“The Cost Of Silence: Why More CEOs Are Speaking Out In The Trump Era”, 21 Feb 2017  

…[M]ore…consumers and employees are…expecting…companies they buy from or work for to take a stand on social issues. CEOs are… increasingly…responding…Nancy Koehn, [of]…Harvard Business School…[says]…"There's…nothing," in scale or swiftness, that…compare[s] to the corporate response to Trump's entry ban...Business leaders have taken political stances in the past, but usually behind the scenes. [However] their more public statements today are not mere corporate altruism but often have an economic interest… Koehn calls…social media, which can quickly mobilize large groups…"the lighter fluid in all this," [by]…put[ting] new pressure on chief executives to speak up or take action…Aaron Chatterji [of]…Duke University…says…staying out of the fray now has a cost…"Silence used to be the default posture," but political polarization, Facebook and Twitter have changed that..."It's a choose-a-side mentality…with the proliferation of social media, it's kind of like a microphone that's always on. If you're not speaking out, it's more conspicuous."…Meanwhile, many consumers remain skeptical about the reasons behind CEOs' activism…Chatterji [says]…CEOs need to choose the "issues you're authentically connected to, so you might have more influence"…(Also refers to IBM, Uber, Oracle, Apple, Starbucks, Audi, Microsoft, Tesla Motors, Chobani, Nike, Ford, Goldman Sachs, MasterCard, Facebook and Twitter].