Areas of Expertise (5)
Campaign Finance
Corporate Political Strategy
Corporate Social Responsibility
Governmental Regulation
Public Policy
Biography
Timothy Werner is an assistant professor of Business, Government & Society at the McCombs School of Business. He is also an affiliated faculty member with the Department of Government, School of Law, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin.
Werner's research interests include corporate political activity, non-market strategy, campaign finance, and private politics. In addition to a book published by Cambridge University Press, his work has appeared in leading journals in economics, management, and political science. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on corporate political strategy.
Media
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Links (1)
Education (3)
University of Wisconsin-Madison: Ph.D., Political Science 2009
University of Wisconsin-Madison: M.A., Political Science 2004
Rice University: B.A., Political Science 2001
Media Appearances (7)
Five Ways Boycotts Have Been Transformed In The Trump Era
Fast Company online
2017-02-13
"What we're seeing now is politicians calling for boycotts, which we have not historically seen outside of perhaps the Civil Rights movement," says University of Texas at Austin professor Tim Werner, who specializes in corporate social responsibility and government policy.
Anti-LBGT Laws Push Corporations to the Forefront of Equality
CBC News online
2016-04-13
Regarding the anti-LGBT laws in states, including North Carolina, it's difficult to quantify the total cost to the state of such actions, but simply put, the law is bad for business because "the reputational damage can be very real," says Timothy Werner, an assistant professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
How North Carolina’s Anti-discrimination Law Is Redefining Corporate Activism
Wharton School of Business online
2016-04-07
Timothy Werner, professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin says the North Carolina issue over LGBT protection against discrimination is “straightforward” and not nearly as controversial as same-sex marriage as a public issue
Corporate Managers Protect Themselves at Shareholders' Expense With Campaign Spending to Encourage States to Pass Antitakeover Legislation
The London School of Economics and Political Science online
2015-04-14
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which allowed corporations to make campaign contributions, Werner argues that corporate managers will use the influence of their new spending ability to push for corporate governance laws that will protect their positions from competition.
How Big Business Got Behind Gay Rights
Washington Post online
2014-03-01
Q&A with Werner on how and why companies expanded their non-discrimination policies to gays and lesbians despite little federal regulation that required it and despite public policy-making that was overtly hostile. He finds that the progressive stance of business on gay rights has affected politics and helped reshape debates regarding gay rights.
Think before you boycott: There are consequences
Boston Globe online
2018-04-21
High-impact boycotts don’t generally work by causing a direct financial impact through lost sales, said Timothy Werner, associate professor at the McCombs Business School at the University of Texas in Austin. Instead, the most effective campaigns raise a ruckus that companies are eager to tamp down.
Think before you boycott: There are consequences
Boston Globe online
2018-04-21
High-impact boycotts don’t generally work by causing a direct financial impact through lost sales, said Timothy Werner, associate professor at the McCombs Business School at the University of Texas in Austin. Instead, the most effective campaigns raise a ruckus that companies are eager to tamp down.
Articles (9)
Investor Reaction to Covert Corporate Political Activity
Strategic Management Journal
2017-12-01
Through the use of a financial market event study of an accidental disclosure of firms' contributions to a Republican nonprofit organization, I examine investors' reactions to covert investment in independent political expenditures.
Campaign Contributions from Corporate Executives in Lieu of Political Action Committees
The Journal of Law, Economics and Organization
2017-08-01
We leverage these candidate-specific refusals to accept PAC monies to uncover concomitant spikes in the pattern of corporate executives’ personal campaign contributions that are most pronounced for executives at firms with active PACs which contributed to the candidates in question.
Blacklisted Businesses
Administrative Science Quarterly
2016-01-01
This paper explores whether and how social activists’ challenges affect politicians’ willingness to associate with targeted firms. We study the effect of public protest on corporate political activity using a unique database that allows us to analyze empirically the impact of social movement boycotts on three proxies for associations with political stakeholders: the proportion of campaign contributions that are rejected, the number of times a firm is invited to give testimony in congressional hearings, and the number of government procurement contracts awarded to a firm.
Gaining Access by Doing Good: The Effect of Sociopolitical Reputation on Firm Participation in Public Policymaking
Management Science [Forthcoming]
2015-05-01
Werner's findings support the existence of a sociopolitical dimension to firms' reputations that affects how public policy makers evaluate firms, demonstrating that corporate social responsibility pays political benefits.
Citizens United, Independent Expenditures, and Agency Costs: Reexamining the Political Economy of State Antitakeover Statutes
Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization
2015-01-01
Werner tests the agency theory of corporate political activity by examining the association between the legality of independent expenditures and antitakeover lawmaking in the US states.
The Sound, The Fury, and the Nonevent: Business Power and Market Reactions to the Citizens United Decision
American Politics Research
2011-01-01
Werner studies the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision on firms' stock prices and finds no support for the the argument that public policy will be unduly influenced by corporate cash.
Congressmen of the Silent South: the Persistence of Southern Racial Liberals, 1949–1964
The Journal of Politics
2009-01-01
Werner investigates the characteristics of white Southern constituencies that reelected racial liberals to the U.S. House in the period between the 1948 Democratic Convention and the passage of the Voting Rights Act. His research reveals that racial liberals from the Peripheral South and the cities of the Deep South were able to establish bonds between themselves and their constituents that were sufficient to win reelection.
Public Election Funding, Competition, and Candidate Gender
PS: Political Science and Politics
2007-01-01
This research addresses the impact of public funding on competition and campaign decision-making.
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