Does Social Identity Matter in Political Markets? The Influence of Managerial Tribal Identity in Corporate Political Strategy Formulation

Research on the role of executives’ identity in corporate political strategy (CPS) has mainly focused on political ideology and CPS firm-level outcomes, thus overlooking other underpinning social identity parameters and their intermediate effects on CPS. Drawing from social identity theory and a qualitative methodology entailing 38 interviews in Ghana, I explore how managers’ relative tribal identity influences CPS formulation. The findings reveal that politicians use favorable treatment of managers from their tribes as a means to achieve social distinctiveness, gain social legitimacy, and wield social influence within the tribe. Consequent of the discrimination, manager-politician tribal consonance (tribal similarity) and tribal dissonance (tribal difference) affect managers’ strategic choices about their firms’ political aspirations, political modes, political positioning, and political tactics. Importantly, the findings show that tribal identity is impermeable and causes path dependency in political strategy decision-making. This study has significant implications for theory, practice, and future research.