Threading the Needle of Corporate Activism: How Firms Frame Their Stances on Polarizing Social Issues

Corporate activism, or the active involvement of business in contested social and political issues, presents strategic challenges for organizations. Despite the risks of stakeholder backlash, corporate activism is on the rise. We suggest that how firms speak out on polarizing social issues may help explain this quandary. Leveraging corporate press releases and Twitter accounts of Fortune 500 companies that spoke on LGBTQ issues between 1999 and 2019, as same-sex marriage progressively became legal across the United States, we find that prior to legalization in their home state, firms default to touting the economic merits of their track record on LGBTQ workplace issues, avoiding contentious debates. Once marriage equality is enacted, firms shift their speech toward activism, advocating for broader societal change. Further, the shift to activism is highly dependent on internal and external stakeholder preferences. Our findings point to an irony: corporate “activism” in pursuit of social change often takes place only after polarizing issues have been settled. This study contributes to the growing literature on corporate activism by shedding light on how firms strategically frame their communications to navigate the complex terrain of stakeholder expectations, and how these framing strategies are shaped by the evolving legal and institutional landscape.