Student Fellows Mbaraonye and Ornelas Collaborate on Project on Corporate Lobbying and Tech

Mon, 11/22/2021

This fall Nebraska Governance and Technology Center Student Fellows Izuchukwu Mbaraonye (College of Business) and David Ornelas (College of Journalism and Mass Communications) collaborated on a project examining how technology companies that develop innovations that are likely to be realized in the medium- to long- term tend to invest heavily in political lobbying to mitigate risks that their future technologies will be subject to aggressive regulatory regimes. Their collaboration resulted in a beautiful, compelling visual presentation of their findings – viewable here.

Their analysis found that lobbying, or “corporate political investment” (CPI) can have positive consequences in that it can speed up innovation, allowing socially beneficial innovations, like new medicines, to come to market faster. On the other hand, it can be socially-detrimental in cases where it shields products from needed regulation – the team gives the example of e-cigarette companies that were able to successfully lobby the Obama administration in order to shield their products from effective regulation.

David Ornelas is pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Integrated Media Communications; he previously worked as Director of Web Design & Development at Forgelight Creative, a design and web development firm. In addition to his degree program, David also runs his own digital advertising agency, Aztec Fox Creative. A sample of David’s work can be viewed at davidornelas.me.

Izu Mbaraonye is a doctoral candidate in management at the University of Nebraska College of Business. He previously received his Master of Business Administration from the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Tags: Center News, Fellows

Photos of David Ornelas and Izu Mbaraonye