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When CEOs are publicly weighing in on sociopolitical debates, this is known as CEO activism. The steadily growing number of such statements made in recent years has been subject to a flourishing academic debate. This field offers first profound findings from observational studies. However, the discussion of CEO activism lacks a thorough theoretical grounding, such as a shared concept accounting for the heterogeneity of sociopolitical incidents. Thus, the aim of this paper is to provide an archetypal framework for CEO activism.

The authors used a multiple case study approach on 145 activism cases stated by CEOs and found seven distinct statement archetypes.

The study identifies four main structural design elements accounting for the heterogeneity of activism, i.e. the addressed meta-category of the statement, the targeted outcome, the used tonality and the orientation of the CEOs’ positions. Further, the authors found seven distinguishable archetypes of CEO activism statements: “Climate Alerts”, “Economy Visions”, “Political Comments”, “Self-reflections and Social Concerns”, “Tech Designs”, “Unclouded Evaluations” and “Descriptive Explanations”.

This typology classifies the heterogeneity of CEO activism. It will enable the analysis of interrelationships, mechanisms and motivations on a differentiated level and raise the comprehensibility of research-results.

The framework supports executives in understanding the heterogeneity of CEO activism and to analyse personality-fits.

To the authors’ knowledge, this marks the first conceptualisation of activism developed cross-thematically. The work supports further theory-building on CEO activism.

This study examines how corporate litigation, both securities-related and not, is affected by hedge fund (HF) activism.

We use a difference-in-differences (DiD) method, along with propensity score matching and firm fixed effects and a comparison of HF and non-HF activists for identification.

We find that companies that are targeted by HFs face operation-related lawsuits, mainly from stakeholders or competitors. This effect does not seem to be caused by targets' higher tendency to settle the cases. Our evidence shows that HF activists increase firm value for the target firms that are prone to litigation.

Therefore, our evidence supports the idea that the higher operation litigation risks are unintended consequences of improving firm efficiency through cost savings or restructuring of target firms by the activists.

This article explores how Norwegian public libraries negotiate neutrality and activism in response to national policy implementing the United Nations (UN) goals for sustainable development.

Informed by the ongoing academic debate on library neutrality and activism, this article presents an analysis of 30 qualitative interviews with librarians and directors in four public libraries. Through comparative case study design, the analysis explores the negotiations of neutrality and activism in the organisational response to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), in public events connected with environmental sustainability and in the engagement of librarians with various higher education backgrounds and competencies.

The neutrality of Norwegian public libraries is tied to the libraries’ function as a social meeting place and arena for public debate. While the agenda for sustainable development is perceived as neutral by many of the interview participants, there are ongoing negotiations on how politically charged initiatives should be and whether public conversations on environmental and climate issues need to represent a balance of opinions. The case libraries have developed different strategies, and while non-traditional collections and events centred on sustainability may provide a middle ground, the negotiations of neutrality and activism are influenced both by competencies and personal engagement.

This article shows how neutrality is negotiated in public libraries, with the strategies to build a sustainable society through both conventional means and activism.

Facilitated by social media, employee activism is on the rise, often in response to organizations' own socially irresponsible behavior. Given that digital employee activism is a vital yet underexplored research arena, the purpose of this study is to propose and test a theoretical model for understanding this phenomenon.

A survey was launched on Dynata, a US-based consumer panel company. A total of 657 representative full-time employees working at different levels of positions participated the survey to indicate their perceptual and behavioral responses to organizational social irresponsibility.

Moral obligation was a significant factor in mediating the relationship between organizational social irresponsibility and digital employee activism. Ideological psychological contract adds supplemental weights moderating the mediation effect on digital employee activism.

This study, based on social regulation theory, explores the rise of employee activism in response to organizations’ socially irresponsible behavior. The study identifies moral obligation and ideological psychological contract as the driving forces behind digital employee activism. This study advances digital employee activism scholarship by incorporating the normative lens of moral obligation and ideological psychological contract.

The phenomenon of global brands taking a stance on crucial, yet polarizing, socio-political issues, namely global brand activism, is rising. However, how consumer views on this practice are shaped when global branding elements are factored in remains unclear. Drawing from the functional theory of attitude formation, this study investigates the relationships of consumer characteristics (political ideology, consumer ethnocentrism) and brand factors (global brand attitudes and perceived motivation of global brand activists) with attitudes toward global brand activists.

