Date of Award
Summer 2025
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
Moore School of Business
First Advisor
João Albino-Pimentel
Second Advisor
Stanislav Markus
Abstract
Political polarization surges around the world, deepening divides among firms’ stakeholders. Echoing this trend, firms increasingly engage in sociopolitical activism—taking public stances (statements or actions) on controversial sociopolitical issues—in order to communicate with various stakeholders, which may hold divergent political preferences. My dissertation comprises three studies that collectively investigate the challenges of activism for multinational enterprises (MNEs), which are arguably the central players in corporate sociopolitical activism (CSA). Specifically, my dissertation addresses the following research questions: (1) How do stakeholders evaluate a firm’s sociopolitical legitimacy when they perceive CSA inauthenticity? (2) Under what conditions firms conduct CSR decoupling on controversial issues? (3) How do MNEs strategically respond to host-country institutions that entangle firms in the complex dynamics of stakeholders with divergent stances?
Chapter 1 provides an overview of the three-essay dissertation. Chapter 2 develops a theory of CSA inauthenticity due to stakeholder conflicts across geographies and strategies, laying a foundation for in-depth empirical investigations in the subsequent chapters. Chapter 3 explains firms’ CSR decoupling decisions by institutional complexity that firms face across domestic geographies, taking a further and deeper step based on Chapter 2. Chapter 4 extends the analysis to the international arena, examining how MNEs consider foreign divestitures as a strategic response to intense stakeholder conflicts. LGBTQ issue, a highly polarizing and controversial social issue, is the central context for both these empirical studies, Chapters 3 and 4.
By integrating conceptual and empirical studies, leveraging unique datasets collected manually and using machine learning tools, and applying advanced causal inference methods, my dissertation aims to contribute to the literatures on CSA, stakeholder management, divestitures, CSR decoupling, international business, and sustainability.
Rights
© 2025, Yu Li
Recommended Citation
Li, Y.(2025). Walking a Tightrope: Challenges for Corporate Sociopolitical Activism Amidst Stakeholder Divides. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8526