Companies May Overreact When Confronted by Activists

Newswise - WACO, Texas (Feb. 14, 2013) - Companies may overreact to social or environmental activists protesting their business practices, according to a Baylor University article in the Academy of Management Review. The article examined why some firms are more likely to change such practices than others, as well as whether and how targeted firms and other industry members will change.

Although activists like Greenpeace, RAN, and PETA have successfully changed corporate practices in diverse industries (e.g., home-improvement retail, fast food, home-building, and clothing production), these organizations do so without significantly impacting their corporate targets' operations, according to Theodore L. Waldron, Ph.D., assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business and co-author of the study.

Co-authors of the study were Chad Navis, Ph.D., assistant professor in management and human resources at the Wisconsin School of Business, and Greg Fisher, Ph.D., assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Indiana University.