When is Doing Good Not Good for Business?
As with any quantitative research study, the findings yielded some interesting insights and confirmed
that corporate social responsibility indeed could be a two-edged sword that attracts both positive and
negative attention from special interest groups. It also showed that environmental issues, above all
other issues tended to attract the most attention of these groups. It also showed that Nike and
Starbucks were indeed some of the favorite targets of the anti-globalization protestors. What is not
entirely clear from the results is why the protestors focus so much of their attention to these
companies.
There is no for sure answer, and the topic needs to be studied in greater depth. However, I proffered
two plausible explanations for the apparent paradox. One was the “low hanging fruit” explanation
which says that the reason that protest groups target high CSR companies such as Nike and Starbucks is
that they are the easiest ones to go after since they have already demonstrated a willingness to change
their behavior for the perceived betterment of environmental and social causes.
The second explanation had to do with the motivations of the company executives in relation to the
motivations of the interest groups that were applying pressure to the companies. In this explanation,
the protestors noted and exploited a “loose brick” by focusing a great deal of their energy on exerting
influence on these companies by making them feel uncomfortable. It is thought that the high level of
discomfort would lead to the desired action by the company executives in the direction intended by the
protest group influencers. In other words, by applying pressure, the influencers would count on the
company executives’ collective “cognitive dissonance” to get them to change their positions.
These two explanations may shed some light on why the protest groups seem to target some companies
more than others. Yet, based on the results of this study alone, there is no way to know for sure why
the protestors are so angry. This is a question that should be left for other researchers and theorists to
ponder.