Models of corporate grassroots: dependent variable

All of the publicly traded firms listed in the 2007 Fortune 500 were searched to see if they appeared as the client of at least one public affairs consulting firm, using searches for alternative spellings and abbreviated versions of the firm’s name, as well as major subsidiaries of the firm in question (e.g., both “AMR Corp.” and “American Airlines”).

Thus, the dependent measure in Chapter 6 is a count of the number of times a Fortune 500 firm appeared as the client of a professional grassroots lobbying / public affairs consulting firm; 60.6 percent of firms did not appear on any client list, while 19.8 percent of firms appeared on one list, 7.7 percent appeared on two, and the remaining 12 percent appeared on more than two lists. The firms that appeared on the greatest number of client lists include Wal-Mart, IBM, AT&T, Comcast, Ford, PG&E, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, and Waste Management, all of which are Fortune 200 firms with major interests in managing their public image. As public affairs consultants often make clear, any corporation in the middle of a serious grassroots campaign almost always requires certain services from an outside consultant, as such campaigns regularly overwhelm the capacities of firms’ in-house public or government affairs offices. Therefore, this measure is a better indication of firms’ grassroots activities than any alternative measure that might be available, such as firms’ membership in the Public Affairs Council. I find that out of the 444 publicly traded firms in the 2007 Fortune 500 list, some 39 percent (174 corporations) appeared as the client of a grassroots lobbyist in 2010.