This paper uses a theory of social movement outcomes, the political mediation model, to explain why certain corporations targeted by boycotts are more likely to concede to boycotters' demands. ...Hypotheses developed from this model predict that boycotts threaten tangible and intangible resources held by corporate targets, that these threats are transmitted indirectly through media coverage of the boycotts, that past declines in sales or reputation create opportunities for a movement to have influence, and that the level of threat posed by a boycott generates more influence when targeted against corporations that recently experienced declines in sales or reputation. Results from analyses of a sample of corporate boycotts reported in major national newspapers in the U.S. between 1990 and 2005 provide support for the political mediation model. Corporate targets of boycotts were more likely to concede when the boycott received a great deal of media attention. The effect of media attention was amplified when the corporate target previously experienced a decline in its reputation.
While much of economic sociology focuses on the stabilizing aspects of markets, the social movement perspective emphasizes the role that contentiousness plays in bringing institutional change and ...innovation to markets. Markets are inherently political, both because of their ties to the regulatory functions of the state and because markets are contested by actors who are dissatisfied with market outcomes and who use the market as a platform for social change. Research in this area focuses on the pathways to market change pursued by social movements, including direct challenges to corporations, the institutionalization of systems of private regulation, and the creation of new market categories through institutional entrepreneurship. Much contentiousness, while initially disruptive, works within the market system by producing innovation and restraining capitalism from destroying the resources it depends on for survival.
The growing organizational scholarship on authenticity has drawn attention to both its symbolic and material consequences for—among other things—organizational status, identity, consumer ratings, and ...brand trust. However, our understanding of authenticity has tended to focus on the
what
—the attributes and content typically associated with authentic products, organizations, and experiences. We still lack a clear understanding of
how
audiences think about different aspects of authenticity and the mechanisms through which audiences’ perceptions affect outcomes. In this paper we conduct three studies to investigate what people mean when they evaluate an organization as authentic, and what consequences this has for their support for the organization. In study 1 we build on existing theoretical frameworks to empirically derive three dimensions of authenticity:
moral
,
idiosyncratic
, and
categorical
. Using an online survey in the empirical setting of nascent crowdfunding ventures, we test the effects of these dimensions on audience members’ funding decisions. We find that each of the authenticity dimensions proves significant for distinct support outcomes, notably by enhancing the likability (warmth) of the project and/or its creators in the minds of evaluators. Study 2 offers experimental support for the mediating role of likability—but not of assessments of competence—in explaining support for nascent organizations. Finally, study 3 provides evidence that regardless of which dimension of authenticity audiences draw on, the latter are positively related in their minds to an overall notion of authenticity. We draw implications for the study of authenticity as a multidimensional concept in organizations, with both perceptual and real consequences for the support of nascent ventures.
This project explores whether and how corporations become more receptive to social activist challenges over time. Drawing from social movement theory, we suggest a dynamic process through which ...contentious interactions lead to increased receptivity. We argue that when firms are chronically targeted by social activists, they respond defensively by adopting strategic management devices that help them better manage social issues and demonstrate their normative appropriateness. These defensive devices have the incidental effect of empowering independent monitors and increasing corporate accountability, which in turn increase a firm's receptivity to future activist challenges. We test our theory using a unique longitudinal dataset that tracks contentious attacks and the adoption of social management devices among a population of 300 large firms from 1993 to 2009.
This article examines factors associated with social movements’ abilities to disrupt corporate targets. I identify two kinds of disruption: market disruption and mediated disruption. Market ...disruption deters the ability of the corporate target to effectively accrue and use market resources, while mediated disruption occurs as a tactic communicates a movement's claims about the target through third party intermediaries, like the media, thereby disrupting the target's image and reputation. Using data on corporate boycotts in the United States from 1990 to 2005, the analyses assess the extent to which movement characteristics or target characteristics cause stock price declines of boycotted companies—i.e., market disruption—and the frequency of national media attention given to boycotts—i.e., mediated disruption. The analyses indicate that target characteristics matter more in shaping a boycott's initial market disruption; however, both movement and target characteristics affect mediated disruption. Certain movement characteristics, like social movement organization (SMO) formality, public demonstrations, and celebrity endorsements, enable mediated disruption but have no effect on market disruption. A firm's size makes it vulnerable to both market and mediated disruption, while slack resources help a firm avoid market disruption. A target's reputational ranking initially buffers it from market disruption but increases its vulnerability to mediated disruption. The results indicate that the two kinds of disruption are interrelated. Market disruption has a marginal effect on the intensity of subsequent media coverage and ongoing media attention accentuates further market disruption.
