New Framework Unites Decades of Research on How Businesses Act Collectively

New York, NY – Businesses frequently come together—through trade associations, lobbying coalitions, or industry standards groups—to advance shared interests. Yet despite its significance, academic research on business collective action (BCA) has remained fragmented across management, sociology, and political science. New research led by Columbia Business School Professor Lori Yue, co-authored with Sean Buchanan at the University of Manitoba, Lærke Højgaard Christiansen at Technical University of Denmark, and Jochem Kroezen at Erasmus University, integrates decades of disparate findings into a single, comprehensive framework. Published in the Journal of Management Studies, the study clarifies how and why firms coordinate collective strategies that shape entire industries and influence public policy.

Drawing on a systematic review of 99 empirical studies published between 1981 and 2023 in 14 leading management journals, the researchers identify four primary forms of collective business action: collective corporate political activity, collective institutional entrepreneurship, strategic collaboration, and collective private regulation. Each represents a distinct way that firms align their efforts to respond to external pressures, set industry standards, or influence institutional change.

The paper’s integrative framework reveals that collective action is typically driven by two sets of forces: institutional triggers such as regulatory threats, social movements, or reputational crises, and market triggers such as technological disruption, competition, and the creation of new markets. It also distinguishes between representative collective action, which reflects the shared interests of multiple firms, and controlled collective action, where outcomes are steered by a small group of dominant companies or governing organizations.

Together, these insights help explain when business coalitions are more likely to defend the status quo—and when they enable major shifts in regulation, innovation, or industry norms. The framework also provides scholars and policymakers with a unified vocabulary for studying how business power is coordinated and exercised across markets and societies.

The full article, “Business Collective Action: An Integrative Review and Framework,” appears in the Journal of Management Studies.