Hello,
just a quick reminder about the virtual seminar of the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS) coming up this Friday. It is a great opportunity for all to learn about research-in-progress in corporate sustainability (the presentation is 20 mins long and Q&A is another 10 mins) and for all juniors out there (PhD students and junior faculty) to socialize with the speaker afterwards (the last 30 mins).
This Friday (Oct 4th) we have the privilege of welcoming Mark DesJardine (Tuck) back on Zoom as he ran the series before I took over. Mark will present at 11 am EST the following research:
From Failed Mobilization to Corporate Irresponsibility: How Social Movements Can Backfire
Abstract: Social movement campaigns sometimes fail to mobilize stakeholders. Researchers have so far assumed that such failed campaigns are merely unproductive, creating costs for the activists without producing the intended benefits. This study explains why failed campaigns may even backfire, that is, undermine the goals of activists. We argue that campaigns that fail to mobilize stakeholders convey information about the preferences of stakeholders to firms, inducing managers to engage in activities that run counter to the goals of the campaigns. Specifically, when social movement campaigns address environmental and social (E&S) issues, as they often do, a mobilization failure signals to target firms that E&S issues are of low priority to stakeholders. In turn, managers follow suit by deprioritizing E&S issues in their firms, creating an organizational environment in which corporate social irresponsibility can proliferate. An analysis of failed E&S shareholder proposals at U.S.-based publicly traded firms from 2007 to 2022 shows that failed E&S proposals induce corporate social irresponsibility. When a campaign is launched that fails to mobilize stakeholders, corporate social irresponsibility increases beyond the levels that would occur had no campaign been launched. Further, we identify two factors that affect this relationship by influencing the inclinations managers have to follow the revealed preferences of their stakeholders or to advance E&S issues. Our theory and findings extend research on social movements and corporate social responsibility by shedding light on the consequences of mobilization failure.
P.S. Here is the list of the remaining speakers and dates of their virtual seminars (11am-12pm EST):
Nov 1 Juliane Reinecke (Cambridge)
Dec 6 Nilanjana Dutt (Bocconi)
Jan 10 George Wernicke (HEC Paris)
Feb 7 Sinziana Dorobantu (NYU)
Mar 7 Lucca Berchicci (Rotterdam)
Apr 4 Vanessa Burbano (Columbia)
May 2 Hannah Schupfer (King's College, Ivey/ARCS PhD best paper award winner)
Please register for the seminar here: https://corporate-sustainability.org/online-seminar-series/
See you soon!
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Olga Hawn
University of North Carolina CH
Chapel Hill NC
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