Spring 2019 - 60015 - PA 387K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy

Corporate Political Strategy

This course will explore the relationship between business and its external stakeholders –including elected officials, regulators, mass public, public interest groups, NGOs, and activists –in the United States, with the goal of preparing you, as future managers, to develop and implement non-market strategies. The course is divided into four parts:
1) understanding the non-market environment of the firm, the actors firms engage with this environment, and the relationship of the non-market environment to the market environment;
2) learning how to formulate non-market strategies for firms and how to evaluate the efficacy of different non-market tactics;
3) examining the role of non-market factors across different substantive public policy areas of concern to firms, principally through cases related to market and social regulation, as well as marketing; and
4) exploring the various ethical issues surrounding non-market strategy.

The course will consist of case-based discussions, and after the first few weeks, lecture will be kept to a minimum. Additionally, we will host two guest speakers with extensive experience in corporate governmental and regulatory affairs.