Citation

Painter M. SSRN eLibrary 2020; 2020: e3557961.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Social Science Electronic Publishing)

DOI

10.2139/ssrn.3557961

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

I use Walmart's decision to discontinue sales of certain gun ammunition, ban open carry in stores, and encourage enactment of gun control policy as a setting to study how consumers respond when firms make political statements. Using smartphone-location data to measure foot traffic, I find store visits to Walmart decreased by 3.9% relative to local competitors after Walmart's statement. Traffic in highly Republican counties decreased by 8.5% but increased by 2.7% in highly Democratic counties. The effect persists throughout the post period in highly Republican counties. The results highlight the challenges of stakeholder capitalism amidst an increasingly polarized political landscape.

Language: en

Keywords

Big data; Corporate governance; Corporate social responsibility; ESG; Political economy; Political polarization; Stakeholder capitalism