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The Demotivating Effects of Communicating a Social-Political Stance: Field Experimental Evidence from an Online Labor Market Platform

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  • Vanessa C. Burbano

    (Columbia Business School, New York, New York 10027)

Abstract

Despite a recent surge in corporate activism, with firm leaders communicating about social-political issues unrelated to their core businesses, we know little about its strategic implications. This paper examines the effect of an employer communicating a stance about a social-political issue on employee motivation, using a two-phase, preregistered field experiment in an online labor market platform. Results demonstrate an asymmetric treatment effect of taking a stance depending on whether the employee agrees or disagrees with that stance. Namely, I observe a demotivating effect of taking a stance on a social-political issue with which employees disagree and no statistically significant motivating effect of taking a stance on a social-political issue with which employees agree. This study has important implications for the nascent scholarship on corporate activism, as well as the scholarship on strategic human capital management. This paper was accepted by Greta Hsu, organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Vanessa C. Burbano, 2021. "The Demotivating Effects of Communicating a Social-Political Stance: Field Experimental Evidence from an Online Labor Market Platform," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(2), pages 1004-1025, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:67:y:2021:i:2:p:1004-1025
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2019.3562
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    Cited by:

    1. Chung, Sung Hun (Brian) & Odziemkowska, Kate & Piazza, Alessandro, 2024. "Threading the Needle of Corporate Activism: How Firms Frame Their Stances on Polarizing Social Issues," OSF Preprints 2ejyp_v1, Center for Open Science.
    2. Tommaso Reggiani & Rainer Michael Rilke, 2024. "Designing Donation Incentive Contracts for Online Gig Workers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(3), pages 553-568, March.
    3. Aharon Mohliver & Donal Crilly & Aseem Kaul, 2023. "Corporate social counterpositioning: How attributes of social issues influence competitive response," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 1199-1217, May.
    4. Constance E. Helfat & Aseem Kaul & David J. Ketchen & Jay B. Barney & Olivier Chatain & Harbir Singh, 2023. "Renewing the resource‐based view: New contexts, new concepts, and new methods," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(6), pages 1357-1390, June.
    5. Selling, Niels & de Bakker, Frank G.A., 2025. "When employees matter: How employee resource groups and workforce liberalism jointly spur firms to support Pro-LGBTQ legislation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    6. Aseem Kaul, 2021. "Putting the horse back before the cart: designing strategic social enterprises," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 10(3), pages 103-108, December.
    7. Aurélien Feix & Georg Wernicke, 2024. "When Is CEO Activism Conducive to the Democratic Process?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 190(4), pages 755-774, April.
    8. Gaia Melloni & Andrea Patacconi & Nick Vikander, 2023. "Cashing in on the culture wars? CEO activism, wokewashing, and firm value," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(13), pages 3098-3121, December.
    9. Anahit Mkrtchyan, & Sandvik, Jason & Xu, Da, 2024. "Employee responses to CEO activism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1).
    10. Brownen-Trinh, Ruby & Orujov, Ayan, 2023. "Corporate socio-political activism and retail investors: Evidence from the Black Lives Matter campaign," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    11. Young Hou & Christopher W. Poliquin, 2023. "The effects of CEO activism: Partisan consumer behavior and its duration," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 672-703, March.
    12. Abebe, Michael A. & Acharya, Keshab & Kroll, Mark J., 2025. "It’s time to speak up! investor reaction to CEO sociopolitical activism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).

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