Companies are more frequently taking public stands on often controversial social, political, economic, and environmental issues. Despite the importance of the topic, research on understanding the role of companies in societal change through activism is scarce. Using institutional theory, this article defines corporate activism as a company’s willingness to take a stand on social, political, economic, and environmental issues to create societal change by influencing the attitudes and behaviors of actors in its institutional environment. This framework conceptualizes corporate activism as a response to barriers that hinder the solution of an issue. These barriers stem from institutional actors’ attitudes and behaviors toward the issue, and corporate activism can address these barriers through influence and change strategies that can target the institutional environment “top-down” or “bottom-up.” This framework further investigates how the identity orientation of the company facilitates corporate activism. This research has important implications for managers, policy makers, and any other agents that aim to facilitate social change.

中文翻译：

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The Activist Company：使用制度理论视角，通过企业行动主义检查公司对社会变革的追求

公司更频繁地在经常引起争议的社会、政治、经济和环境问题上公开表明立场。尽管该主题很重要，但关于通过激进主义了解公司在社会变革中的作用的研究很少。本文使用制度理论将企业激进主义定义为公司愿意在社会、政治、经济和环境问题上采取立场，通过影响制度环境中行为者的态度和行为来创造社会变革。该框架将企业行动主义概念化为对阻碍问题解决的障碍的回应。这些障碍源于机构参与者对问题的态度和行为，企业激进主义可以通过影响和变革战略来解决这些障碍，这些战略可以“自上而下”或“自下而上”针对制度环境。该框架进一步调查了公司的身份导向如何促进企业积极性。这项研究对管理者、政策制定者和任何其他旨在促进社会变革的代理人具有重要意义。