EU corporate public affairs 2.0 – revisiting the multi-agent approach

Victoria Spötl
2020 unpublished
Relying on the principal-agent theory as conceptual framework, this thesis examines the company-internal roles and functions of multiple agents in EU corporate public affairs. A qualitative study was held in the form of semi-structured interviews with four public affairs experts from companies within the Austrian infrastructure industry. Supporting previous scholarship, the thesis shows that companies use multiple public affairs agents to increase their potential of influencing EU policy- and
more » ... cision making processes. The thesis further contributes two novel findings: First, it shows that in-house public affairs agents nowadays fulfil an extensive coordinating function, thereby taking on a central role in EU corporate public affairs. Second, it additionally shows that with the advancing professionalisation and expansion of in-house public affairs, external public affairs agents tend to be increasingly substituted. Furthermore, the thesis reveals an increasing significance of ad-hoc platform-like alliances as potentially new public affairs agents.
doi:10.25365/thesis.63387 fatcat:adzx5225drfe3gjas4uqufrvay