Climate Activism Targeted at Companies and Its Effects

Details

Supervisors

Pelzl, Paul

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

enThis thesis explores the effects of climate activism on targeted companies and focuses on the post-2019 “new wave” of climate activism triggered by the Fridays For Future (FFF) movement. While prior research largely relies on datasets ending in 2012, this study addresses this gap by discussing new case studies. To do so, I contacted a set of 100 companies directly subject to climate activism or from sectors subject to climate activism. From this pool, four companies from different sectors agreed to interviews with sustainability representatives. This contact method has led to interviews with four companies that have not been observed in the recent literature on climate activism targeted at companies, and allows for the discovery of new findings on the responses from companies. The interviews explore companies’ exposure to activism, internal and policy responses, most influential activist tactics, effects on sustainability communication, and perceived activist legitimacy. The literature review highlights the lack of post-Fridays For Future studies on my research question and defends that this thesis serves as a contribution to the recent literature on the topic. I also refer to findings coming from the main literature body to their presence in my findings. More specifically, I refer to the use of regulatory bodies to target companies, reputational liability, self-regulation from companies, and radical flank effects. I find a limited representation of these effects in the Discussion section. I specifically discuss findings that reveal varied patterns, but one undocumented indirect effect stands out. The oil and gas firm, while a frequent activist target, attributes its most significant strategic shift toward decarbonisation to indirect regulatory impacts driven by FFF. Overall, the research demonstrates both sector-specific and cross-sectoral similarities in corporate responses to contemporary climate activism, offering updated empirical insights and extending existing theory on climate activist-corporate dynamics in the current era.