Anticipating, preventing, and surviving secondary boycotts

Even the best stakeholder-managed firms can suffer when they become targets of a secondary boycott, as recent headlines attest. By definition, a secondary boycott is a group's refusal to engage a target firm with which the group has no direct dispute, in an attempt to sway public opinion, draw attention to an issue, or influence the actions of a disputant. This article provides a new perspective and tools for both scholars and managers concerned with this phenomenon. Building on a stakeholder theory foundation, we examine possible actions managers can take to avoid being surprised by a secondary boycott, propose conditions that raise the probability of becoming the target of a secondary boycott, and develop four alternative approaches for managing stakeholder relationships in a world of secondary boycotts.