Firm behavior and the evolution of activism: Strategic decisions and the emergence of protest in US communities

Abstract

Research summary How do firms' strategic decisions affect the emergence and evolution of activism? We examine this question through a study of protests against nuclear power plants in the United States. We find that the decision to cancel construction of a nuclear unit—a substantial victory for activists—is associated with an upsurge in antinuclear protest activity, as emboldened activists stay mobilized even once the level of threat abates. We also find that when a firm decides to complete a nuclear power plant, thereby marking a defeat for activists, antinuclear protests wind down and we witness an increase in mobilization towards other causes. We discuss the implications of our findings for the study of the interaction between social movements and firms. Managerial summary The interaction between firms and activists is markedly strategic, and episodes of confrontation are often rooted in decisions made by firms. In this article, we examine how decisions taken by firms might impact activism in local communities through a comprehensive study of mobilization targeting nuclear power plants in the United States between 1960 and 1995. We find that when a firm cancels a proposed nuclear unit, antinuclear protest activity increases, as emboldened activist press the advantage. When a firm decides to complete a nuclear power plant, however, thereby defeated activists will demobilize and focus their attention on other causes. Companies should thus carefully consider how their decisions might affect activist mobilization, especially in contexts where opposition from local communities is a significant factor.

Tension in the Emergency Department? The Impact of Flow Stage Times on Managing Patient‐Reported Experiences and Financial Productivity

“…To account for endogeneity and any associated biases that could potentially be caused by interrelationships between pre‐care time and evaluation stage times at EDs, we utilized the commonly accepted Gram–Schmidt orthogonalization procedure (Gene & Charles, 1996; Sine, Shane, & Di Gregorio, 2003; Piazza & Perretti, 2020). This technique can be viewed as a process of subtracting the vector from its successively projecting each successive variable on the previous ones, resulting in orthogonal variables.…”

Interorganizational Spillover: A Review and a Proposal for Future Research

“…Targeted activism directed at focal organizations can also trigger spillover to peer organizations’ stakeholders. Piazza and Perretti (2020) find an electric utility’s decision to cancel a previously proposed nuclear power plant due to antinuclear protests is associated with an increase in subsequent antinuclear protest activity in neighboring communities. Emboldened by previous successes, activists are more likely to remain mobilized even when the initial threat abates.…”

“…When peer organizations and their stakeholders are unaware of events, interorganizational spillover is unlikely to take place. As noted in our review sections, existing research has investigated a myriad of events that can trigger interorganizational spillover, including industry accidents (Barnett & King, 2008; Diestre & Rajagopalan, 2014), CEO dismissal (Burchard et al, 2020; Connelly et al, 2020), shareholder activism (Reid & Toffel, 2009; Shi et al, 2020), social activism (Briscoe et al, 2015; Fremeth et al, 2021), financial misconduct (Beatty et al, 2013; Paruchuri & Misangyi, 2015), scandals (Nalick et al, 2019; Piazza & Jourdan, 2018), disease outbreak (Paruchuri et al, 2019), protests (Ferguson et al, 2018; Piazza & Perretti, 2020), product recall (Zavyalova et al, 2012), and award events (Fremeth et al, 2021; Reschke, Azoulay, & Stuart, 2018).…”

Activist Protest Spillovers into the Regulatory Domain: Theory and Evidence from the U.S. Nuclear Power Generation Industry

“…We match protest events to nuclear plants (proposed, under construction, or operating) based on geographic proximity, using the same methodology as prior research on anti-nuclear activism (Piazza and Perretti 2020;Piazza and Wang 2020). In so doing, we assume that firms whose nuclear generating facilities were located close to a protest were more likely to have been the activists' target and/or would have been associated with the protest in the mind of the regulator.…”