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Brayden King, Northwestern

Environmental Protests, Shareholder Activism, and the Struggle for Corporate Autonomy
Brayden King

Description

Semester: 
Fall 2022
Lecture Time: 
Friday, November 18, 2022 - 1:30pm to 3:00pm
Lecture Location: 

R0240, Ross School of Business, Lower Level

Speaker Webpage: 
https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/king_brayden.aspx
Introduced By: 
Shonita Black

Abstract

Activists pushing for social, political, and organizational change use a variety of tactics to influence and gain access to powerful decision-makers. Research on social movements has shown that these efforts are often effective in promoting change, but recent research indicates that at times movement tactics may provoke backlash. This presentation will look at one of the conditions that generates potential backlash to movement activism: a perceived threat to the power and autonomy of decision-makers. Looking at the context of environmental activism in corporate reform, I show that potential threats to corporate autonomy can induce threat rigidity, which makes boards and executives less amenable to dialogue with reform-minded activists.

Recording & Additional Notes

Brayden King is the Max McGraw Chair of Management and the Environment and a professor of Management and Organizations at Northwestern. He is also affiliated with the Department of Sociology. Professor King's research focuses on how social movement activists influence corporate social responsibility, organizational change, and legislative policymaking. He also studies the ways in which the reputations and identities of businesses and social movement organizations emerge and change. Professor King is an international research fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation.

Professor King has published research in the American Journal of Sociology, Administrative Science Quarterly, American Sociological Review, Organization Science, and numerous other scholarly journals. He is currently a senior editor at Organization Science and a consulting editor at Sociological Science. He has been a guest editor at Organization Studies and Research in the Sociology of Organizations.

Professor King received his PhD in 2005 from the University of Arizona in sociology.