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Political lobbying in the marketplace in Australia has risen sharply in the last decade, with increased instances of shareholder activism and other forms of investment-based political participation, or 'political investorism'. This article provides the first analysis of political investorism in the Australian context, utilising processtracing and interviews to examine six case studies on issues including modern slavery, climate change, and human rights. We consider the insider and outsider dynamics of political investorism, and the factors that shape the manifestation of this tactic in Australia. We argue that political investorism in Australia is shaped primarily by structural factors including corporate governance rules and the power of superannuation (pension) funds. We demonstrate that some forms of political investorism defy neat categorisation as insider or outsider strategies, identifying a new category of 'unnatural insider' to describe the acquisition of insider status for the explicit purpose of pursuing political goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article establishes a new basis for examining the participation, mobilisation and impact of investors at a time when market-based activism for social change is rising in prominence. Existing terminology describing the expression of political values through investment decisions lacks conceptual clarity. Political participation by shareholders and other investors is variously described as shareholder activism or socially responsible investment, and currently conceptualised under the banner of political consumerism. However, this term fails to capture the unique political role and diverse actions of investors. We put forward 'political investorism' as a cohering term for investment-based political participation to remedy existing conceptual confusion, to distinguish between investors and consumers as political actors and to set an agenda for the future study of market-based activism. This article defines and develops the concept of political investorism, drawing upon illustrative cases from Australia to identify hallmarks, actors and tactics of this form of political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the efforts by actors on the buyer-side of value chains – such as brands and retailers – to address upstream labour abuses are well documented, there is a lack of research into how actors on the production-side of value chains – such as raw material producers – can identify and address downstream labour risks. This research presents the findings of an action research project that focused on the Australian cotton industry. By applying a sense-making lens, we propose four properties that can be used to identify labour risk in global value chains, providing insights into the capacity of producers to address downstream labour abuses. We suggest that there is a possibility for a 'book-end' approach that combines upstream and downstream actions by buyers and producers in global value chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents empirical evidence of the governance challenges faced by Australian not-for-profit (NFP) organisations. There is a dearth of academic research in the not-for-profit sector on issues of governance. Using survey and interview data, we explore what NFP leaders believe are key governance challenges, and what this means for theory and practice of NFP governance. We demonstrate that the effectiveness of governance systems is influenced by internal and external contingencies that NFP organisations face, such as variations in board roles, stakeholder and membership demands, funding arrangements, board member recruitment processes, skills of board members, and resources for training and development. We argue for a shift of focus away from prescriptive and normative NFP governance models, and contend that generic best practice governance standards for NFPs ought not to be further pursued, and that a contingency approach is more promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]