Using a survey of a UK nationally representative sample (n = 439), we test our hypothesized model via structural equation modeling and mediation analysis.

Our findings reveal direct and indirect effects of political ideology on attitudes toward global brand activists (AttGBACTIVs). While consumer ethnocentrism and global brand attitudes do not directly drive AttGBACTIVs, they do influence them indirectly. Perceived motivation of global brand activists emerges as a key mechanism activating these effects and affecting AttGBACTIVs.

First, this study constitutes a novel examination of consumer views of brand activism through a global branding lens. Second, our investigation uniquely combines important determinants of brand activism outcomes with key international marketing factors (namely consumer ethnocentrism and global brand attitudes). Third, the concurrent exploration of individual and brand factors in our mediated model reveals the complex mechanisms through which attitudes toward global brand activists are formed.

Environmentally Responsible Behavior (ERB) refers to actions and practices aimed at minimizing negative environmental impact through conservation, waste reduction and sustainable practices driven by concern for environmental well-being. This study aims to explain the effect of environmental attitudes of hotel guests visiting green and non-green hotels on their ERB. In the research, hotels with different concepts were handled separately and a comparative analysis was made between both customer types.

The study was assessed using two separate models: one for green hotel guests and another for non-green hotel guests. Data were collected from 205 participants from green hotel guests in Turkiye and 206 participants from hotel guests visiting non-green hotels in Turkiye, using a survey form with a convenience sampling method. The hypotheses were analyzed with the structural equation model and multi-group analysis (MGA) in the Smart PLS statistical program.

The ecocentric attitude positively affects political and community activism but does not impact recycling, educational behavior, green consumerism or overall ERB. The technocentric attitude negatively influences recycling, educational behavior, green consumerism, community activism and ERB but does not negatively affect political activism. The dualcentric attitude positively impacts all ERB sub-dimensions. The multi-group analysis (MGA) revealed that dualcentric attitudes have a stronger influence on green consumerism, political activism and recycling behavior among green hotel guests compared to non-green hotel guests.

These findings directly impact hotel managers, underscoring the strategic significance of adopting and advocating green practices. Implementing environmentally friendly initiatives not only appeals to environmentally conscious consumers but also holds the potential to cultivate ERB among all guests. By integrating sustainability into marketing strategies, hotels can communicate their commitment to environmental stewardship, positively influencing guests’ environmental attitudes and behaviors.

The paper’s key contribution is its comparative analysis of ERB between guests at green and non-green hotels. It reveals how tourists’ environmental attitudes influence their hotel choices and behaviors, offering insights into sustainable tourism. Additionally, it explores the differences between ecocentric, technocentric and dualcentric attitudes, enhancing our understanding of how varying environmental concerns shape tourists’ behaviors and choices and contributing to the broader discussion on environmental psychology in tourism.

Focusing on critical discourse analysis, this paper aims to propose a framework for analysing the way activist anti-tourism groups construct their social action of protest. The authors argue that activist groups use different narrative strategies to construct and legitimise their discourse of protest to convey social meanings for social action practices. This study represents an attempt to explain how anti-tourism activist groups have the agency to build different paradigms of protest rooted in particular views of tourism.

As a result of the lack of research in this area, this study used a comparative case study methodology drawn on four case studies in the field of anti-tourism protest. Case study is deemed adequate to explore a complex social phenomenon, how activist groups differ from each other, in a specific socio-economic context. A critical discourse analysis method is used to study primary (interviews) and secondary sources (reports, websites and online campaigns documents) of information, which express the activist group motivations and objectives to protest against tourism.

This study’s findings provide evidence in how discourse differs among the protest groups. Three narrative paradigms of protest are identified, which guide their agency: scepticism, based on a global and ecological approach; non-interventionist transformation, rooted in local community issues; and direct transformation, based on a sectoral problem-solving approach. These differences are interpreted as the consequences of the emergence and the development of different paths of protest according to specific social contexts and power relations in which anti-tourism groups are embedded.

