Shareholder Activism and Political Mobilization: How Activists Can Utilize the Structures of Modern Shareholder Corporations to Achieve Change

This research is a literature review focusing on the history of corporations, efforts to alter corporations, and a contemporary example of corporations that have altered their mission. The main lenses of analysis for alteration focus on shareholder power, grassroots activists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and government regulation. This work aims to include a discussion of multiple forms of organizing. In the latter half of this research, I turn to an analysis of B-Corps in hopes of demonstrating that reimagining the purpose of corporations to treat profit as means rather than an end benefits revenue and productivity growth. I find that shareholders are imbued with a great deal of power and thus have a significant voice in determining next steps for corporate procedure. Moreover, grassroots activists are able to capitalize on public pressure to force executives to adopt changes they otherwise would ignore. NGOs represent an interesting intersection between grassroots activism and governmental regulation—they can function as an intermediary that supports governmental legitimacy or can work to hold antagonistic governments accountable for failures to follow commitments. Governmental regulation represents a promising, yet frustrating approach to limiting emissions. Governments have more power to enact change and overcome freeriding than activist groups or NGOs, but they suffer from gridlock and political quagmires that prevent enactment of popularly supported initiatives. Finally, through reviewing studies of B-Corps successes in outpacing non-B-Corp businesses, I demonstrate that the corporation is a reformable entity capable of serving more than its shareholders.