Corporate Activism and Social Change

The book examines how companies and other business actors engage with contested social, political, economic, and environmental issues, and under what conditions such involvement can be understood as activism. Rather than treating corporate activism simply as public stance-taking, it develops a relational and processual perspective centered on contested change. Across five chapters, the book maps the conceptual landscape of business activism, examines stakeholder expectations and the conferral of legitimacy, explains how firms assume and sustain activist positions, analyzes how those positions are communicated, and develops a framework for evaluating whether corporate interventions contribute to observable social change. Particular attention is given to distinguishing communication from commitment, stakeholder response from legitimacy, and corporate outputs from social impact. The book is written for academics and students across a broad range of business disciplines, including management, marketing, communication, organization studies, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility. It provides readers with conceptual tools for interpreting corporate activism more precisely, assessing its legitimacy and organizational consistency, and evaluating what companies can credibly claim to have changed, which will also appeal to practitioners responsible for corporate affairs, sustainability, communication, branding, and public policy.