Firms do not only adapt to the regulatory environment but can actively seek to influence it in various ways: they take part in the “political marketplace” (Hadani et al., 2021; Murray & Nyberg, 2021). However, we can distinguish between the endeavors of individual corporations and industries seeking to influence regulatory decisions and governmental policies (den Hond et al., 2014; Murray & Nyberg, 2021) and the roles and goals of advocacy groups in this political marketplace. For example, employer organizations and business interest groups influence public sector wages through wage moderation and coordination, impacting society in significant, yet different ways (e.g. Kylä-Laaso & Koskinen Sandberg, 2019; Sorsa et al., 2024). These organizations have established relations with political decisionmakers, and their connections with politics and politicians are examined critically in this study. For example, as shown in this study, the current conservative-populist Finnish government has faced ample criticism over its connections with the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), the leading business organization with the stated aim to make Finland an internationally attractive and competitive business environment. The Confederation has been among the main advocates for decentralized collective bargaining and export industry-led wage formation.

The present study examines a debate over export industry-led wage formation in Finland. In recent years, many likeminded social actors have proposed neoliberal policy initiatives and structural reforms in the name of national competitiveness (e.g. Kylä-Laaso & Koskinen Sandberg, 2019; Harjuniemi & Ampuja, 2018), using the consensus over the idea of Finland being particularly dependent on exports to drive political agendas. This idea has been particularly prominent in political debates following the current PM Orpo’s government programme’s initiatives to draft a new law to make the export industry-driven model of collective bargaining a formal part of Finnish employment relations. As shown in this study, this model has faced fierce opposition due to its drastic negative impacts for the low-paid, female-dominated sectors of economy.

As follows, the societal, political debate on export industry-led wage formation has become a prominent framing contest (Murray & Nyberg, 2021), in which different groups propose very different ideas about the common good and seek to influence others to support their agendas. We examine this framing contest through a ventriloquial analysis (Nathues et al., 2020; Poroli & Cooren, 2023) of parliamentary debates and expert hearings. Our data includes 362 publicly available parliamentary speeches (from 1982 to 2024) and 116 expert statements (from 2015 to 2024). In our analysis, we ask the following: How is the idea of export industry-led wage formation used to drive different political agendas? Which voices and actors are included in the debates over export industry-led wage formation?

Initial findings show that the main arguments presented are the following: 1 a.) The model is essential for an economy like Finland, which lives from exports and must be able to cope with international competition and bear the costs of a welfare society, and 2 a.) With the proposed reform, the government is leaving nurses, teachers and early childhood professionals in a perpetual wage pit. These arguments were then responded with counter-frames: 1 b.) The argued positive economic impacts of the model are ungrounded, and 2 b.) The export-driven labor market model has narrowed the gender pay gap elsewhere. The study addresses a topical, societally significant issue and contributes to business-society research by producing new knowledge on the gendered impacts of institutional changes in employment relations and business-society relations.

References

den Hond, F., Rehbein, K. A., de Bakker, F. G. A., & van Lankveld, H. (2014). Playing on two chessboards: Reputation effects between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Political Activity (CPA). Journal of Management Studies, 51(5), 790-813. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12063

Hadani, M., Aksu, B., Coombes, S. (2021). 15 minutes of fame? The impact of media visibility and media reputation on the relationship between corporate political activity and government contract awards. Academy of Management Discoveries, 7(1), 57–84.

Harjuniemi, T., & Ampuja, M. (2018). Established ideas from established institutions: austerity and structural reforms in the Finnish economic policy debate. Critical Policy Studies, 13(4), 451–469. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2018.1451758

Kylä-Laaso, M., & Koskinen Sandberg, P. (2019). Affective Institutional Work and Ordoliberal Governance: Gender Equality in Parliamentary Debates on the Competitiveness Pact in Finland. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 28(2), 86–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2019.1697749

Murray, J., & Nyberg, D. (2021). Industry vs. Government: Leveraging Media Coverage in Corporate Political Activity. Organization Studies, 42(10), 1629-1650. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840620964163

Nathues, E., van Vuuren, M., & Cooren, F. (2021). Speaking about vision, talking in the name of so much more: A methodological framework for ventriloquial analyses in organization studies. Organization Studies, 42(9), 1457-1476. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840620934063

Poroli, A., & Cooren, F. (2024). Investigating the making of organizational social responsibility as a polyphony of voices: A ventriloquial analysis of practitioners’ interactions. Human Relations, 77(6), 768-800. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267231158497

