The articles assembled for the special section on corporations, democracy, and the public good provide a useful starting point for outlining a possible trajectory for future research. Institutional theory can be a solid theoretical foundation, especially when researchers emphasize the role of ideologies and language as well as power and agency. The inner workings of the legal system, and specifically the formation and adjudication of the law, may be a promising arena for empirical work. Finally, meaningful research can be promoted by resisting the temptation to base scholarly work on overly simplistic, uni-dimensional, and naïve conceptualizations of “democracy” and the “public good.”
Barley, S.R. (2007). Corporations, democracy, and the public good. Journal of Management Inquiry, 16, 201-215.
2.
Barley, S.R. (2008). Coalface institutionalism. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, R. Suddaby, & K. Sahlin-Andersson (Eds.), Handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 490-515). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
3.
Edelman, L.B., Fuller, S.R., & Mara-Drita, I. (2001). Diversity rhetoric and the managerialization of law. American Journal of Sociology , 106(6), 1589-1641.
4.
Edelman, L.B., & Suchman, M.C. (1997). The legal environments of organizations. Annual Review of Sociology, 23, 479-515.
5.
Edelman, L.B., & Suchman, M.C. (1999). When the "haves" hold court: Speculations on the organizational internalization of law. Law and Society Review , 33, 941-999.
6.
Etzion, D., & Davis, G.F. (2008). Revolving doors? A network analysis of corporate officers and U.S. government officials. Journal of Management Inquiry, 17(3), 157-161.
7.
Fligstein, N. (1987). The intraorganizational power struggle: Rise of finance personnel to top leadership in large corporations, 1919-1979. American Sociological Review, 52, 44-58.
8.
Fligstein, N. (1993). The transformation of corporate control. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
9.
Greenwood, R. (2008). Focusing the asteroid belt of organizations. Journal of Management Inquiry, 17(3), 152-156.
10.
Nace, T. (2003). Gangs of America: The rise of corporate power and the disabling of democracy. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
11.
Perrow, C. (2002). Organizing America: Wealth, power and the origins of corporate capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
12.
Prechel, H. (2000). Big business and the state: Historical transitions and corporate transformation, 1880s-1990s. Albany: State University of New York Press.
13.
Schuler, D.A. (2008). Peering in from corporate political activity. Journal of Management Inquiry, 17(3), 162-167.
14.
Starr, P. (2004). The creation of the media: Political origins of modern communications. New York: Basic Books.
