Business Representation of Giant Corporations
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Telling stories about… Business representation of giant corporations ‘A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities’ 2010 Adriana Vilella Nilsson School of Social Sciences Contents Abstract pp 5 Introduction Storytelling as strategy pp 11 Chapter one Business representation in a post-Keynesian capitalism pp 21 The British system of business power: mid -1970s pp 23 as the turning point Lobbying overload and the search for legitimacy pp 28 Business representation in the 21 st Century pp 36 Chapter two Financialisation and the turn to narratives pp 41 Capitalist restructuring and firms: political economy pp 43 and cultural economy approaches Business representation as a cultural process pp 49 Corporate Communications since the 1990s pp 59 Chapter three Business representation as a cultural practice pp 65 The cultural political economy of business representation pp 67 Methodology pp 80 Chapter four Diluting REACH: influencing governance at supranational level pp 94 The Legislation pp 96 Issues of agency and structure pp 100 Strategies and stories in REACH pp 109 2 Chapter five The mediated story of Herceptin pp 124 A historical perspective on actors and institutions pp 126 The battle for the drug pp 135 Chapter six Shell and the tale of shareholder activism pp 149 Oil Industry and Shell pp 152 Aligning stories pp 165 Chapter seven Order in chaos: stories as incomplete, immersed in contingency, pp 173 but not random Who told what pp 175 Stories versus stories pp 179 Stories and Arenas pp 184 Stories in perspective pp 192 Conclusion What stories are telling us pp 199 Bibliography pp 210 Word count: 78,103 3 Annexes Anexxe 1 Annexe 1: Drug Development of New Molecular Entity (NME) pp 206 Annexe 2: NICE Appraisal Process pp 207 Annexe 3: List of Interviews pp 208 4 Abstract The University of Manchester Adriana Vilella Nilsson Doctor of Philosophy Telling stories about…Business representation of giant corporations 2010 This project explores the role narratives play in helping giant corporations to achieve their political and economic goals in democratic capitalism. Using a framework in which political science and cultural economy insights about business representation are taken into account, it claims that stories bring arenas and actors together in a public negotiation of power. While actors’ interests and beliefs are in constant evolution, it is through narratives that they legitimate their demands and decisions, creating new sets of interests and structures in the process. The substantive part of this analysis looks at a set of public interactions between corporations and different groups of external actors, both in governance arenas and in the stock market. It finds that effective stories of business representation are not structured plots with a beginning, middle and end but are rather a set of arguments developed in different directions that depend on the narratives told by other actors: in a nutshell, stories provide elements that can be combined and reassembled to intersect with other narratives. The overall conclusion is that stories have become a structural feature of public spheres. 5 Declaration: No proportion of the work referred to in the dissertation has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institutional of learning. Copyright Statement i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. 6 For Mathias, Gabriel and Rafael 7 Acknowledgments The journey that finishes now with the submission of this work has been an adventurous one, and certainly impossible to complete without the help of many people I had by my side along the way. Some were there for particular (and sometimes rough) parts of the trip, others came along half way, but most stuck around for the whole ride. All have a place in my heart and, accordingly, should also have a place in this acknowledgment. I start with the ones who had to endure living with me during the process: Mathias, my husband and best friend, a source of unconditional support and great help with all things high tech; Gabi, who so many times asked if mummy was stressed because of her “HD”; and Rafa, responsible for many sleepless nights and early mornings, but also for the best cuddles in the world. I could not have done it without you. I am enormously thankful to supervisors Michael Moran, Karel Williams and Julie Froud for their guidance, encouragement and insightful remarks, as well as their endless patience with my tantrums and late night emails. But, above all, I am grateful for their friendship – I hope it continues after the supervision ends. Another unlimited source of friendship and motivation was CRESC, my ‘home’ for the past four years. With Ebru and Anna I shared the ups and downs of PhD life. Niamh, Hannah, Madeleine and Simone became the living proof that there is life after a PhD and Josine has time after time shown that Dutch efficiency (and a taste for parties) is not a myth. Thanks to you all. I am also deeply grateful to Johnna for the many hours spent helping me out without getting anything in return. Count on me for babysitting duties! Special thanks also go to Bussie, Daniel, Isabelle, Dieter, Morten, Felix and Cecilia. Last, but not least, is a heartfelt thank you to my family in Brazil, the recipients of random moaning sessions about my work: mum, dad, Romulo, Renata, Nanda and Luizinho, the next two hundred pages are what I have been up to in the past years. Thank you for being there for me. The financial support of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is also gratefully acknowledged. 8 Glossary of acronyms ABI - Association of British Insurers ABPI Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry ACC American Chemistry Council AMCHAM American Chambers of Commerce BEUC The European Consumer’s Organisation BUAV British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection CalPERS California Public Employment Retirement System CEFIC European Chemical Industry Council ChemSec The international Chemical Secretariat CSR Corporate Social Responsibility DEFRA – Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs DG Directorate-General EC European Commission ECEAE European Coalition to End Animal Experiments ECEG European Chemical Employers Group EDS Endocrine-disrupting substances EEA European Environment Agency EEB European Environmental Bureau EFAA European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing EMCEF European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers Federation EMEA European Medicines Evaluation Agency EP European Parliament ETUC European Trade Union Confederation ETUI European Trade Union Institute 9 EU European Union FDA Food and Drugs Administration FoE Friends of Earth FSA Financial Services Authority MEP Member of the European Parliament NGO Non-Governmental Organisation NHS National Health Service NICE National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence PCT Primary Care Trust QALY Quality-adjusted life years measurement REACH Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals RRR Reserves Replacement Ratio SEC Securities and Exchange Commission SME Small and Medium Enterprise TABD Transatlantic Business Dialogue TPN Transatlantic Policy Network UNICE Union of Industrial and Employers Confederations of Europe 10 Introduction: Storytelling as strategy American pollster Frank Luntz, a former Republican Party communications guru, is credited to have penned the term ‘climate change’ to replace ‘global warming’, incorporating his less scientific words to the fierce environmental debate of the early 2000s. His company, The Word Doctors, has advised politicians, executives working for almost one third of the Fortune 100 corporations, including GM and McDonalds, as well as a diverse range of associations, from the American Chemistry Council to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In a (leaked) memorandum about environment policies, back in 2002, Luntz told George W. Bush’s team: “it can be helpful to think of environmental (and other) issues in terms of ‘story’. A compelling story, even if factually inaccurate, can be more emotionally compelling than a dry recitation of the truth”. This thesis makes a similar proposition: it can be useful to think about business representation, particularly the representation of giant corporations, in terms of stories. This does not mean reducing business representation to narratives or assuming a deterministic link between stories and results, but uprooting and acknowledging their function. The exercise here, if I may borrow still more from Luntz, is to probe how dry facts and numbers, accurate or inaccurate, can be turned into compelling narratives able to convince a diverse and frequently sceptical audience to grant corporate actors their wishes. In a nutshell, the question asked is how stories can help firms to achieve their political and economic goals in a world increasingly wary of corporate power. A recapitulation of the last decades shows the task has become daunting.