Abstract
CEOs of large corporations are increasingly stepping out of their traditional role and into the public arena, voicing their opinions on societal and political issues in the form of public statements. Recently, the trend, referred to as CEO activism, has received attention in prominent media and among management scholars in the US. This thesis was initially motivated by observing a number of Danish CEOs engaging in CEO activism, indicating that the trend is also on the rise in Denmark. In the literature, CEO activism emerges as a new and under researched phenomenon and the existing body of literature is primarily focused on the US. Most initial studies investigate the effects of CEO activism while little is known about its drivers and antecedents. From the limited existing literature on CEO activism, the practice is argued to have the potential to impact organizational outcomes. Furthermore, CEO activism has been argued to be effective in influencing public opinion and government policies. As we begin to understand the organizational and democratic implications of CEOs' increased involvement in the public debate, it becomes important to understand the motivations and drivers of CEO activism. This thesis therefore set out to investigate why CEOs in Denmark engage in CEO activism, thereby addressing two gaps in the literature: firstly, the motivations of CEO activism and secondly, CEO activism in a different national context than the US. To gain relevant insights and background knowledge for our research, we reviewed literature on the role of business in contemporary society along with secondary data from three large scale surveys. We did this to understand how the practice of CEO activism can be related to increasing societal involvement of business and societal expectations towards CEOs. We then carried out an extensive literature review of the existing literature on CEO activism to learn what is already known about the phenomenon and how this could inform our understanding of the why. To conduct our research, we first collected instances of CEO activism in Denmark by carrying out an internet-mediated observation of CEOs’ public statements on Twitter, LinkedIn, and in Danish news
| Educations | MSc in Business Administration and Organizational Communication, (Graduate Programme) Final ThesisMA in International Business Communication (Intercultural Marketing), (Graduate Programme) Final Thesis |
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| Language | English |
| Publication date | 2021 |
| Number of pages | 175 |
| Supervisors | Michael Etter |