Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0001-6886-2596
Date of Award
5-31-2026
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Business Administration
First Advisor
Edward Carberry
Second Advisor
Maureen Scully
Third Advisor
Romilla Syed
Abstract
Employees in the tech sector have increasingly started questioning the nature of their work and the businesses of their firms to understand their role in the broader society. As such, many are mobilizing to speak up against issues that are important to them, the firms, and society. This dissertation examines when and how such employee activism is effective by focusing on major cases at tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Wayfair. I use social movement and activism literature derived from the social and political sciences, information systems, and communications fields to apply the insights generated from them to analyze how opportunity structures, tactics, frames, corporate responses, and online engagement shape the course and consequences of these campaigns across three distinct essays. Using a multi-method approach, I first conduct comparative case studies of the four firms to explain how employee activists leverage external and internal opportunity structures and how these choices affect their tactics, mobilization, and outcomes. I then analyze cycles of interaction between activists and corporate leaders at Google and Amazon over time, showing how firms respond to activists by using different strategic orientations and engagement approaches, ranging from concessions to intimidation, retaliation, and no response. Finally, I use qualitative and quantitative analysis of social media data from Google and Amazon to examine how different framing strategies generate online engagement and how that engagement relates to corporate response. Across the three essays, I conceptualize employee activism effectiveness as multidimensional, encompassing online and offline mobilization, corporate response, and broader social impact, and I argue that employee activism is best understood as an extended, interactive process that develops through what I call ‘cycles of interactions’ between activists and corporations.
Recommended Citation
Gautam, Nishi, "Three Essays on Understanding the Effectiveness of Employee Activism in the Tech Sector" (2026). Graduate Doctoral Dissertations. 1138.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/doctoral_dissertations/1138
Included in
Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons, Leadership Commons, Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons, Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons, Other Business Commons
Comments
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