Defending social and political positions other than those that a company's clients might support has always been an avoidable risk. However, this practice, called ‘corporate activism,’ has gradually been integrated into the strategies of organizations. The object of this work is thus to understand the antecedents of corporate activism from the consumer's point of view. To understand this, we carry out structural equation modeling (SEM) based on a sample of 1,521 consumers. The results demonstrate that: (i) institutional credibility, corporate credibility, and authenticity act as antecedents of corporate activism; (ii) corporate credibility has a positive influence on corporate activism, while institutional credibility has a negative impact. These findings represent an interesting and novel contribution that helps to understand how these types of high-risk strategies should be adopted. The application of these results could enable companies to determine the conditions that favor a positive evaluation of corporative activism by consumers and avoid the use of such strategies in less favorable situations.
Some companies have begun to take a stand on controversial social and political issues. These initiatives, which are defined as ‘corporate activism’, are part of a complex context that is characterised by distrust in public institutions and governments. This article analyses the impact of corporate activism on the financial returns of companies that have implemented it. Our contribution to the empirical research of corporate activism is to identify two variables not previously studied that have an influence on whether that impact is positive or negative. To this end, a wide sample of corporate activism cases were analysed using an event analysis approach to identify the effect of two key variables: (a) the controversial nature of the sector and (b) the type of activism. The results show that corporate activism actions have positive effects when the sector is not perceived as controversial, and negative when the type of activism is based on social rights. The findings provide managerial implications for marketing professionals and broaden the possibilities of corporate activism as long-term strategy.
El activismo corporativo es un concepto de gestión empresarial muy relevante en los últimos años desarrollado sin teorías específicas que permitan comprender sus implicaciones. Por ello, el propósito de este artículo es el planteamiento de un modelo conceptual que sirva de aplicación para las organizaciones y sus partes interesadas (stakeholders), partiendo de antecedentes como la disonancia cognitiva o la ciudadanía corporativa. El método utilizado se basa en el análisis de los antecedentes del activismo corporativo y las teorías relacionadas, proponiendo como resultado un modelo de aceptación o rechazo del activismo corporativo (modelo MACO) por parte de los stakeholders, basado en la congruencia con el sistema de valores, las diferentes tipologías del activismo y el grado de controversia de las distintas industrias. Como principal contribución de este artículo se encuentra proporcionar las bases teóricas del activismo corporativo y sus relaciones a través del modelo MACO. Su principal limitación es la novedad del tema, que hace necesario acudir a otras disciplinas y hace más compleja la relación entre constructos. Este modelo abre nuevos enfoques sobre el fenómeno y ofrece una base para investigaciones empíricas posteriores.
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