Emergence and Development of Business Interest Associations. An Example from The Netherlands

Abstract

This paper describes and analyzes the emergence and development of Dutch business interest associations (BIAs), combining the approaches of corporatism and Olsonian logic of collective action. Various factors facilitating the emergence of BIAs are identified. The development of BIAs from representative to control organizations is described on a number of dimensions. The emergence and development of BIAs can only be explained by looking at both the 'logic of membership' and the 'logic of influence' which denote the exchange relations with members and interlocutors. Crises and conflicts in these environments were important. Hence separately, Olsonian logic (referring to the logic of member ship) and corporatism (referring to the logic of influence) stop short of explaining BIAs. Their combination is required.