Boycott Intentions Research Articles

Matching words with actions: understanding the effects of CSA stance-action consistency on negative consumer responses

PurposeDespite corporate social advocacy (CSA) has become a popular phenomenon, less is known about the potential negative public responses to corporations' CSA involvement and promotion. This paper aims to investigate the main and conditional effects of a new concept, CSA stance-action consistency, on consumers' negative responses to CSA communication.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a 4 (four types of CSA stance-action consistency) × 2 (CSA record: long vs short) between-subject experimental design. Social issue activism was measured as a continuous variable and treated as a moderator. An online experiment was conducted with participants recruited from MTurk (n = 224).FindingsCSA stance-action consistency significantly predicted negative word-of-mouth and boycott intention. Participants' social issue activism moderated the effects. However, CSA record was not a significant predictor of consumers' negative responses to CSA communication.Originality/valueThis study advances CSA and corporate communication literature by proposing a new concept, CSA stance-action consistency and providing empirical evidence on its effects on consumer responses. Practical implications to CSA promotion were discussed.

The Brand Sustainability Obstacle: Viewpoint Incompatibility and Consumer Boycott

Brand equity is critical for brand sustainability. Companies participate in social issues to maintain brand equity by making the brand easily recognizable, superior in quality, and favored and affirmed by consumers. However, the ideological incompatibility between a brand and consumers may induce the consumers to adopt boycott action, which is an obstacle to brand sustainability. Before adopting boycott action, consumers consider the opinions of themselves and those of others. The opinion incompatibility between consumers is an influential factor for the consumers’ boycott intention, while individuals’ Attention to Social Comparison Information (ATSCI) is a moderate factor. This article conducted three studies that explored the influence of ideological incompatibility and ATSCI on boycott intention. Study 1 and Study 2 conducted an online and an offline experimental design to investigate the consumers’ boycott intention when a brand holds a different view from consumers on a debatable issue—same-sex marriage. Study 3 focused on the influence of ideological incompatibility between consumers and their relatives and friends regarding boycott intention. Individuals’ ATSCI is considered as a moderate factor. Based on these three empirical studies, we conclude that when a brand takes a stand on a debatable issue, it may be taking risks for brand sustainability since some consumers might boycott it because of ideological incompatibility. High ATSCI individuals may choose to follow the opinions of others and change their boycott intention.

Latent profile analysis of ethical consumers in the United States and Malaysia

AbstractThrough using Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) and the Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) method, this study proposes a new approach to ethical consumer categorization. Based on a survey using national survey data of more than 1,000 people in the United States and Malaysia, this study found three common ethical consumer groups based on ethical sensitivity in both countries—moral enthusiast, moral interested, and moral indifferent. In addition to the aforementioned commonalities, we found national differences in consumer profiles: the U.S. sample also shows a moral progressivist group inclined to liberal ethics, while the Malaysia sample shows a moral intuitionist group with a relativistic approach in ethical decision making. The results indicate that ethical consumer profiling based on MFT has a sufficient level of criterion validity as it helps predict moral outrage, pro‐business attitudes, and boycott intentions in response to corporate irresponsibility. The study also demonstrates cross‐cultural differences in moral foundations and moral judgments in the context of ethical consumerism and corporate social irresponsibility.

To support or to boycott: a public segmentation model in corporate social advocacy

ABSTRACT This study proposes a theoretical model that provides a segmentation method of publics based on their cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses toward corporate social advocacy (CSA). As one of the initial efforts in building a theory of CSA in public relations scholarship, the model segments consumers based on three outcome variables – boycott intention, purchase intention, and corporate reputation. This model also incorporates consumer-company congruence, company-cause fit, consumer-cause fit, and issue involvement as antecedent variables. A survey of 482 adult consumers found that consumer-company congruence and company-cause fit had significant negative impacts on boycott intention, but positive influences on purchase intention. Consumer-company congruence, company-cause fit, and consumer-cause fit all had significant positive impacts on corporate reputation. Moreover, interaction effects between company-cause fit and consumers’ involvement with the specific CSA issue were found significant on both boycott intention and purchase intention. How these findings help advance the understanding of publics in a CSA context is discussed.

The Influence of Contemporary Negative Political Relations on Ethnic Dining Choices

The marketing literature has demonstrated that political animosity influences consumers’ boycott intention. However, this question has rarely been examined in the hospitality setting. Thus, by utilizing cognitive appraisal theory and value-belief-norm theory, this study proposes a model to investigate the effect of animosity on ethnic dining behavior. To this end, this study examines the effect of animosity on switching intention by examining the structural relationships among anticipated negative emotions, personal norms, and switching intention. Study results demonstrate that individuals’ animosity beliefs influence their intention to switch to a different ethnic restaurant through anticipated negative emotions and personal norms. The current study’s findings provide ethnic restaurateurs with insights on how to revise marketing strategies when animosity is raised toward the origin country of which their ethnic cuisine is based on.

