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Private Politics Daily: What Makes Firms The Target Of Internet/Media Criticism? An Empirical Investigation Of Firm, Industry And Institutional Factors, Dominik Breitinger, Jean-Philippe Bonardi

Jean-Philippe Bonardi

Private politics refers to situations in which activists or NGOs try to push firms to conform to social standards (regarding, for instance, human rights and environmental protection) without public policy intervention. The existing literature on private politics has focused on large campaigns such as consumer boycotts, and looked at the impact of those boycotts on firms’ financial performance and on the likelihood that firms comply with activist demands. Even though these large campaigns are important, focusing on them leads to neglecting the fact that a large portion of the time and resources that activists consecrate to private politics is used …