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Home Opinion

Should Companies Refrain From Making Political Statements?

MIT Sloan Management Review

Timothy SimcoebyTimothy Simcoe
May 31, 2023
in Opinion, Sloan Management Review
23
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Should Companies Refrain From Making Political Statements?

A protester displays a placard during a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate in Manila's financial district on July 10, 2015, calling to boycott products made in China and denouncing China's claim to most of the South China Sea including areas claimed by the Philippines. The Philippines on July 7 appealed to an international tribunal to declare China's claims to most of the South China Sea illegal, warning the integrity of United Nations' maritime laws is at stake. China insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the South China Sea, a strategically vital waterway with shipping lanes through which about a third of all the world's traded oil passes. AFP PHOTO / Jay DIRECTO (Photo credit should read JAY DIRECTO/AFP via Getty Images)

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May 31, 2023

MIT SMR Strategy Forum recently published an article featuring Timothy Simcoe, Professor of Strategy and Innovation, discussing whether companies should refrain from making political statements.

Two years ago, soccer organization UEFA attempted to opt out of taking a political stance — a decision that was itself decried as a political statement. In an MIT Sloan Management Review Strategy Forum, panelists responded to the statement: The diametric experiences of Disney and UEFA illustrate that firms should refrain from making political statements in support of particular stakeholders. Simcoe was one of the 7% of panelists who agreed that companies should refrain from making political statements. It has become an unwelcome yet unavoidable reality for some companies that they are under pressure to vote on activist shareholder proposals despite the risk of backlash from a multitude of stakeholders and observers.

Simcoe states, “The lesson is not to avoid things that might be unavoidable but to think ahead and develop a clear set of values to guide managers’ actions and statements in those circumstances.”

Source: Should Companies Refrain From Making Political Statements?
Via: MIT Sloan Management Review
Tags: Business Educationmedia mentionTimothy Simcoe
Timothy Simcoe

Timothy Simcoe

Timothy S. Simcoe is Professor of Strategy and Innovation at the Boston University Questrom School of Business, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a faculty director of BU’s Technology Policy Research Initiative. From 2014 to 2015, he served as a Senior Economist on President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. Professor Simcoe’s research focuses on innovation, industry standards, intellectual property, and technology policy. He has published in the American Economic Review, Management Science, the RAND Journal of Economics, Organization Science, and the Journal of Applied Econometrics. He is an associate editor at Management Science, American Economic Journal: Policy, and the Journal of Industrial Economics. Professor Simcoe has consulted and testified as an expert witness in disputes involving standard essential patent licensing and pharmaceutical patent infringement

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