Theory of planned behaviour and boycotting: the moderating role of socio-political control and demographics

Abstract

PurposeThis study examines the predictive ability of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to explain consumers' intentions to boycott “unethical”super market (S/M) products. It aims to expand the TPB by investigating the moderating role of politics and selected demographics in the formation process of behavioural intentions.Design/methodology/approachA survey with personal interviews was conducted in the urban area of Thessaloniki, Greece. The two-stage area, in combination with the stratified sampling, resulted in a representative sample of 420 useable questionnaires.FindingsConsumers were found to be mostly influenced by subjective norms to participate in a boycott campaign against “unethical” products, the next time they visited an S/M. Moderation analyses revealed that the effect of subjective norms gets higher in the group of consumers with lower policy control (PC) scores; the effect of attitudes gets higher in those with higher leadership competence (LC) in the society. Furthermore, the effect of attitudes on intentions gets stronger in men, younger than 44 years old, better educated and earning relatively higher incomes.Originality/valueThe contribution of this study to the boycotting research agenda concerns the expanded TPB model; it introduces scantly so far exogenous variables, namely politics and demographics.