How platform businesses mobilize their users and allies: Corporate grassroots lobbying and the Airbnb 鈥榤ovement鈥� for deregulation
Luke Yates has had an article published in the Socio-Economic Review: 鈥楬ow platform businesses mobilize their users and allies: Corporate grassroots lobbying and the Airbnb 鈥榤ovement鈥� for deregulation鈥�.
This article analyses and theorizes the political strategies of businesses in the new digital 鈥榩latform鈥� economy. Airbnb, Uber and meal delivery companies have transformed travel, urban space and repertoires of everyday exchange; they are also transforming norms around governance.
Central to platforms鈥� corporate political strategies is the use of corporate grassroots lobbying (CGL), the selection, mobilization, resourcing and coordination of ordinary users and grassroots allies to influence the public and policy-making process.
The article argues that platforms build on, and make five innovations to, the most common existing repertoires of CGL. Four main approaches of CGL among these businesses are also identified: temporary mobilization; curated storytelling; front groups; and grassroots alliances.
The article demonstrates how these approaches to CGL are deployed and combined, using Airbnb as the main case study. Finally, I reflect on the implications of the findings for the platform economy, corporate political activity and socioeconomic change.
You can read the full article .