Proactive vs. Reactive: How Brands Engage in Corporate Socio-political Activism Across Social Issues
Publication Date
11-9-2023
Abstract
As brands increasingly engage in Corporate Sociopolitical Activism (CSA), additional conceptual clarity is needed. For example, we know little about whether and how proactive engagement, compared to reactive engagement in CSA, influences consumer responses and how the specific issue of interest may moderate these responses. We leverage existing theories to develop a conceptual framework that distinguishes between proactive CSA that is pre-planned and reactive CSA that is in response to a major socio-political event. Using 271,316 tweets from 668 brands in 2020, we examine how engagement with proactive and reactive CSA differs across three socio-political issues (racial justice, COVID-19, and political landscape). We find that social media users respond differently to proactive and reactive CSA on racial justice and COVID-19 issues, but not on political landscape issues. Across the three social issues, engagement with both proactive and reactive tweets varies significantly. In addition, we find that prior issue participation, social media activity, and brand size moderate these relationships. An experimental study indicates that prior issue participation increases intentions to like a tweet, perceptions of brand sincerity, and connectedness to the brand.
Document Type
Article
Keywords
Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Media Marketing, Twitter, X
Disciplines
Business and Corporate Communications | Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics
DOI
10.2139/ssrn.4473758
Language
English
