Title: CEO Activism and Starbuck’s Social Responsibility

Contents

1. What is the intent of CEO activism as described in this case? What are these business leaders trying to accomplish?

2. When companies decide they want to weigh in on a political or social issue, what are some of the ways in which they can do this?

3. How should a CEO or a business decide whether to take a stand on an issue or not?

4. Why do you think Starbucks has been so concerned with social responsibility in its overall corporate strategy?

5. Do you think Starbucks has grown rapidly because of its ethical and socially responsible activities or because it provides products and an environment customers want?

Word count: 499

The answers are mostly from the below peer-reviewed articles:

Toffel, M. W., Chatterji, A. K., & Kelley, J. (2017). CEO activism (A). Harvard Business Case, 9-617-001, 1-25.

Urban, M. & Sawayda, J. (2017). Case 2: Starbucks mission: Social responsibility and brand strength. In O. C. Ferrell, J. Fraedrich, & L. Ferrell (Eds.), Business ethics: Ethical decision-making and cases (396–403). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.