Frenemies: Overcoming Audiences’ Ideological Opposition to Firm–Activist Collaborations

Abstract

Collaborations between organizations from different sectors, such as those between firms and nonprofits or governments, can offer effective solutions to complex societal problems like climate change. But complications arise because organizations operating in different sectors rely on the approval of different audiences, who may not view these relationships positively, for resources and survival. I show how concerns about audience approval impede cross-sector collaborations forming between firms and social movement organizations (SMOs) despite their potential societal benefits. Firms wanting to signal their efforts in support of a movement’s cause may be eager to form collaborations with SMOs. But when SMOs’ supporters and/or peers define their identity in opposition to firms—when they are oppositional audiences—collaborations do not form. I argue and find that SMOs who cooperate, and don’t compete, with oppositional peers can better navigate the constraint of oppositional audiences. Firms, in contrast, aggravate the constraint of oppositional audiences. Firms’ inclination to seek collaborations to repair their reputations with their own audiences after being contentiously targeted by a movement compounds the challenge to SMOs of partnering with the enemies of their friends. My arguments on countervailing audience effects stifling collaborations are corroborated in 25 years of data on interactions between SMOs in multiple environmental movements and Fortune 500 firms.

Renewing the resource‐based view: New contexts, new concepts, and new methods

“…More research is also required to examine the alternative governance arrangements that may be needed to act on behalf of stakeholders who cannot bargain for themselves, including the role of government regulation and nonprofits (Luo & Kaul, 2019). In particular, there are exciting opportunities for researchers to study public–private partnerships (Kivleniece & Quelin, 2012; Quelin, Cabral, Lazzarini, & Kivleniece, 2019), for‐profit collaborations with nonprofits (Odziemkowska, 2022), and hybrid organizations (Battilana & Lee, 2014; Battilana, Sengul, Pache, & Model, 2015), examining how such entities invest in, share, and maintain key resources and capabilities.…”

Addressing big societal challenges in HRM research: A Society-Actors-Processes-Policy framework

“…Information can be distorted, lost and deferred during engagement processes or corporate campaign activities (Gasparin et al, 2020). Collaborations between social movement organizations (SMOs) and firms are subject to evaluations from different sets of audiences whose ideologies, interests and experiences can conflict and shift over time, including employees, customers, other SMOs and competing firms (Odziemkowska, 2022). Moreover, Guo et al (2020), who feature in Table 2, recognize that multilateral collaboration between actors such as NGOs, policy makers, hiring organizations and resettlement agencies to develop workplace practices that integrate migrants can be constrained.…”

Climate Change and the Voluntary Sector: An Introduction

“…Work in this cluster of 18 (22%) articles addresses voluntary organizations in local environmental politics (e.g., Daneri et al, 2021), environmental justice movements (Vandepitte et al, 2019), advocacy and litigation coalitions (Aamodt, 2018; Holm & Berardo, 2020; Nilsen et al, 2018), the role of religious and indigenous organizations in environmental conservation teaching and awareness (e.g., Brown et al, 2021; Ellingson et al, 2012; Mlaki & Massawe, 2019; Standley et al, 2009), nonprofit scientific institutions as brokers of credible climate change information (e.g., Wagner et al, 2021), and the role of voluntary organizations in participatory governance or as democracy-building, bottom-up actors in climate action (e.g., Greenspan et al, 2022; Van Veelen & Eadson, 2019). Two articles address advocacy organizations vis-à-vis the commercial sector (e.g., Odziemkowska, 2022; Spitz et al, 2021).…”