We theorize that anger incited by a social movement, which has a mobilizing effect among outsider activists, might immobilize collective action intentions for institutional insiders—those sympathetic ...to the movement and employed by its target. We conducted initial field surveys across a spectrum of social movements, including Occupy Wall Street and #metoo, as well as those related to business sustainability and gun control, which showed that institutional insiders are often just as angry as outsider activists. But the evidence from those surveys did not show that social movement anger translated into collective action intentions among institutional insiders. We tested our theory deductively with an experiment conducted with participants who were supportive of social movement issues in their organizations. Overall, our results show that anger about a social movement issue relates to greater collective action intentions among outsider activists but not among institutional insiders. Instead of anger emboldening institutional insiders to act despite the potential costs, anger triggers fear about the potential negative consequences of collective action in the workplace, which in turn results in withdrawal. While social movements often rely on anger frames to mobilize sympathizers, our work suggests that this practice may paradoxically cause fear that immobilizes those uniquely positioned to be able to influence organizations to change.
This study investigates a route to occupational activism whereby individuals with significant experience in a social movement enter organizational positions that have been established to address ...those same movement's concerns. Utilizing data on the career pathways of 800 individuals from the field of sustainability in higher education, we formulate and test hypotheses related to whether or not individuals with more experience in the environmental movement gain access to sustainability manager positions, and whether or not entry patterns change as the roles become more institutionalized. These questions matter because although movements pressure organizations to address issues such as equality, diversity, and sustainability, it is individuals inside organizations who are best positioned to institutionalize movement-aligned practices and policies. And if those individuals have movement backgrounds, they can be carriers of movement praxis and ideals. Through our analyses, we find that although individuals with more experience in the environmental movement have a higher likelihood of entering sustainability manager positions overall, their advantage diminishes as the positions become institutionalized as formalized organizational roles. Our findings contribute to scholarship on occupational activism and in particular to outstanding questions regarding the role of occupations and occupational members in furthering social movement ideals and initiatives inside organizations.
This article explores the mechanisms by which corporate prestige produces distorted legal outcomes. Drawing on social psychological theories of status, we suggest that prestige influences audience ...evaluations by shaping expectations, and that its effect will differ depending on whether a firm's blameworthiness has been firmly established. We empirically analyze a unique database of more than 500 employment discrimination suits brought between 1998 and 2008. We find that prestige is associated with a decreased likelihood of being found liable (suggesting a halo effect in assessments of blameworthiness), but with more severe punishments among organizations that are found liable (suggesting a halo tax in administrations of punishment). Our analysis allows us to reconcile two ostensibly contradictory bodies of work on how organizational prestige affects audience evaluations by showing that prestige can be both a benefit and a liability, depending on whether an organization's blameworthiness has been firmly established.
This paper tests the assumption that evaluators are biased to positively evaluate high-status individuals, irrespective of quality. Using unique data from Major League Baseball umpires' evaluation of ...pitch quality, which allow us to observe the difference in a pitch's objective quality and in its perceived quality as judged by the umpire, we show that umpires are more likely to overrecognize quality by expanding the strike zone, and less likely to underrecognize quality by missing pitches in the strike zone for high-status pitchers. Ambiguity and the pitcher's reputation as a "control pitcher" moderate the effect of status on umpire judgment. Furthermore, we show that umpire errors resulting from status bias lead to actual performance differences for the pitcher and team.
Data, as supplemental material, are available at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1967
.
This paper was accepted by Jesper Sørensen, organizations.
Although risk assessments are critical inputs to economic and organizational decisionmaking, we lack a good understanding of the social and political causes of shifts in risk perceptions and the ...consequences of those changes. This article uses social movement theory to explain the effect of environmental activism on corporations' perceived environmental risk and actual financial performance. We define environmental risk as audiences' perceptions that a firm's practices or policies will lead to greater potential for an environmental failure or crisis that would expose it to financial decline. Using data on environmental activism targeting U.S. firms between 2004 and 2008, we examine variation in the effectiveness of secondary and primary stakeholder activism in shaping perceptions about environmental risk. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that primary stakeholder activism against a firm affects its perceived environmental risk, which subsequently has a negative effect on the firm's financial performance.
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