A CEO-Driven Process Model of Firm Responsiveness to Secondary Stakeholder Demands: The Roles of CEO Values and Passion

Secondary stakeholder demands represent increasingly important strategic issues for firms. However, the principal drivers of firm response remain poorly understood. We extend research on firm responsiveness to secondary stakeholders by introducing a new theoretical perspective to detail the cognitive processes through which key CEO attributes—namely, personal values and passion—shape the trajectories of firm responsiveness. We first outline key aspects of secondary stakeholder demands to explain why CEO values and passion are important determinants of a firm’s response to secondary stakeholder demands. We then explain how a CEO’s values and passion influence the process of firm responsiveness. Finally, we extend our arguments to illustrate how values and passion-infused responses may influence social (dis)approval among key organizational stakeholders. By focusing on the cognitive processes of CEOs, we offer novel theoretical contributions to stakeholder theory, strategic leadership research, and the literature on firm social evaluations.