A Dynamic Process Model of Contentious Politics: Activist Targeting and Corporate Receptivity to Social Challenges

• In Event: 482 - Section on Political Sociology Paper Session. The New Politics of Firms and Industries

Abstract

We seek to explain how social movement challenges affect the opportunity structures of their targets. Specifically, we explore whether and how contentious social movement challenges make targeted firms more receptive to future social activist challenges. We argue that corporate opportunity structures are by-products of contention over corporations’ policies and practices. A firms’ past willingness to engage social issues shapes which firms are targeted by activism. This opportunity structure subsequently evolves as firms seek to defend themselves by adopting what we call social management devices, which are structures or practices meant to aid the firm in managing and promoting its social image. We argue that these devices incidentally alter firms’ internal political agenda and provide leverage to external activists, making firms more receptive to future activist advances. In this way, social management devices moderate the relationship between a firm’s past contentious interactions and its future receptivity to activist challenges. We test our hypotheses using a unique longitudinal database that tracks the interactions between activists and 300 large companies from 1993-2008.

Authors

• Mary-Hunter McDonnell, Georgetown University

• Brayden G. King, Northwestern University

• Sarah A. Soule, Stanford University