Business Participation in Regulation: A Multifocal Perspective on Management Studies

ABSTRACT This paper conceptualizes how regulation is viewed in management studies in the context of business participation in regulation and explores its implications. We theorize six lenses through which management studies understand regulation: as competitive advantages, boundaries, forums, principles, systems, and cognitive frames. These partly overlapping lenses reveal distinct theoretical approaches to the motivations, strategies, and regulatory outcomes of business participation in regulation. Together, they enable multifocality, offering a more nuanced and comprehensive study of business participation in regulation across different levels of analysis. Building on these insights, we show how different lenses and embracing multifocality strengthen the relevance of management studies for regulation and governance scholarship, particularly in unraveling the evolving relationship between business and regulation. Our paper thus contributes to better mobilizing and integrating management studies into the broader interdisciplinary discourse on regulation and governance.