The project, led by Prof. Dr. Cristian Vögtlin (Project Lead), together with Dr. Florian Roth (Deputy Project Lead) and Dr. Thorsten Busch (Project Team Member), will examine how companies in Europe position themselves against anti-democratic populism – and what consequences such actions entail.

While businesses have long engaged in sustainability, environmental, or human rights initiatives, their involvement in defending democracy and addressing anti-democratic tendencies is still a relatively new and understudied phenomenon. This project asks how and why companies take a public stand, how stakeholders perceive such activism, and what political and ethical implications arise.

The research pursues two goals:

1. Understanding practices and perceptions – systematically analyzing corporate strategies against anti-democratic populism and examining stakeholder and citizen responses.
2. Developing guidance for practice – creating an analytical framework to capture the ethical and political dimensions of corporate activism and to provide concrete recommendations for companies.

The project is structured into four modules, covering literature reviews, stakeholder surveys, citizen studies, and practice-oriented outputs.

By investigating corporate engagement with democracy, the project contributes to advancing business ethics and corporate responsibility research in politically sensitive contexts. At a time when democratic values face increasing challenges in Europe, the project aims to offer both theoretical insights and practical guidance for companies navigating these complex issues.

The ZCSL research team collaborates with:

• Prof. Dr. Thomas Beschorner (University of St. Gallen)
• Prof. Dr. Andrew Crane (University of Bath)
• Prof. Dr. Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich (Leuphana University Lüneburg)

The project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF).