Shifting loyalty for profitability: effect of imitation on corporate political donations

Shifting loyalty for profitability: effect of imitation on corporate political donations | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Shifting loyalty for profitability: effect of imitation on corporate political donations Rohit Yadav, Snehal Awate This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9704949/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Corporate political donations are often used by firms as strategic investments to engage with political actors. We study their limited potential in improving firm profitability due to imitation, and why firms continue to donate despite that. Using data on corporate political donations in India from 2007-2021, our analyses support a transactional approach to these donations whereby their effectiveness increases when firms shift loyalties, i.e. realign their political association, while keeping the donation amounts low. This combination strategy is contrary to the relational approach to CPA where firms build long-term relations by staying loyal to political parties and investing heavily. Using the lens of imitation, we suggest that corporate political donations may have limited mileage to create political relationships and a transactional approach to donations may be preferred. Management corporate political donations imitation profitability political loyalty transactional approach India Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files Appendix.docx Appendix Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9704949","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":639788837,"identity":"b60864c1-896b-43b7-8f94-d446db1cd6a2","order_by":0,"name":"Rohit Yadav","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Indian Institute of Technology Bombay","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rohit","middleName":"","lastName":"Yadav","suffix":""},{"id":639788838,"identity":"e310f704-42bf-497c-ac17-16a0fda8d334","order_by":1,"name":"Snehal Awate","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA+ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACNgaGAijzg4EEgwGYZUBIC1gBMwPjDAMJCdK0MPMwMEjgVwwE8rObjz34YcAgb3D8/MHHNgUWdeYMzA8/MBTcwanF4M6xdMMeAwbDDWeSmY1zgA6zbGAzBvroGW4tEjlmEjwGDIzbDiSzSYO0GBxgMAOKH8btsBn53yT/GDDYbzv/mP23BVgL+ze8Whhu5LBJA21J3HYjmY2ZAayFB78tBjfSzKRlDCSS9994bCzZYyAhubOZp1giAa/Dkp9JvqmwsZ3Zn/jww48/dfzm7O0bP3z4g8dhECCBxGYG4gRCGkbBKBgFo2AU4AUAHAhIt5wsksMAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6349-9686","institution":"Indian Institute of Technology Bombay","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Snehal","middleName":"","lastName":"Awate","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-05-13 13:57:02","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9704949/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9704949/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":109405220,"identity":"03306b3c-82d2-49ea-945a-92af2e7d5b3b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-17 13:02:26","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":525874,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"P1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9704949/v1_covered_9c9cb6c9-c728-4ff3-8f25-a42f15cae150.pdf"},{"id":109273736,"identity":"88aefe5a-dded-41e7-8c92-4d919d8998be","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-05-14 14:27:55","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":248398,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eAppendix\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Appendix.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9704949/v1/cbf2568c9279a780782a08ec.docx"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eShifting loyalty for profitability: effect of imitation on corporate political donations\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"Indian Institute of Technology Bombay","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"corporate political donations, imitation, profitability, political loyalty, transactional approach, India","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9704949/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9704949/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eCorporate political donations are often used by firms as strategic investments to engage with political actors. 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