Verdiana Morreale will be a speaker at the 7th CSR Comunication (CSRCOM) Conference at the School of Management, University of Bath, from 17-19 September. She will present a paper co-authored with Elisa Giuliani and Federica Nieri, which examines how CEOs manage relationships with activists who oppose corporate interests, particularly in extreme contexts where activists face a high risk of violence.
The study, titled “Stakeholder Management under Extreme Conditions: CEOs and the Practice of Silencing-Off Corporate Opponents,” analyzes 780 attacks on activists (referred to as “defenders”) between 2015 and 2020. It identifies patterns showing that companies are more likely to engage in silencing tactics, especially in countries with weak institutional environments and when led by young, non-founder CEOs. The presentation will explore these aggressive stakeholder management strategies and their implications for ethical corporate behavior in challenging situations.
