Corporate Responses to Social Activism: A Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

We take a process perspective to review the literature on corporate responses to social activism and argue that theoretical advances have not kept pace with the extensive and expanding scope of the literature. We identify three critical assumptions in the literature, which we believe can be traced back to two overarching issues: a mechanistic conceptualization that ascribes limited reflexivity to managers and an overreliance on variance theorizing. In order to tackle these challenges and propel future research, we suggest a research agenda that revolves around an enhanced role for managerial reflexivity in theory development and a stronger emphasis on the process-oriented view of the relationship between activism and response.