Understanding reaction to corporate activism: The moderating role of polarization

Luiza Braga, Amir Grinstein*, Matheus Tardin, Marcelo Perin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

In our polarized societies, more companies are taking a stand on divisive sociopolitical issues. However, given the mixed findings from previous studies, it remains unclear whether Corporate Activism (CA) is more likely to hurt or help a company’s performance and reputation, or shape the public’s attitudes toward the sociopolitical issue involved. To better understand the impact of CA in polarized societies, it is valuable to study moderating factors, especially those linked to polarization. A meta-analysis of 72 scholarly works is conducted to examine the impact of CA on various outcomes (e.g. ads and social media engagement, cognitive and attitudinal reactions, public’s intentions and actions, emotional reactions, social and ethical engagement, workplace, and employee perceptions) and the role of moderators (a sociopolitical issue’s political leaning and controversy level, political orientation of the target audience, key demographics). The analysis reveals a positive, albeit small, effect size (0.085 [95% CI (0.0542, 0.1158)]) with the most impact on two outcomes: cognitive and attitudinal reactions, and emotional reactions. It further reveals that companies adopting liberal-leaning CAs elicit more favorable responses than those adopting conservative CAs and that liberals respond positively to CA, while conservatives are more neutral. However, when there is alignment between the CA’s political leaning and the audience’s political orientation, conservatives have a stronger positive response than liberals. Also, younger audiences view CA more positively. Finally, per national culture, while power distance and individualism positively moderate the reaction to CA, uncertainty avoidance has a negative effect.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberpgae313
Number of pages10
JournalPNAS Nexus
Volume3
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences.

Funding

This study was funded in part by the Coordena\u00E7\u00E3o de Aperfei\u00E7oamento de Pessoal de N\u00EDvel Superior\u2014Brazil (CAPES)\u2014Finance Code 001.

FundersFunder number
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

    Keywords

    • corporate activism
    • meta-analysis
    • polarization
    • political orientation

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