Eesley, Decelles, and Lenox (2016)

Eesley, Charles, Katherine Decelles, and MIchael Lenox. “Through the mud or in the boardroom: Examining activist types and their strategies in targeting firms for social change.” Strategic Management Journal, December 2016.

From the authors' abstract:  "[W]e show that different activists (e.g., social movement organizations vs. religious groups and activist investors) rely on dissimilar tactics (e.g., boycotts and protests versus lawsuits and proxy votes). Further, we show how protests and boycotts drag companies “through the mud” with media attention, whereas lawsuits and proxy votes receive relatively little media attention yet may foster investor risk perceptions. This research presents a multifaceted view of activists and their tactics and suggests that this approach in examining activists and their tactics can extend what we know about how and why firms are targeted."

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/smj.2458