For this session we are pleased to welcome Matthew Amengual, Associate Professor, University of Oxford, Saïd Business School. He will present his research on:

Under (Indirect) Pressure: Cascading Substantive Change to Non-Targeted Firms

Abstract:
We examine how pressure on corporations for unethical behavior impacts not just the targeted firms but also their commercial partners within global supply chains. Existing literature has predominantly focused on how directly targeted firms respond to social movements and negative stakeholder attention, often overlooking the cascading effects on associated firms. Using unique data from in-person factory inspections across 84 countries, the paper scrutinizes the substantive changes in 24,383 factories, many of which are suppliers to firms that have attracted various levels of negative stakeholder attention. The study makes three key contributions: 1) it extends social movement and spillover theory by elaborating a theory of how pressure cascades beyond the targeted firm, 2) it shifts the focus from symbolic to substantive changes by showing that indirectly targeted firms make meaningful changes in practices, and 3) it identifies conditions under which such indirect pressure is likely to be effective. These findings enrich our understanding of how social pressures can engender broad, market-level changes.

Authors: Alessandro Guasti, Matthew Amengual, Alex Rustler, Damian Raess