Business power during (economic) crisis: Evidence on the role of framing from the German automotive industry

2026/05/26 by Jonas L. Horn · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Automotive industry #Business model #Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism #Financial crisis #Framing (construction) #German #German government #Power (physics) #Regional resilience and development #Social Policy and Reform Studies

paper · doi:10.1177/10245294261454436

published in Competition & Change (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2026/05/26 · openalex created_date 2026/05/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/25

Abstract

What conditions hinder the success of business’s attempts to shape responses to economic crisis? During both the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, the German government drafted growth packages. Twice the automotive industry aimed for the inclusion of a vehicle scrappage program, investing considerable effort into ensuring the measure was implemented. Yet, only one of these attempts was successful. To explain this puzzling outcome, I apply business power theory within a comparative process-tracing design, arguing that in contexts of high issue salience, business’s success depends on its ability to control the framing of an issue and win framing contests. I find that this ability was constrained in 2020. The study contributes not only to the literature on business power but also to the broader understanding of who governs in times of crisis, highlighting that taking business and its power into account is crucial to understand crisis response.

Citations

• Context and Causal Mechanisms in Political Analysis
• Are We All Amazon Primed? Consumers and the Politics of Platform Power
• Banks and the noisy geopolitics of big tech regulation in Europe
• Selecting Appropriate Cases When Tracing Causal Mechanisms
• Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm

Discussions

• 🚘 Why is the German EV transition so slow? One reason: The industry tries to squeeze maximum profits out of old technology. 🔎 I show that incumbents use their business power to push for policies al [bsky, 14 points, 2 comments]

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