IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v31y1999i5p877-898.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explaining the Membership of Sectoral Business Associations

Author

Listed:
  • R J Bennett

    (Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge CB2 3EN, England)

Abstract

This paper gives the first systematic statistical assessment of the factors explaining the membership of sector business associations. An important aspect of the argument is the importance of differentiating associations by the types of their members because this reflects their demand orientation and their decisionmaking structures. Associations of companies (traditionally termed trade associations), individuals (traditionally termed professional associations), owner-managers, mixed member types, and federations are each different types of member bodies. The estimates in the paper, using new survey evidence, confirm the significance of these distinctions and demonstrate the different factors explaining association membership size, density of encompassing of members (as a proportion of the number of businesses in their sector, and the proportion of the sector's turnover), as well as the membership joining and lapsing rates. The results generally confirm the dominance of the logic of influence on trade associations and the logic of services on other associations. The role of sector concentration, association age, association size, and management structure are also shown to be significant explanatory variables for some association types.

Suggested Citation

  • R J Bennett, 1999. "Explaining the Membership of Sectoral Business Associations," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(5), pages 877-898, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:31:y:1999:i:5:p:877-898
    DOI: 10.1068/a310877
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a310877
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a310877?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bowman,John R., 1989. "Capitalist Collective Action," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521362658.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vikrant Shirodkar & Eshani Beddewela & Ulf Henning Richter, 2018. "Firm-Level Determinants of Political CSR in Emerging Economies: Evidence from India," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 673-688, March.
    2. Hayley H. Chouinard & Gregmar I. Galinato & Philip R. Wandschneider, 2016. "Making Friends To Influence Others: Entry And Contribution Decisions That Affect Social Capital In An Association," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(2), pages 819-834, April.
    3. David Valler & Andrew Wood, 2004. "Devolution and the Politics of Business Representation in Britain: A Strategic — Relational Approach," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(10), pages 1835-1854, October.
    4. Mas, José M. & Gómez, Andrés, 2021. "Social partners in the digital ecosystem: Will business organizations, trade unions and government organizations survive the digital revolution?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    5. Peter W. De Langen, 2005. "IMPROVING TRAINING AND EDUCATION IN CLUSTERS - LESSONS FROM THREE PORT CLUSTERS Improving Training and Education in Clusters - Lessons from Three Port Clusters," ERSA conference papers ersa05p61, European Regional Science Association.
    6. Debby F. Mir, 2008. "Environmental behaviour in Chicago automotive repair micro‐enterprises (MEPs)," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(3), pages 194-207, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berins Collier, Ruth & Handlin, Samuel P., 2005. "Shifting Interest Regimes of the Working Classes in Latin America," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt9tz0z2gq, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    2. Robert Bennett, 2000. "The Logic of Membership of Sectoral Business Associations," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(1), pages 17-42.
    3. Robert J. Bennett, 1998. "Business associations and their potential contribution to the competitiveness of SMEs," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 243-260, January.
    4. Robert J. Bennett, 1998. "Explaining the Membership of Voluntary Local Business Associations: The Example of British Chambers of Commerce," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 503-514, August.
    5. van Driel, Hugo, 2000. "Collusion in transport: group effects in a historical perspective," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 385-404, April.
    6. Leonardo Baccini & Veronica Lenzi & Paul W. Thurner, 2013. "Global Energy Governance: Trade, Infrastructure, and the Diffusion of International Organizations," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 192-216, April.
    7. Evans Ana Maria, 2013. "Building institutional capacity: from pervasive individualism to sustained coordination in small firm sectors," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 163-186, August.
    8. Amy A. Quark, 2011. "Transnational Governance as Contested Institution-Building: China, Merchants, and Contract Rules in the Cotton Trade," Politics & Society, , vol. 39(1), pages 3-39, March.
    9. R J Bennett, 1999. "Business Associations: Their Potential Contribution to Government Policy and the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 17(5), pages 593-608, October.
    10. R J Bennett, 1998. "Business Associations and Their Potential to Contribute to Economic Development: Reexploring an Interface between the State and Market," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 30(8), pages 1367-1387, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:31:y:1999:i:5:p:877-898. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.