Firms are believed to engage in strategic political management (SPM) in attempts to shape public policy in favorable ways and enhance their economic returns. Extant research has broadly considered the motivations leading to corporate political activity, focusing on the effects of market power using metrics such as firm size and industry concentration to investigate this phenomenon. More recently, scholars have proposed a more nuanced perspective on the subject, suggesting that different types of SPM may exist. For example, both Baysinger (1984) and Oliver and Holzinger (2008) have distinguished between corporate political strategies designed to maintain or alter the firm’s political environment. In this study, I seek to more critically explore this distinction. I propose that at least two different types of SPM exist: defensive SPM, which is directed at protecting existing competitive advantage, and offensive SPM, which is focused on creating new forms of competitive advantage. I further propose that the threats and opportunities in a firm’s regulatory environment are important motivators of these different types of SPM. In the context of the natural gas industry in Texas from 1999-2009, I find that the degree of regulatory uncertainty in the firm’s political environment influences it to engage in defensive SPM. I also find that the size of the firm’s asset inventory influences it to engage in offensive SPM. Furthermore, I find that regulatory uncertainty negatively moderates the relationship between the size of a firm’s asset inventory and its likelihood of investing in offensive SPM. / text

With the rise of digital technologies that have disrupted standard business models and created a new level of competition in the market, the need for digital business strategising that shapes the future of organisations and achieves digital transformation is high on the agenda of most firms. The added complexity of uncertainty in the regulatory environment regarding financial products and services, regulation of digital platforms and ongoing financial regulatory changes based on macro-economic turbulence, makes for a complex external environment within which businesses need to effectively compete and achieve performance targets. A qualitative, interpretive case study of a South African based global organisation is undertaken to explore and understand how organisations navigate the macro-environmental landscape while forging a digitally transformed future. The research uses thematic analysis to extract themes in the data collected from both IT and business leaders as they navigate the path of transitioning from traditional to digital business models in the context of regulatory uncertainty. The study provides insight into what is required for firms to achieve digital transformation, and demonstrates the influence that regulatory uncertainty has on the digital business strategising process of a firm. A conceptual model is developed that reflects the key drivers of digital transformation to achieve digital maturity and competitive advantage, and also represents the external influencing factors of regulatory uncertainty. The findings reveal a shift to a more tactical, combined top-down, bottom-up strategising practice with reliance on dynamic capabilities, strong leadership and innovation to overcome challenges of regulatory uncertainty.

Les systèmes d’échange de quotas d’émission (SEQEs) sont un instrument de régulation environnementale important et ont un rôle clef à jouer dans la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre pour l’atténuation du changement climatique. Cette thèse a une double orientation : les liaisons spatiales entre SEQEs d'une part et les échanges inter-temporels au sein d’un SEQE d'autre part.Les liaisons entre SEQEs peuvent aider à établir un futur cadre de politique climatique mondiale coût-efficient. Cependant, ces liaisons sont difficiles à mettre en place et à ce jour, peu nombreuses. Dans un premier temps, à l’aide d’un modèle simple et unifié et en se basant sur des expériences réelles de SEQEs, nous comparons différentes restrictions à l’échange comme éléments facilitants une transition vers le libre échange de quotas. Dans un deuxième temps, nous construisons un modèle qui décrit et caractérise analytiquement les effets et gains associés à des liaisons multilatérales sous incertitude. Ensuite, le modèle est calibré sur émissions historiques de différentes juridictions pour illustrer les déterminants des préférences de liaison.Les SEQEs sont sujets à de l’incertitude réglementaire, ce qui peut affaiblir leurs efficience coût dynamique et signal prix de long terme. La prévalence d’une telle incertitude peut être assimilée à une situation d’ambiguïté. Nous analysons alors les décisions inter-temporelles d’entités couvertes par un SEQE et averses à l’ambiguïté puis caractérisons les distorsions induites sur le fonctionnement du système. Nous discutons enfin de l’éclairage apportés par ces résultats en rapport aux observations faites dans les SEQEs existants. / Emissions Trading Systems (ETSs) are an important instsrument in regulating pollution and have a key role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate climate change. This dissertation has a twin focus: spatial linkages between ETSs at a point in time and intertemporal trading within an ETS.Linkages between ETSs are crucial for cost-effectiveness of the future climate policy architecture. Complete linkages, however, are difficult to agree and to date, few and far between. Here, our contribution is twofold. First, using a simple and unified model and drawing on experiences with real-world ETSs, we compare alternative trade restrictions on bilateral linkages in facilitating the transition to an unrestricted link. Second, we provide a general model to describe and analytically characterize the effects and gains from multilateral linkages under uncertainty. The model is then calibrated to historical emissions of real-world jurisdictions to illustrate the determinants of linkage preferences.ETSs are subject to regulatory uncertainty, which can disrupt dynamic cost-effectiveness and undermine their long-term price signal. The prevalence of regulatory uncertainty can be assimilated to a situation of ambiguity. Here, our contribution is to analyze regulated entities’ intertemporal decisions under ambiguity aversion, characterize the induced distortions in market functioning, and discuss how these can help explain observations from existing ETSs.

No description available.