Self-silencing through Cultural Retrenchment: Firms’ Strategic Response to Anti-SLAPP Laws

About the seminar topic

The passage of anti-strategic lawsuit against public participation (anti-SLAPP) legislation poses a threat for firms by making it more difficult for them to sue employees who disclose negative information that may harm firm reputation. To mitigate this threat and discourage such disclosures, we argue that firms will respond to the threat of anti-SLAPP laws by pursuing a self-silencing strategy whereby they strategically downplay their integrity culture, a phenomenon we term cultural retrenchment. Leveraging a quasi-natural experiment based on the staggered enactment of anti-SLAPP laws across US states, we find evidence of cultural retrenchment. Moreover, we examine the effectiveness of cultural retrenchment by providing evidence that firms that pursue this self-silencing strategy experience less negative employee reviews compared to firms that strengthen their integrity culture. This study contributes to stakeholder strategy research by showing how firms modify organisational culture to manage potential reputational threats from within.

Managerial summary

Freedom of speech is increasingly being recognised as a thorny issue not only in society but also in the corporate world, especially after the passage of anti-strategic lawsuit against public participation (anti-SLAPP) laws that have increased the freedom of speech of employees in the workplace. By making it more difficult for firms to sue employees who disclose or disseminate negative information, anti-SLAPP legislation increases the likelihood that employees can share negative information about the firms in which they are employed. This study examines a strategy that firms can pursue to respond to the reputational threats posed by anti-SLAPP legislation that empowers employees: strategically downplaying, or self-silencing on, their integrity culture. Our study also shows that firms downplay, as opposed to strengthen. their integrity culture experience less negative employee reviews, indicating the practical effectiveness of this strategy.

Speaker bio

Orhun Guldiken PhD is an Associate Professor and PhD Program Director in the Department of Management & International Business at the College of Business at Florida International University. His research interests span a wide range of subjects within the fields of strategic management, international business and entrepreneurship. His research interests in strategic management include corporate governance and stakeholder management, and his research interests in international business include international strategy and international entrepreneurship. His research has been published or forthcoming in journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Business Ethics, Strategic Organization, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of World Business. His research is also being revised for resubmission to journals such as Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. His work won several research awards, including Academy of Management Best Paper award as well as the runner-up Best Paper Award from Journal of World Business.

He serves as an Associate Editor (Strategic Management Track) for Journal of Business Research and as a Senior Editor (Strategic Management Track) for Asia Pacific Journal of Management. He also serves on the Editorial Review Boards of Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, and Journal of World Business and received a Best Reviewer award from Journal of Management and Journal of World Business. He also serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for several journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science and Journal of International Business Studies.

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