Acting for Change – A Communicational Perspective to Corporate Activism

Abstract

Business corporations are increasingly engaging in social and political issues through public actions and statements that have been described as corporate activism. In this paper, our aim is to deepen the understanding of corporate activism from a communicational perspective. We approach corporate activism as a phenomenon at the intersection of the social-political orientation of corporations and the public orientation of marketing communication. Through combining insights form both perspectives, we arrive at a three-dimensional definition of corporate activism as public action that 1) entails a substantial act or change in behavior with impact beyond the company, 2) fuels attention in contemporary media, and 3) is discursively connected to corporate strategy. In the empirical part, we illustrate how these dimensions are enacted in selected cases of Finnish companies that communicate like activists, and reflected upon in consumers’ assessment of the cases.

Keywords

• corporate activism
• corporate social responsibility
• online attention economy
• integrated marketing communication