Sorsa, V.-P., Kaitila, J., & Alaja, A. (2024). Partial organization and economic coordination: The gradual re-organization of Finnish corporatism. Competition & Change, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294241258507

As gender disparities in access to funding for women-led ventures persist, they limit the diversity of entrepreneurial opportunities in growth-seeking regions. This paper investigates how a women investment network in the Netherlands contributes to building an entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports women entrepreneurs. Using a case study approach, we analyze the strategies, dynamics, and decision-making processes of this network. Our research draws on interviews with stakeholders of the network, pitch decks from women entrepreneurs, and video analyses of successful pitches of women led startups. We aim to uncover the potential impact of women investment networks in addressing gender-related funding challenges for women entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. This study contributes to the entrepreneurial ecosystem literature, particularly on the gender gap in early-stage venture funding.

Corporate activism is a company-initiated form of activism where companies take public stances on divisive and controversial socio-political issues such as climate change or social equality (Olkkonen, 2025). These issues often extend beyond the company’s core business, and may often lead to public criticism and backlash (Eilert & Cherup, 2020). With such activism, companies strive to influence its stakeholders, the public and policymakers to push for social change (Gulbrandsen et al., 2022).

However, current corporate activism practices, as shown in the literature, are dominated by advocacy tactics (Le & Olkkonen, 2024), which are often uni-directional in nature. Such tactics include public CEO or company press statements and social media posts (such as in Afego & Alagidede, 2022; Blanco et al., 2023, etc), or PR and advertising (such as in Gulbrandsen et al., 2022; Rudnicka & Reichel., 2023.). From the post-universalist point-of-view, such uni-directional communication of stances can be problematic, as stakeholders are made up of a diverse audience in the digital era (Castello et al., 2016), who vary in their interpretations and use of universal rules depending on their social, cultural or historical backgrounds (Delanty & Harris, 2018). Widening the ideological divide and misunderstanding through uni-directional stance-taking can impede companies’ and collective efforts for social change.

Yet, critical cosmopolitanism emphasizes the idea of immanent transcendence: there are transformative possibilities of the social world and social political issues already embedded within the present social reality–with all its present values, structures and even tensions and contradictions (Delanty, 2006; Delanty & Harris, 2018). New possibilities for social change can be born from listening to stakeholders rather than sending a stance, as such openness would increase social interaction, deliberation and understanding between the company and its stakeholders. Actively listening to stakeholders on social media may create more tolerance and respect for diversity (Delanty, 2006).

The purpose of this study is, therefore, to delve specifically into corporate activism on social media, with a focus on its communicative aspect of listening. Specifically, we aim to understand how companies listen in their corporate activism practices on social media so that social change initiatives can benefit from the coming together of diverse perspectives. It uses the critical cosmopolitanism theoretical framework (Delanty, 2006) and assumes a post-universalism epistemological perspective to study how companies are listening to and engaging with diverse perspectives, and what the immanent transcendence possibilities of corporate activism are on social media.

We aim to contribute to CSR communication literature on the use of social media for corporate activism. CSR communication on social media presents a trade-off between credibility and how much control a company has over their messages (Illia et al., 2017). The convenience, wide accessibility and border-transcending affordances of social media have resulted in companies making use of them to communicate their public stances. However, social media also allows for even more engagement, such as listening, between companies and the public (Bimber et al., 2012), which could bring diverse perspectives together that can contribute to social change. Listening on social media is, however, challenging. Some scholars see listening as analyzing data from their stakeholders on social media (Karpf, 2018). Other scholars point out that online participation (such as corporate activism) has more commonly been associated with contributing a voice or speaking up as a company rather than listening (Crawford, 2009). Similarly, Macnamara (2016) highlights the on-going crisis of listening in organizations: “the average speaking to listening ratio was 80:20” (Macnamara, 2016, p. 140), which can work against the aim of corporate activism. Our study may help communication practitioners to become more effective in listening on social media.

References

Afego, P., & Alagidede, I. (2022). CEO statements on racial inequity-(how) do they matter to shareholders? Society and Business Review, 17(2), 236–256. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBR-02-2021-0031Bimber, B., Flanagin, A., & Stohl, C. (2012). Collective action in organizations: Interaction and engagement in an era of technological change. Cambridge University Press.

