CEO Activism and Authenticity

CEOs who take public political stances risk the reputation of their companies with stakeholders. When exactly does such activism pay off? A new study finds that company reputations can benefit when the CEO’s statement is matched by corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

"Using a national survey and an experiment, we find that CEO activism improves corporate reputation through perceived moral authenticity," write authors Lambert Zixin Li, assistant professor of management and organization at the National University of Singapore Business School, and Sarah Soule, professor of organization behavior and dean at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The pair began working on the subject when Li studied under Soule for his PhD, uniting his interest in corporate social responsibility with his advisor's work on social movements, he said. While writing his dissertation, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was sweeping the United States, sparking protests against racial discrimination after the 2020 Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.

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