Scholars who study social movements have believed that social movements may have an impact on political and organizational outcomes. Scholars have posited a few mechanisms that underlie this effect, including institutional disruption and the mobilization of social networks and coalitions. In many instances, however, movements are neither very disruptive nor effective in creating new networks/coalitions, and yet they still generate desirable outcomes. I argue that one of the most important, yet understudied, mechanisms by which movements exert influence is by signaling new information about the political environment that other political actors find useful and incorporate in their decision-making. Information signals have a discernible impact on agenda-setting, shaping the very issues that political actors consider worthy of their attention. I discuss the role of information signaling in two distinct contexts: legislative policymaking and corporate decisions. I then lay out the implications for a broader theory of social movements as information generators.
