“Efforts to Reprioritise the Agenda” in China: British American Tobacco's Efforts to Influence Public Policy on Secondhand Smoke in China

Muggli, Monique E.; Lee, Kelley; Gan, Quan; Ebbert, Jon O.; Hurt, R. Douglas

doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050251

Cited by 20 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…, 2006; Muggli et al . 2008); and youth smoking prevention schemes—largely ineffective measures aimed at dissuading policymakers of the need for general marketing restrictions (Landman et al 2002; Assunta and Chapman 2004; Henriksen et al 2006; Sebrié and Glantz 2007; Apollonio and Malone 2010). By aiming to replace forms of corporate governance that are strongly associated with improved public health outcomes with alternatives for which there is no evidence of effectiveness, these initiatives raise two questions which have potentially far-reaching significance for the contemporary governance of CSR.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Techniques of Neutralization, Stakeholder Management and Political CSR

et al. 2012

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Since scholarly interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has primarily focused on the synergies between social and economic performance, our understanding of how (and the conditions under which) companies use CSR to produce policy outcomes that work against public welfare has remained comparatively under-developed. In particular, little is known about how corporate decision-makers privately reconcile the conflicts between public and private interests, even though this is likely to be relevant to understanding the limitations of CSR as a means of aligning business activity with the broader public interest. This study addresses this issue using internal tobacco industry documents to explore British-American Tobacco’s (BAT) thinking on CSR and its effects on the company’s CSR Programme. The article presents a three-stage model of CSR development, based on Sykes and Matza’s theory of techniques of neutralization, which links together: how BAT managers made sense of the company’s declining political authority in the mid-1990s; how they subsequently justified the use of CSR as a tool of stakeholder management aimed at diffusing the political impact of public health advocates by breaking up political constituencies working towards evidence-based tobacco regulation; and how CSR works ideologically to shape stakeholders’ perceptions of the relative merits of competing approaches to tobacco control. Our analysis has three implications for research and practice. First, it underlines the importance of approaching corporate managers’ public comments on CSR critically and situating them in their economic, political and historical contexts. Second, it illustrates the importance of focusing on the political aims and effects of CSR. Third, by showing how CSR practices are used to stymie evidence-based government regulation, the article underlines the importance of highlighting and developing matrices to assess the negative social impacts of CSR.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Techniques of Neutralization, Stakeholder Management and Political CSR

et al. 2012

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“…Founded in 1997 by the Soong Ching Ling Foundation (now the China Soon Ling Foundation),[140], [141] a high profile and well-connected Chinese charity which BAT considered to be a key anti-smoking group in China,[128] BAT's support for the Beijing Liver Foundation was designed to raise the profile of hepatitis which it considered “should be of greater significance to the [People's Republic of China] and the WHO” than smoking [142]. According to one document, the ultimate aim of the donation was to “reprioritise the agenda” of both the Soong Ching Ling Foundation and the Ministry of Public Health and “divert the public attention from smoking and health issues to liver diseases” [115], [140], [143]…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corporate Philanthropy, Political Influence, and Health Policy

Fooks

Gilmore

2013

PLoS ONE

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BackgroundThe Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) provides a basis for nation states to limit the political effects of tobacco industry philanthropy, yet progress in this area is limited. This paper aims to integrate the findings of previous studies on tobacco industry philanthropy with a new analysis of British American Tobacco's (BAT) record of charitable giving to develop a general model of corporate political philanthropy that can be used to facilitate implementation of the FCTC.MethodAnalysis of previously confidential industry documents, BAT social and stakeholder dialogue reports, and existing tobacco industry document studies on philanthropy.ResultsThe analysis identified six broad ways in which tobacco companies have used philanthropy politically: developing constituencies to build support for policy positions and generate third party advocacy; weakening opposing political constituencies; facilitating access and building relationships with policymakers; creating direct leverage with policymakers by providing financial subsidies to specific projects; enhancing the donor's status as a source of credible information; and shaping the tobacco control agenda by shifting thinking on the importance of regulating the market environment for tobacco and the relative risks of smoking for population health. Contemporary BAT social and stakeholder reports contain numerous examples of charitable donations that are likely to be designed to shape the tobacco control agenda, secure access and build constituencies.Conclusions and RecommendationsTobacco companies' political use of charitable donations underlines the need for tobacco industry philanthropy to be restricted via full implementation of Articles 5.3 and 13 of the FCTC. The model of tobacco industry philanthropy developed in this study can be used by public health advocates to press for implementation of the FCTC and provides a basis for analysing the political effects of charitable giving in other industry sectors which have an impact on public health such as alcohol and food.

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“…Most papers describe how TTCs undermined national-level tobacco control policies in Europe (Hilamo, 2003; Szilagyi and Chapman, 2003a, 2004; Gilmore et al ., 2007; Krasovsky, 2010; Shrinae et al ., 2012; Lunze and Migliorini, 2013; Skafida et al ., 2014), Asia (Chantornvong et al ., 2000; Knight and Chapman, 2004a; MacKenzie et al ., 2004; Tong and Glantz, 2004; Zhong and Yano, 2007; MacKenzie and Collin, 2008; Muggli et al ., 2008; Charoenca et al ., 2012), the Middle East (Nakkash and Lee, 2009), Latin America (Sebrie et al ., 2005, 2009; Holden and Lee, 2011) and Africa (Curry and Ray, 1984; Stebbins, 1987; Otanez et al ., 2009; Delobelle et al ., 2016). A few studies focus on policy influence at the regional and global levels through industry bodies (Ong and Glantz, 2000; McDaniel et al ., 2008), trade and investment agreements (Holden and Lee, 2011; Fooks and Gilmore, 2013; Crosbie et al ., 2014; Eckhardt et al ., 2015), public health bodies (Weishaar et al ., 2012; Peeters et al ., 2016; Smith et al ., 2016b) and religious groups (Petticrew et al ., 2015).…”

Section: Tobacco Industry Globalization: a Review Of The Public Healtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tobacco industry globalization and global health governance: towards an interdisciplinary research agenda

2016

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Shifting patterns of tobacco production and consumption, and the resultant disease burden worldwide since the late twentieth century, prompted efforts to strengthen global health governance through adoption of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. While the treaty is rightfully considered an important achievement, to address a neglected public health issue through collective action, evidence suggests that tobacco industry globalization continues apace. In this article, we provide a systematic review of the public health literature and reveal definitional and measurement imprecision, ahistorical timeframes, transnational tobacco companies and the state as the primary units and levels of analysis, and a strong emphasis on agency as opposed to structural power. Drawing on the study of globalization in international political economy and business studies, we identify opportunities to expand analysis along each of these dimensions. We conclude that this expanded and interdisciplinary research agenda provides the potential for fuller understanding of the dual and dynamic relationship between the tobacco industry and globalization. Deeper analysis of how the industry has adapted to globalization over time, as well as how the industry has influenced the nature and trajectory of globalization, is essential for building effective global governance responses. This article is published as part of a thematic collection dedicated to global governance.

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“Efforts to Reprioritise the Agenda” in China: British American Tobacco's Efforts to Influence Public Policy on Secondhand Smoke in China

Cited by 20 publications

References 41 publications

The Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Techniques of Neutralization, Stakeholder Management and Political CSR

The Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Techniques of Neutralization, Stakeholder Management and Political CSR

Corporate Philanthropy, Political Influence, and Health Policy

Tobacco industry globalization and global health governance: towards an interdisciplinary research agenda

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