On the absence of conservative sociopolitical activism by CEOs: Explanations and implications

Scholars have become increasingly interested in CEO sociopolitical activism, or instances where CEOs take public stands on heated societal debates. So far, though, researchers have largely overlooked an extraordinary imbalance in this phenomenon: In nearly all cases, CEOs have expressed support for liberal positions, and only very rarely for conservative positions. In this analytic essay, we propose four explanations for this puzzling asymmetry. First, there are fewer opportunities for conservative activism than for liberal activism. Second, CEOs may anticipate that conservative activism would agitate key liberal-leaning stakeholder groups. Third, CEOs may anticipate that supporting conservative positions would be inconsistent with conveying images of their firms as future-oriented. Fourth, CEOs tend to believe in staying out of society’s “non-business” debates. We discuss the practical and scholarly implications of our conclusions.