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Their positions raise profound questions, old and new, at the intersection of information systems and political philosophy, where companies have traditionally appeared in liberal democracies as economic operators rather than powerful political actors that threaten to limit citizens\u2019 fundamental rights significantly through their operations. Importantly, the traditional understanding of corporate social responsibility is rooted in the liberal-democratic conception of moral labour\u2019s division between public and private powers in a market economy. Focussing on this division, the paper analyses the various types of political power these companies wield and the complexities of regulating that power. Thus, it contributes to the IS discipline\u2019s theoretical discussion by introducing political theory concepts that hold untapped potential for reconciling Big Tech and modern liberal-democratic conceptions of society. Taking these concepts as underpinnings for discussing six types of power, in turn (business vs. politics, democratic government, institutions of a market economy, companies, civil society and citizens), the paper offers the discipline example research questions to tackle and points to potential directions for scholarship. <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/02683962221113596","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,30]],"date-time":"2022-06-30T13:01:16Z","timestamp":1656594076000},"page":"144-159","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":47,"title":["Big Tech\u2019s power, political corporate social responsibility and regulation"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"38","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0599-967X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Juho","family":"Lindman","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Applied IT, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jukka","family":"Makinen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Estonian Business School Tallinn, Tallinn, Estonia"},{"name":"Department of Management Studies, Aalto University School of Business, Espoo, Finland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8499-9525","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eero","family":"Kasanen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Aalto University, Aalto, Finland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,2,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-02683962221113596","volume-title":"PACIS 2018 proceedings, 22nd pacific asia conference on information systems","author":"Asadullah A","year":"2018"},{"issue":"4","key":"bibr94-02683962221113596","first-page":"123","volume":"8","author":"Babin R","year":"2009","journal-title":"MIS Quarterly Executive"},{"key":"bibr2-02683962221113596","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/09505439609526455"},{"key":"bibr3-02683962221113596","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/4132338"},{"key":"bibr4-02683962221113596","first-page":"15","volume-title":"Discourse and Democracy: Essays on Habermas\u2019s Between Fact and Norms","author":"Baynes K","year":"2002"},{"key":"bibr5-02683962221113596","volume-title":"Big Tech and Democracy: The Critical Role of Congress. 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