The Political Preferences of Activist CEOs
Hochberg, Joshua S.
2021
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Recent scholarship on the political preferences and behaviors of CEOs report that CEOs hold conservative political views and that these views influence both their firms’ and employees’ behavior. Most recently, Chatterji and Toffel (2019) suggest CEOs are just as effective as politicians at shaping public opinion. Yet, little is known about the CEOs most likely to influence public opinion by issuing ... read morepublic statements. This research hypothesizes that although most CEOs hold Republican preferences, CEO activism has a Democratic tilt, whereby CEOs who are Democrats engage in it more often than CEOs who are Republicans. Using Bonica’s CFscores, self-collected data on CEO activism, and in-depth case studies, this research finds strong evidence to support its hypothesis. Additionally, this research finds that CEO activism frequency is significantly influenced by a CEO’s partisan preferences and not the characteristics associated with investment in other forms of corporate political activity (CPA), confirming recent suggestions that CEO activism is distinct from CPA. These findings provide insight into the ideology of the CEOs most likely to be influencing public opinion by making public statements and contradicts the perceived homogeneity of CEOs’ political preferences.
This work was published in Volume XX No. 2 of the Pi Sigma Alpha Undergraduate Journal of Politics.read less - ID:
- 2r36vb63c
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