This paper provides a contemporary approach to anti-tourism activism within the context of social movements. This case study may be of interest to practitioners and international destination managers interested in gaining a better understanding of anti-tourism protest strategies, new anti-tourism narratives following COVID-19 and the opportunities and challenges for opening a dialogue with those involved in activism and social urban movements as part of sustainable tourism governance. Our results can also help activists to rethink how they integrate differences and particular strategic positions to avoid hindering collective action. This knowledge is especially useful for managers and authorities seeking to develop more accurate collaborative governance practices with local activists, and especially those interested in fostering participative action without marginalising the diverse range of local community perspectives.

This paper aims to unravel the relationship between market-driven impacts of climate change and firms’ deployment of renewable energy (RE) innovation. The purpose is to understand how market-related forces, influenced by uncertainty, shape firms’ behaviour in response to climate change challenges.

Drawing on the behavioural theory of the firm (BTOF), the paper develops a conceptual model to decode the relationship between each category of market-driven impacts and the resulting RE innovation within firms. The model takes into account the role of uncertainty and differentiates between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and domestic firms.

The analysis reveals five key sources of market-driven impacts: investor sentiment, media coverage, competitors’ adoption of ISO 14001, customer satisfaction and shareholder activism. These forces influence the adoption of RE innovation differently across firms, depending on the level of uncertainty and the discrepancy between environmental performance and aspiration level.

This paper contributes to the literature in four ways. Firstly, it emphasises the importance of uncertainty associated with market-driven impacts, which stimulates different responses from firms. Secondly, it fills a research gap by focusing on the proactivity of firms in adopting RE innovation, rather than just operational strategies to curb emissions. Thirdly, the paper extends the BTOF by incorporating the concept of uncertainty in explaining firm behaviour. Finally, it provides insights into the green strategies of MNEs in the face of climate change, offering a comprehensive model that differentiates MNEs from domestic firms.

Tracing the development of a parallel-engaged pedagogy of care that extended and adapted the critical and transformative pedagogies of Freire, De Sousa Santos and hooks to the South African context. The development of this transformative pedagogy addresses the local conditions of an architectural design studio at a postcolonial, post-Apartheid and post “Fees must Fall” protests South African university. This pedagogy used practice-based design research to build a more conscious, critical and careful design practice in both students and educators.

The pedagogy was developed through participatory action research, over five years, from 2019 to 2023 including two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Parallel and active engagement of students and educators within a nurturing and caring environment evolved from year to year, through a conscious and critical reflection on the process. Student surveys, reflective essays and focus groups unearth the impact of the parallel-engaged pedagogy of care.

The parallel-engaged pedagogy of care was shown to support and scaffold students becoming more conscious, critical and careful in their design practices validating diverse lived experiences as generative for design and important for social justice and transformative equity.

The parallel-engaged pedagogy of care is part of a global shift to more transformative pedagogies that address student diversity and decoloniality.

Through dismantling traditional hierarchical teaching modes, the pedagogy is more student-led, agile and adaptable. Through centring and demonstrating care in the pedagogy, students are encouraged to develop both self-care and care in their design practice. This is especially critical in the South African context where the cultural capital of the institution, with its roots in colonial and Apartheid education differs from that of the majority of students of colour.

While brand purpose has gained traction in academia and industry, it overlaps with other socially-oriented branding concepts, generating confusion and criticism around what brand purpose is and how it should be implemented. This study aims to clarify conceptualisations of brand purpose and related concepts, developing a managerial framework for effective implementation and contributing a future research agenda for scholars.

The paper presents the results of a systematic literature review on brand purpose, exploring the current knowledge. A total of 202 studies from 75 journals were drawn from a wide range of databases and met the identified criteria relevant to brand purpose, published up to and including 2023. Full papers were empirically analysed using qualitative iterative thematic analysis to identify common and emerging themes and synthesise this into a framework.

Beyond identifying the diverse applications of brand purpose, the BEING framework is proposed. This acronym captures five principles of brand purpose: beyond profit, enduring commitment, integrated values, nurturing stakeholders and genuine action.

The BEING framework provides clear managerial guidance for implementing brand purpose, urging brand leaders to enact meaningful brand purpose and champion purpose within organisations.

As more brands pursue a higher purpose, this research elucidates the meaning of brand purpose and offers an actionable framework for brands to contribute to a better world.

This work examines the related branding concepts, clarifying the brand purpose concept and offering the BEING framework to articulate essential components of effective brand purpose.