Moral Self-Licensing and Incorporated Values: Flawed Common Sense Shaping CEO Activism

Abstract

The essay contributes to the literature on CEO activism by bridging it with research on moral self-licensing and neoliberalism. Mainly discussed in psychology, moral self-licensing deals with the notion that people access past actions to decide their course. Additionally, under neoliberalism, businesspeople develop a self-indulging view of their role as job-creators, which gives them a sense of entitlement to participate in civil society and share even opinions that may appear questionable. I argue that when celebrity CEOs share their political views in the public arena, they draft the core of their positioning from neoliberal common sense. This common-sense fails to see society as a legitimate concern and frames problems under the logic of egoism and competition that characterizes neoliberal freedom. I finish the discussion by highlighting potential uses for these ideas, moving beyond current debates on CEO activism, by better understanding how businesspeople operate as political actors.