Lords of the harvest
Subtitle: third-party signaling and regulatory approval of genetically modified organisms
By: Shon R. Hiatt, Sangchan Park
Contributors: Park, Sangchan; Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 12-081; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 12-081.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2011
Place of publication: [Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 45
Description: Little is known about the factors that influence regulatory agencies' decision making. We posit that regulatory agencies are influenced by the firms they regulate, but not exclusively via political influence as is argued in the traditional regulatory-capture literatures. Instead, regulatory decisions are indirectly shaped via third-party actors whose signals reduce uncertainty in the agency's pursuit of legitimacy. Focusing empirically on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's approval of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we find that signals from salient stakeholders and peer agencies have a positive influence on product approval and that their effects vary under different dimensions of uncertainty. We also discuss the implications of these findings for business-government relations and for nonmarket strategy.
Notes: "March 2012" -- Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references.