The Organization of Business Interests: Studying the associative action of business in advanced industrial societies

Abstract

The paper presents a theoretical outline for a cross-national comparative study of business associations. It identifies two clusters of independent variables that are assumed to affect the structure of intermediary organizations: properties of the represented group ("Logic of Membership") and properties of the state and other political institutions such as trade unions ("Logic of Influence"). It goes on to develop a model of the organizational properties of business associations as they respond to these two logics and to other functional exigencies ("Logic of Goal Formation" and "Logic of Effective Implementation"). In a further step, the paper suggests four dimensions ("Domains", "Structures", "Resources", "Outputs") in which the "organizational development" of interest associations from lower to higher levels of "organizational complexity" and "strategic autonomy" can be studied.