office-holding by individual tycoons. Our analysis tests key predictions of resource dependence theory (RDT) in a non-Western institutional context of a democracy lacking the rule of law. Leveraging an original longitudinal dataset of 177 Ukrainian oligarchs, our findings highlight and challenge the implicit institutional assumptions of RDT. We find that political vulnerability reduces CPA when the rule of law is weak, contrary to a key RDT hypothesis. At the same time, we confirm the importance of resources for CPA while highlighting media ownership as a particularly important resource which can alleviate structural political vulnerability for tycoons. Theoretically, we highlight the promise of New Institutional Economics as a lens on CPA and RDT scholarship, and follow prominent calls to “theorize from emerging markets.” We also contribute by jointly analyzing political vulnerability and resources; by expanding the scope of examined political activities to include direct office holding; by differentiating political from economic vulnerabilities; and by shifting the analysis to individual tycoons as crucial (but neglected) political actors across emerging markets.

João Albino-Pimentel is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and International Business at the Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina. His research interests lie at the intersection of non-market and global strategy. He studies how non-market resources and capabilities influence firms’ global strategy decisions. His work has been published in the Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Research Policy and Global Strategy Journal. Joao is an SRF dissertation scholar and serves at the editorial review boards of the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of International Business Policy, Business & Society and Multinational Business Review. Prior to joining UofSC, Joao held positions as assistant professor of Strategy and International Business at Copenhagen Business School and as a research scholar at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. He has a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from HEC Paris.

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