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CEO activism refers to company leaders taking publicly stands on contentious social or political issues in ways that don't appear to be connected to the prospect of increasing the of their firm. One of the earliest examples is when Apple CEO Tim Cook, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and other corporate leaders spoke out in 2015 against the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana, and Angie's List then-CEO Bill Oesterle cancelled a headquarters expansion project in Indianapolis. Other examples include Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and PayPal CEO Dan Schulman each publicly opposing a North Carolina bathroom law that prevented municipalities from allowing transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender with which they identify, and instead required them to use the bathroom corresponding to their birth certificate.

CEO activism efforts seek to increase public awareness about an issue by providing information (such as by writing op-eds, appearing in news interviews) and through economic actions (such as by threatening to cease planned expansions or boycott doing business in a particular location.

A field experiment has shown that CEO activism can sway public opinion toward the CEO's view and can increase consumers' willingness to purchase from the company of a CEO activist, especially among consumers that agree with the CEO's position.

Public relations firms including Weber Shandwick have launched practices specializing and writing reports on CEO activism.

Selected Publications

 * Bermiss, Y. Sekou, and Rory McDonald, "Managing Political Misfits," Harvard Business Review, HBR Big Idea on Leadership in a Hot-Button World, March 2018.


 * Chatterji, Aaron K., "Our Newest Culture Warriors: Activist C.E.O.s," New York Times, March 2, 2018.


 * Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel, "Divided We Lead: CEO Activism Has Entered the Mainstream," Harvard Business Review: HBR Big Idea on Leadership in a Hot-Button World, March 2018.


 * Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel, "Sidestepping Some of the Partisan Debate," Harvard Business Review: HBR Big Idea on Leadership in a Hot-Button World, March 2018.


 * Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel, "Starbucks' "Race Together" Campaign and the Upside of CEO Activism". hbr.org. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
 * Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel, "The New CEO Activists," Harvard Business Review vol. 96, no. 1 (January–February 2018): 78–89.
 * Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel, "The Power of C.E.O. Activism". New York Times (April 3, 2016). p. SR10.
 * Hertel-Fernandez, Alexander, "A Different Kind Of Corporate Activism," Harvard Business Review: HBR Big Idea on Leadership in a Hot-Button World, March 2018.


 * Mittal, Vikas, Ashwin Malshe, and Shrihari Sridhar, "The Unequal Effects of Partisanship on Brands," Harvard Business Review: HBR Big Idea on Leadership in a Hot-Button World, March 2018.


 * Weber Shandwick, "The Dawn of CEO Activism," 2017.
 * Weber Shandwick. "Millennial Demand for CEO Activism Surges," 2017.

Selected Multimedia

 * Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel, "The New CEO Activism: What Leaders Must Know," Harvard Business Review (webinar), 2018.


 * Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel, "Why CEOs Are Taking a Stand," Harvard Business Review IdeaCast (podcast), 2018.