Blanco, T. P., López-aza, C., Sánchez, J., & Gutiérrez-rodríguez, P. (2023). The Side Effect of Political Standing: Corporate Activism and Its Impact on Stock Returns. Politics and Governance, 11(2), 138–146. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v11i2.6306

Castelló, I., Etter, M., & Årup Nielsen, F. (2016). Strategies of Legitimacy Through Social Media: The Networked Strategy. Journal of Management Studies, 53(3), 402–432. https://doi.org/10.1111/JOMS.12145

Crawford, K. (2009). Following you: Disciplines of listening in social media. Continuum, 23(4), 525–535. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304310903003270

Delanty, G. (2006). The Cosmopolitan Imagination: Critical cosmopolitanism and social theory. The British Journal of Sociology, 57(1), 25-47. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2006.00092.x

Delanty, G., & Harris, N. (2018). The idea of critical cosmopolitanism. In Routledge International Handbook of Cosmopolitanism Studies (pp. 91-100). Routledge.

Eilert, M., & Cherup, A. E. (2020). The activist company: Examining a company’s pursuit of societal change through corporate activism using an institutional theoretical lens. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 39(4), 461-476. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0743915620947408

Gulbrandsen, I. T., Just, S. N., & Uldam, J. (2022). S(t)imulating resistance: Corporate responses to the Trump presidency. Organization, 29(1), 106-128. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508420939225

Illia, L., Romenti, S., Rodríguez-Cánovas, B., Murtarelli, G., & Carroll, C. E. (2017). Exploring corporations’ dialogue about CSR in the digital era. Journal of Business Ethics, 146, 39-58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2924-6

Karpf, D. (2018). Analytic Activism and Its Limitations. Social Media and Society, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117750718/FORMAT/EPUB

Le, N. P. T., & Olkkonen, L. (2024). Curbing confrontation: The tactical repertoires of corporate activism. CSR Communication Conference (CSRCOM) 2024, Bath, United Kingdom.

Macnamara, J. (2016). The Work and ‘Architecture of Listening’: Addressing Gaps in Organization-Public Communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 10(2), 133–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2016.1147043

Olkkonen, L. (2025). Corporate Activism. In Maguire, M. & Wilson, G. (Eds.). Elgar Encyclopedia of Business and Government. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Rudnicka, A., & Reichel, J. (2023). CSOs’ Perception of Corporate Activism on the LGBT+ Community in Poland. Business and Human Rights Journal, 39(4). https://doi.org/10.1017/bhj.2023.14

Employee activism often benefits from relations across organizational boundaries as they develop actions to drive change. Previous research has emphasized that such activism often uses relational ties to enable social movement tactics (Buchter, 2021; Briscoe & Gupta, 2016; Schiefeling & Soderstrom, 2022). To pursue such tactics collectively, cultivating a common agenda and fostering solidarity across organizational boundaries is crucial (DeJordy et al., 2020). Yet, employee activists often operate covertly and hide behind a ‘corporate mask’ to protect their own positions (Scully, 2015). In previous studies, efforts to build solidarity are, therefore, unsurprisingly often described as taking place in spaces shielded from managerial oversight (Scully & Segal, 2002; Stöber & Girschik, forthcoming). What remains less understood is how such solidarity can emerge and is leveraged to drive change in more public spaces, where individual movement participants are highly visible. When change efforts are overtly radical and publicly challenge the status quo, visible participants may become vulnerable targets. Importantly, individuals in such movements often face significant disparities in privilege or precariousness as well as their perceived ability or pressure to support a common cause. Given the personal risks involved when individuals can be singled out, solidarity becomes even more vital for employee activists pushing for change publicly. A burning question, then, is: How does solidarity unfold in unprotected public spaces?

We seek to advance our understanding of how employee activists develop and express solidarity by exploring the efforts of female football players fighting to improve the conditions in their sport. The center of our study is the Spanish Women’s National Team, which has a long history of disputes with their federation, dating back to 1996. For instance, players have persistently called for the removal of a former coach, who was accused of creating a hostile environment, including allegations of homophobia. These efforts were largely unsuccessful, with several players either quitting or being excluded from the national team. Later, the team protested again for more professional training conditions. The conflict escalated in 2023 when Spain won the World Cup. A series of incidents, including sexual harassment by the then-president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, sparked a global outrage. 81 former, current, and junior players espoused their support and solidarity, forming a solid front that could push for better working conditions. Eventually, they reached a milestone in their change efforts when Rubiales was removed, and the national team coach Jorge Vilda was fired.

