Table. An Overview of the 22 Identified Conceptual Frameworks and Models for Examining the Ways in Which Corporations Influence Health, and Their Key Features From a Power Perspective .
Author(s) and Year of Publication | Title of Framework Document | Explicit Reference to Power | Theory of Power Integrated Into the Framework | Key Features |
Saloojee and Dagli, 2000 | Tobacco industry tactics for resisting public policy on health | No | No | One of the first studies in the public health literature to aggregate strategies and tactics used by the tobacco industry to influence public health policy |
Spitzer, 2005 | A systemic approach to occupational and environmental health | Yes | No | Strong focus on the social structures that enable corporate power and reinforce population harm |
Freudenberg and Galea, 2008 | The impact of corporate practices on health: implications for health policy | No | No | The use of case studies from different industries to highlight how corporate practices influence health |
Jahiel, 2008 | Corporation-induced diseases, upstream epidemiologic surveillance, and urban health | Yes | No | Uses an upstream multilevel epidemiologic approach to explain the flow of corporate power through social environments |
Holden and Lee, 2009 | Corporate power and social policy: the political economy of the transnational tobacco companies | Yes | Yes – Farnsworth and Holden’s corporate power framework55 | The use of power theory to examine the corporate involvement of transnational tobacco companies in social policy |
Wiist, 2010 | Tactics of the Corporation (In: The Bottom Line or Public Health) | Yes | No | Strong focus on treating the corporation as a distal, macro-level social structure |
Freudenberg, 2012 | The manufacture of lifestyle: The role of corporations in unhealthy living | Yes | No | Explores how corporations influence lifestyles that shape patterns of ill-health |
Moodie et al, 2013 | Profits and pandemics: prevention of harmful effects of tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food and drink industries | Yes | No | The use of extensive unhealthy product sales data across numerous countries to support claims |
Millar, 2013 | The corporate determinants of health: how big business affects our health, and the need for government action | Yes | No | Coined the phrase ‘corporate determinants of health’ |
Mialon et al, 2015 | A proposed approach to systematically identify and monitor the corporate political activity of the food industry with respect to public health using publicly available information | No | No | Adapted existing tobacco industry-related corporate political activity frameworks to the food industry |
Kickbusch et al, 2016 | The commercial determinants of health | Yes | No | Defined and popularised the ‘CDoH’ |
Baum et al, 2016 | Assessing the health impact of transnational corporations: its importance and a framework | Yes | No | Focus on both positive and negative effects of corporate actors; description of outcomes of corporate practices in broad range of social and environmental contexts |
Knai et al, 2016 | Systems thinking as a framework for analysing the commercial determinants of health | Yes | No | The use of a systems thinking framework in order to analyse a complex issue from multiple perspectives |
Ulucanlar et al, 2016 | The policy dystopia model: an interpretive analysis of tobacco industry political activity | Yes | No | Provides a comprehensive approach to understanding the discursive and instrumental political strategies used by tobacco corporations that influence public health policy |
Madureira-Lima and Galea, 2018 | Corporate practices and health: a framework and mechanisms | Yes | Yes – Lukes’ three faces of power 30,31 | The use of power theory to explain how different corporate practices can translate into expressions of power, depending on the context in which the practice is deployed |
Thorn, 2018 | Addressing power and politics through action on the commercial determinants of health | Yes | No | Focus on political science literature critical of the pluralist view that business corporations are subordinate to the political process and an elected government |
McKee and Stuckler, 2018 | Revisiting the corporate and commercial determinants of health | Yes | Yes – VeneKlasen and Miller’s power framework56 | The use of power theory to how the expression of corporate power is becoming increasingly hidden and invisible |
Rochford et al, 2019 | Reframing the impact of business on health: the interface of corporate, commercial, political and social determinants of health | Yes | No | Encourages a stronger focus on the positive aspects of the influence of business on health; explores the internal processes of business |
Brown, 2019 | Legislative capture: a critical consideration in the commercial determinants of public health | Yes | Yes – Flyvberg’s phronetic research methodology57 | Draws from phronetic research methodology to explore the role of power and values in legislative capture by corporations |
Eastmore et al, 2020 | Non-market strategy as a framework for exploring commercial involvement in health policy: a primer | No | No | The use of a non-market strategy perspective from business literature to explore commercial involvement in health policy |
Walls et al, 2020 | Advancing alcohol research in low-income and middle-income countries: a global environment framework | Yes | No | Use of a novel conceptualisation of the alcohol environment to explore how alcohol corporations influence local alcohol use |
Jamieson et al, 2020 | Oral health inequalities and the corporate determinants of health: a commentary | Yes | Yes – Lukes’ three faces of power 30,31 | Explores how corporate power influences oral health by integrating Lukes’ three faces of power with Kickbusch and colleagues’ channels of corporate power |
Abbreviation: CDoH, commercial determinants of health.