ABSTRACT

The ascendency of populist politics in the West has forced companies to take uncomfortable public stances on controversial issues that have brought disruption to industry. An emerging neo-governmental approach to corporate social responsibility is taking shape, where activist managers are issuing statements targeted at elected officials including the US president. Populism is in part the ability to appeal to and identify with the masses as opposed to elites within society. The most common form of populism to emerge has been of the right-wing variety which is a political ideology that combines ethnocentric attitudes and anti-establishment or anti-elite sentiments. Mainstream political parties, business actors, and governments have been forced to sit up and listen to populist demands and to some extent adjust their policies and views with great anxiety that they might lose their constituencies. Politically the most common view of this populism is a stance against immigration and conflicts over identity.