Suchergebnisse

Research on the conjunction of business elites and sustainable development fascinates practitioners and international organizations but faces methodological and data collection challenges within academia. Firstly, studies on corporate sustainability have promptly increased but have been extremely focused on an organizational level of analysis, which inhibits figuring out whether business decisions have an impact at the macro or societal level. Secondly, major policy recommendations on sustainable development point to the creation of networks and partnerships among business elites, governments and civil organizations but it is largely ignored which specific type of network configuration goes along with sustainable development. Thirdly, the literature on sustainable development often considered business elites as homogenous and concentrated, even though conflicting views exist regarding aspects of sustainable development. Finally, the influence of business elites on environmental, social and economic policies has been more supposed than empirically demonstrated. Past research has been unable to overcome these challenges in part due to insufficient data clarifying the full breadth of business elite connections with political and civil organizations nationally and transnationally, and the lack of a combination of analytical tools for analyzing multilevel characteristics and actions. The present paper proposes a research agenda to comprehend the role of business elites in sustainable development. Future studies should use network analysis as leverage, uncover the networks among business and political elites, focus on Latin American economies and regions, bypass case studies and develop cross-national and transnational analysis, and turn to a combination of causal methods.

Goodman reviews 'China's New Business Elite: The Political Consequences of Economic Reform' by Margaret M. Pearson.

This article aims at critically analysing the hegemony of Egypt"s business elite and the private press they own following Mubarak"s fall. Hegemony requires the exercise of power to maintain consent under changing conditions such as the 2011 uprising and the 2013 military coup. This study answers the question of "why and how Egypt"s business elite controls the post-Mubarak press?". Situated within the interdisciplinary domain of "critical political economy of communication", this article focuses on the two most popular privately-owned newspapers al-Masry al-Youm and al-Watan. Interviews with high-profile sources have been conducted and embedded into the research. Findings show that the Egyptian private press, particularly in the post-Mubarak era, is closely controlled by the business elite in favour of their interests, and indirectly in favour of the political elite – whether civilian or military. The sector"s hegemonic position was briefly shaken by the 2011 uprising, then quickly maintained and reinforced before the 2013 coup.

What is the value of political capital for individuals? Towards the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, military and civilian collaborators entered the business elite, controlling the largest and most important firms in the country. Using a novel panel dataset of board members in these firms, we document a work premium for those who had previously collaborated with Pinochet. After democratization, however, collaborators were removed from boards and their compensation premium disappeared, suggesting that the value of their networks depreciated. To shed light on these findings, we study military personnel before, during, and after Pinochet and find evidence of a wage premium only during the dictatorship. We interpret these results as Pinochet favoring his collaborators while he was in power.

Abstract
The article argues that Hong Kong is a polity where business elites have been and remain key to maintaining the status quo. The article builds on data and information about advisory committees, functional constituencies pre- and post-1997, and reviews business elites' support for British advisory politics. Prior to the 1997 handover, advisory politics proved useful to secure the cooperation of the business elites, promote British interests, and induce political participation while simultaneously postponing universal suffrage. The article also discusses Beijing's bias toward business elites and advisory politics during the 1980s and the Sino-British negotiations, and China's efforts, between 1997 and 2019, to co-opt business elites to ensure prosperity, stability, and political control on the island. Throughout Hong Kong's history, business elites have acted as a powerful barrier against democratic development and, consequently, emerged as one of the main reasons why Hong Kong's political identity remains in jeopardy.