Brand activism practices of small businesses in the craft food industry

Extant research on brand activism predominantly explored the phenomenon in larger companies and mostly from a communication perspective. Research on brand activism practices in small businesses lacks empirical investigation and theoretical depth. In order to better understand practices of brand activism within small businesses, a multiple case study of five small brand activist brands in the craft food industry aims to remediate these limitations. This working paper proposes three main findings: First, practices of brand activism in small businesses are prominently driven by co-creation and the local brand community. Second, small business brand activists use their resource constraints as a small actor in the socio-political market as an asset to create activist practices that capitalize on the benefit of smallness. Third, small craft food brands balance between performing citizen activist and citizen artist practices.