Change Of Heart? How CEO Political Ideology Shapes Responses to Negative Media Coverage
By Anand Vijayasankaran, Antara Rao, Prashant Shukla, Jaegoo Lim, Michael Bednar
Academy of Management Journal
Academy of Management Journal
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Vijayasankaran, Anand., Rao, Antara., Shukla, Prashant., Lim, Jaegoo., Bednar, Michael. Change Of Heart? How CEO Political Ideology Shapes Responses to Negative Media Coverage Academy of Management Journal .
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Academy of Management Journal
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Abstract
Media coverage can affect corporate behavior by influencing the cognition of chief executive officers (CEOs). However, there has been limited exploration into the diversity of CEO responses to media coverage. We argue that the strategic decisions CEOs make following media scrutiny are shaped by a complex interaction between the tone of the coverage, the CEO's political ideology, and the ideological orientation of the media source. Using a sample of publicly listed firms, we empirically examine the influence of this interplay on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Our empirical evidence reveals that negative media coverage spurs CEOs with strong conservative leanings to intensify their engagement in CSR activities. This amplification of CSR activities is particularly pronounced when the adverse media coverage originates from a more conservative media outlet. Our empirical results, subject to several robustness tests also reveal substantive financial implications of increasing CSR following negative media coverage. By exploring how the influence of media coverage on strategic decisions is contingent upon the political ideologies of firm leaders and the outlets that cover them, our study makes contributions to research on media coverage, top executives’ political ideology, and CSR.
Anand Ramaswamy Vijayasankaran is an Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Professor Vijayasankaran received his PhD in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2019, a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from the Management Development Institute (Gurgaon, India) in 2006, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras (Madras, India) in 2003, graduating with First Class with Distinction.
Anand Vijayasankaran