The Corporate Boomerang: Shareholder Transnational Advocacy Networks Targeting Oil Companies in the Ecuadorian Amazon
Emily McAteer and
Simone Pulver Additional contact information Emily McAteer: Emily McAteer is a research analyst with RiskMetrics Group's Climate Risk Management team, where she conducts research and analysis on corporate strategies to address climate change for institutional investors and other clients. Prior to joining RiskMetrics, she completed a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Studies at Brown University. She is a co-author of the January 2008 report Corporate Governance and Climate Change: The Banking Sector. Her work related to shareholder advocacy and corporate accountability is also published in chapters of Earth Matters: Indigenous Peoples, the Extractive Industries and Corporate Social Responsibility (2008) and Climate Change Litigation, Regulation and Risk (2008).
Simone Pulver: Simone Pulver is Joukowsky Family Assistant Professor (Research) of International Studies at Brown University, and holds a joint appointment as Assistant Professor (Research) of Environmental Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology and MA in Energy and Resources from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of global environmental governance, organizational theory, and sustainable development, with a particular focus on the role of non-state actors in addressing global climate change. She has published papers in Organization & Environment, Studies in Comparative International Development, Environmental Research Letters, Greener Management International, and Review of European Community and International Environmental Law.
Abstract:
Transnational advocacy networks (TANs) targeting corporations differ from those targeting states in the strategies they employ, determinants of network effectiveness, and assessments of goal achievement. This article develops a corporate boomerang model to analyze the dynamics of corporate-focused TANs. The model is used to assess two case studies of corporate-focused TANs-targeting the US-based oil corporations Chevron and Burlington Resources-active in Ecuador's Amazon region. In both TANs, corporate shareholder activists played a central role in the networks. The comparison demonstrates that the success of the Burlington TAN relative to the Chevron TAN can be explained by differences in the cohesiveness of the two networks and in the vulnerability of the two targets. (c) 2009 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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