A Commentary on Fezzey et al. (2025): CEO Activism as Discursive Agentic Acts

In this commentary, we revisit Fezzey et al’s Talk-Action matrix. While acknowledging its merits for advancing extant understandings of CEO activism, we contend that the Talk-Action matrix would be further enriched by accounting for CEO agency. Indeed, CEOs are not merely reactionaries to public debates on contentious social and moral issues as is assumed by the matrix; on the contrary, CEOs are active participants in creating or shaping the rhetorical contests in which they participate or intervene. CEO activism is inherently representative of agentic acts wherein CEOs both authorize the discourses they support and legitimate it using the generative power ascribed to their corporate role and social status. In sum, CEOs are significant players in establishing what ought to be considered socially (un)acceptable or morally urgent.