Complaining about rivals: indifference, cooperation and competition in the governance of advertising

What should rivals do when they see competitors breaking agreed rules within systems of self-regulation? This study investigates compliant behaviour among UK advertisers to answer this question empirically. It analyses five years of complaints (N=146,062) and adjudications (N=4,832) published by the...

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Main Author: Cluley, Robert
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52728/
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author Cluley, Robert
author_facet Cluley, Robert
author_sort Cluley, Robert
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description What should rivals do when they see competitors breaking agreed rules within systems of self-regulation? This study investigates compliant behaviour among UK advertisers to answer this question empirically. It analyses five years of complaints (N=146,062) and adjudications (N=4,832) published by the self-regulatory body for the UK advertising industry. The majority of firms adopt a strategy of indifference and rarely regulate their rivals. Highly engage firms either adopt an angelic strategy as they use their resources to complain about their rivals; a deviant strategy as they are subject to a large number of complaints; or a predatory strategy as they attack their rivals through advertising regulation. This illustrates a unique form of regulatory capture in which a regulatory system becomes an arena of competition for some actors while continuing as a governance mechanism for others.
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spelling nottingham-527282020-05-04T19:44:46Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52728/ Complaining about rivals: indifference, cooperation and competition in the governance of advertising Cluley, Robert What should rivals do when they see competitors breaking agreed rules within systems of self-regulation? This study investigates compliant behaviour among UK advertisers to answer this question empirically. It analyses five years of complaints (N=146,062) and adjudications (N=4,832) published by the self-regulatory body for the UK advertising industry. The majority of firms adopt a strategy of indifference and rarely regulate their rivals. Highly engage firms either adopt an angelic strategy as they use their resources to complain about their rivals; a deviant strategy as they are subject to a large number of complaints; or a predatory strategy as they attack their rivals through advertising regulation. This illustrates a unique form of regulatory capture in which a regulatory system becomes an arena of competition for some actors while continuing as a governance mechanism for others. Wiley 2018-08-28 Article PeerReviewed Cluley, Robert (2018) Complaining about rivals: indifference, cooperation and competition in the governance of advertising. Regulation and Governance . ISSN 1748-5983 Advertising; rivals; competitor; self-regulation https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/rego.12211 doi:10.1111/rego.12211 doi:10.1111/rego.12211
spellingShingle Advertising; rivals; competitor; self-regulation
Cluley, Robert
Complaining about rivals: indifference, cooperation and competition in the governance of advertising
title Complaining about rivals: indifference, cooperation and competition in the governance of advertising
title_full Complaining about rivals: indifference, cooperation and competition in the governance of advertising
title_fullStr Complaining about rivals: indifference, cooperation and competition in the governance of advertising
title_full_unstemmed Complaining about rivals: indifference, cooperation and competition in the governance of advertising
title_short Complaining about rivals: indifference, cooperation and competition in the governance of advertising
title_sort complaining about rivals: indifference, cooperation and competition in the governance of advertising
topic Advertising; rivals; competitor; self-regulation
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52728/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52728/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52728/