AbstractWhy do business leaders support or oppose interstate wars? This article clarifies and empirically illustrates two competing perspectives on the sources of business war preferences: the opinions businesses have about interstate conflict. Namely, while an “economic consequences” perspective argues that business war preferences stem primarily from the economic effects of interstate conflicts, a “leader ideology” perspective predicts that business leaders’ domestic policy preferences and political ideology will determine their war preferences. I reexamine historical survey data on American business leaders’ opinions about the Vietnam War using item response theory scaling and regression analysis and find support for both perspectives. These results point toward the importance of further theoretical and empirical research on the sources of business war preferences, so I propose a structured, forward-looking research agenda on business war preferences based on different conceptualizations of businesses, their motivations, and the consequences of interstate conflicts.

中文翻译：

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兴趣还是意识形态？为什么美国商界领袖反对越南战争

摘要为什么商界领袖支持或反对州际战争？本文阐明并实证说明了关于商战偏好来源的两种相互竞争的观点：企业对州际冲突的看法。也就是说，虽然“经济后果”观点认为商战偏好主要源于国家间冲突的经济影响，但“领导人意识形态”观点预测，企业领导人的国内政策偏好和政治意识形态将决定他们的战争偏好。我使用项目响应理论缩放和回归分析重新检查了有关美国商业领袖对越南战争的看法的历史调查数据，并找到了对这两种观点的支持。