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Prior studies on corporate political strategies have taken an exchange view to examine these strategies' benefits and costs for firms and politicians, but have paid less attention to how politicians' political values shape their perceptions of, and willingness to engage in, these exchanges. We investigate how politicians' imprinted political ideologies affect the likelihood of firms' political appointments. Examining 760 city mayors across 242 Chinese cities from 2001 to 2013, we find that cities have fewer private firms appointed to local councils if the mayor—the key decision maker for such appointments—is more strongly imprinted with an orthodox communist ideology that opposes capitalism. The intensity and evolution of such an ideological imprint are influenced by contextual factors. The imprint's strength is shaped by the mayors' prior exposure to intense ideological experiences, such as experiencing the Cultural Revolution at a young age. Working in an environment consistent with the ideology (e.g., a province with a greater communist legacy) sustains and even strengthens the imprint, whereas working in an environment inconsistent with the ideology (e.g., a city with greater economic development) attenuates it. We discuss the implications of these findings for political strategy research, imprinting theory, and nascent research on political ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study on the concept of exaptation to organizational theory by identifying an important process whereby the historical origin of a capability differs from its current usefulness is presented. Branching policy, modernization, and political culture are three founding conditions that influenced banks' development of capabilities for managing dispersed branches.

The effect of public policy on the growth of commercial banking in the US from 1896 to 1978 is studied. The performance of centralized and dispersed growth strategies depends on public policy effects on the technological, economic, and cultural environments.

The way in which competing logics facilitate resistance to institutional change is presented, highlighting on banking professionalsE resistance to large, national banksE acquisitions of smaller, local banks.

Civil society's inability to hold powerful businesses accountable in authoritarian regimes is a grand challenge in today's global environment. We propose that the development of Internet activism provides a novel mechanism to pressure for corporate response in those societies. Internet activism is dispersed, fast moving, and interactive, and hence can effectively focus public attention and potentially undermine a company's public image by generating social comparison. In addition, firms with public image vulnerability may experience magnified pressure from Internet activism, as well as more intense social comparison. We explore this framework in the setting of corporate donations made in the wake of the 2008 earthquake in the Sichuan Province of China, which triggered Internet activism that challenged corporations to contribute to the good of the community. Analysis based on 613 large publicly listed Chinese firms supports our framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]