The Role of Trust and Distrust in the Relationship between Corporate Social Irresponsibility and Boycott Intentions: A Parallel Mediation Analysis

Abstract

Several boycotts have demonstrated that stakeholders can effectively force even large companies to abandon harmful activities. However, people do not always join boycotts, even in the case of severely egregious corporate behaviour. Thus, our understanding of this substantive form of ethical consumption is limited. To extend the knowledge about the process that leads to boycotting, this study examines the role of trust and distrust in the corporate culprits as two distinct mediators between an irresponsibility appraisal of corporate action and boycotting intentions. The conceptual model is tested on data from a survey conducted on a non-student sample. The research findings show that distrust in the transgressing firm fully mediates the relationship between perceived irresponsibility of corporate behaviour and consumer propensity to boycott such organisations. In other words, this research suggests that predictions about future irresponsible corporate behaviour (i.e. distrust) are key to convincing consumers to punish the corporate culprit