University Honors

In the digital age, social media has fundamentally altered the relationship between corporations and consumers, creating new mechanisms of public accountability. This paper examines the long-term financial effects on firms involved in major social media activism events, analyzing three case studies: Starbucks, Target, and Costco. Through qualitative analysis of public sentiment across TikTok, Instagram, and X, alongside quantitative financial data including stock price fluctuations and quarterly revenue reports, this paper identifies correlations between online consumer behavior and corporate financial performance over a one-year period following each event. Findings suggest that while social media activism produces measurable short-term financial consequences, its long-term impact is limited by activism fatigue, discourse displacement, and the resilience of large corporations. Furthermore, negative and positive sentiment appear to produce different financial outcomes, with negative activism more strongly impacting investor confidence and positive activism more significantly influencing consumer revenue. These findings begin to speculate the tangible intersection of digital consumer behavior and corporate financial accountability.