This case is particularly insightful because the Spanish players mobilized support from various sources inside and outside their own organization, driven by a strong emotional component. Further, the case of female footballers is interesting because competition for positions and fear of losing one's spot due to outward criticism is a major concern, especially with limited resources for most but a few high-profile players. Despite this, players have persistently pushed for institutional change (e.g., the US Team’s successful lawsuit for equal pay). To explore the dynamics of solidarity in this case, we want to trace the key events from the World Cup final on August 20th to late Sept. 2023. We have collected players’ social media posts to trace how solidarity ‘spread’ and gained momentum. In our analysis, we seek to pay particular attention to how affective is conveyed and resonates. We may include additional archival data to understand prior efforts that paved the way for this movement. Overall, we hope to contribute to the literature on employee activism by foregrounding the role of public solidarity when employee activists attempt to challenge existing institutional arrangements.

The concept of intersectionality, introduced by Crenshaw in 1989, has been explored as a key framework to understand how multiple social sections and individual identities like sexism, racism, and class bias intersect and influence dynamics of power and privilege. This approach has significant implications for understanding how multiple social and individual identities influence the entrepreneurial experiences of women. By applying an intersectional lens, researchers can uncover the unique challenges women encounter that may be different from men. Additionally, this approach can reveal the diversity of women’s entrepreneurial paths that depend on their intersecting identities. However, there has been a lack of systematic studies that comprehensively review the intersectional approach to women’s entrepreneurship. This study fills this gap. Specifically, this study aims to review previous work on intersectionality in women’s entrepreneurship to synthesize the literature and identify the gaps and trends in existing studies. Since our objective is to map the development of the literature, we extend our literature scope to intersectionality studies on leadership. This approach supports the view of entrepreneurs as leaders and entrepreneurship as an application of leadership. Understanding the evolution of women’s entrepreneurship and leadership through the lens of intersectionality is critical for promoting gender equality and inclusion as well as enhancing their roles and contributions to the society.

We use a bibliometric analysis to identify, select, and analyze the existing literature. A deep search was conducted through the Web of Science. Only the published English journal articles and book chapters for all years were included. Keywords such as <intersection*> and <entrepreneur* or leader*> and <female* or women* or woman*> were used as inclusion and exclusion criteria to search for related journal articles and book chapters.

858 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters were extracted as a result of deep search. The authors carefully reviewed these journal article/book chapter titles and abstracts with the following criteria, that is the articles/book chapters discussed either “Intersectionality and Entrepreneurship/Social Entrepreneurship/ Entrepreneur(s)” OR “Intersectionality and Leadership/Leader” AND focused on “gender traits” (e.g., masculinity/femininity) OR focused on “gender-related situations” (e.g., issues/challenges, opportunities, contributions to society, etc.). After a careful review, 299 articles/book chapters published during 1994 and 2023 were categorized as related and further analyzed with bibliometric network analysis technique.

Seven clusters with 89 co-occurring keywords and 1,460 links were found within the 299 studied journal articles/book chapters (see Fig.1). The seven clusters present in 29-year map are the Barriers and Enablers of Entrepreneurship (red, N= 25); Diversity Performance (green, N=22); Feminism in Organization and Management (dark blue, N=13); Intersectionality (yellow, N=12); Women (purple, N=10); Perceptions (light blue, N=6); and Identity (orange, N=1).

Using the year breakdown analysis (78.6% or 235 of the studied articles and book chapters were published between 2019 and 2023), the authors also found the evolution of topics as follows. The Intersectional Approach to Leadership has expanded since 2020-2021, initially focusing on gender issues in entrepreneurship, and later on encompassing race as well as reflecting a broader view of leadership challenges. Women’s Entrepreneurship gained substantial attention in academic discussions during the same period, emphasizing gender-specific issues in entrepreneurship. From 1994 to 2019, Diversity and Performance was often examined, but since 2020-2021, research has shifted towards exploring the racial and intersectional dimensions of diversity, with a focus on social and perceptual aspects. Additionally, Identity Discourse has recently emerged and gained traction as a key concept in the literature during 2022-2023, signaling an emerging area of scholarly interest. The finding further suggests opportunities for conducting comprehensive longitudinal studies to examine the intersectional dynamics of ethnicity and culture in entrepreneurial and leadership contexts among women across different regions or countries.