Chain of Blame: A Multi-country Study of Consumer Reactions Towards Supplier Hypocrisy in Global Supply Chains

Recent research identified firms’ hypocritical behavior as a major threat to their reputation among consumers. This paper expands the dyadic relationship to a triadic relationship, integrating the hypocritical behavior of suppliers in global supply chains. Introducing a chain of blame, this paper suggests that the hypocritical behavior of the supplier backfires on the firm, leading to loss of reputation and increased boycotting tendencies. We test our proposed framework across one main study and two follow-up studies with consumers from two industrialized and two BRICS countries (Germany, US, China and South-Africa) and a total of 1177 respondents. Results show that consumers from various countries consistently hold firms responsible for their suppliers’ hypocritical behavior, consequently lower their reputation ratings, and intend to engage in boycotting the firm. The analysis further identifies the origin of the supplier and consumer ethnocentrism as nationally-variant promoting factors of consumers’ boycott intention and shows that the influence of those factors is contingent on consumers’ expectations towards foreign vs domestic firms. Implications for managers and marketing-managers are given.

The impact of value-related crises on price and product-performance elasticities

Previous research on the impact of corporate crises on customers’ elasticity has largely focused on performance-related crises (e.g., product recalls) and found an increasing price elasticity under these conditions. We investigate whether this result differs for value-related crises that are due to ethical violations, such as the use of child labor or environmental pollution. In line with moral foundation theory (MFT), we propose that value-related crises lead to stronger moral outrage and increased boycott intentions, thereby decreasing price and product-performance elasticities. We first analyze more than 360,000 Facebook user comments in relation to four value-related and four performance-related crises and show that the different outcomes for value- and performance-related crises can be explained according to MFT. Then, through discrete choice experiments, we demonstrate that, in contrast to performance-related crises, price elasticity decreases substantially for a value-related crisis that affects both violating and nonviolating companies. We also show for the first time the impact on product-performance elasticities with similar negative effects as for price. The results are stable even for different product categories, causes of ethical violations, and measurement conditions. As a result, it is more difficult for companies to recover from value- than performance-related crises.

Treating Ivanka unfairly

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of presidential tweeting about corporations on publics’ perceptions of and behavioral intentions toward those corporations. Specifically, the authors examined publics’ intentions to boycott or buycott (Friedman, 1996) Nordstrom, four months after President Trump’s tweet denouncing the company’s decision to discontinue his daughter’s clothing line.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was conducted among 517 American citizens using Qualtrics panels in June 2017. Respondents were compensated for their participation.FindingsThe authors found strong associations between perceived moral inequity and boycott intentions, and perceived business/economic nature of corporate action and buycott intentions. Furthermore, demographic characteristics associated with both types of perceptions were also examined. Younger, more educated respondents tended to accept Nordstrom’s actions as being routine business decisions, whereas conservative participants saw Nordstrom’s actions as being morally iniquitous.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to explore the impact of presidential tweeting, albeit indirectly, on publics’ perceptions and intentions toward corporations who form the subjects of said tweets. Practitioners may utilize these findings to provide guidance to corporations who may be at the receiving end of presidential tweeting.

Corporate Social Responsibility Beyond Borders: U.S. Consumer Boycotts of a Global Company Over Sweatshop Issues in Supplier Factories Overseas

The current research examines the effects of individualizing moral foundations (i.e., fairness and care) on consumer boycotts against the U.S. company that is entangled in an alleged sweatshop issue at a supplier’s factory in a developing country. On the basis of moral foundations theory, the current study tests six hypotheses that demonstrate the theoretical mechanism by which individualizing moral foundations have an impact on consumer boycott intentions through blame attributions and anger. Using a representative U.S. sample of 1,124 people, a national survey was conducted to test the proposed structural equation model. As predicted, results of mediation analysis showed that individualizing foundations, consisted of the fairness/care values, led to boycott intentions fully mediated by blame attribution and anger.

Impact of Moral Ethics on Consumers’ Boycott Intentions: A Cross-Cultural Study of Crisis Perceptions and Responses in the United States, South Korea, and Singapore

This study investigates the effects of individuals’ moral foundations on perceptions and responses to a company’s crisis. Drawing on moral foundations theory, it empirically tests a theoretical model of crisis attribution and moral outrage with two antecedents (i.e., individualizing moral and binding moral) on three outcomes (i.e., crisis attribution, anger, and boycott intentions), using more than 3,000 respondents from three culturally diverse countries—the United States, South Korea, and Singapore. The study finds that individualizing and binding moral foundations have significant effects on attribution, emotional reaction (i.e., anger), and behavioral intentions related to corporate irresponsibility, although their effects are distinct and varied across countries. While individualizing moral foundations lead to boycott intentions, the effects of binding moral foundations are multifaceted. Implications for communication professionals practicing in a highly globalized business environment today to recognize variations in morality among different publics in times of crisis are discussed.

불매운동 관련 특성 및 소비자시민성이 온라인 불매운동태도와 의도에 미치는 영향 : 자기감시성의 조절효과를 중심으로

환경, 사회, 정치 등의 문제에 대해 소비자들이 의견을 표출하는 방법으로 불매운동이 많이 사용되고 있으며최근에는 온라인을 통해서 불매운동의 힘과 파급력이 더욱더 커지고 빠르게 확산되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 소비자의 온라인 불매운동태도와 의도에 영향을 미치는 변수에 대해 파악하였고 온라인 불매운동의도에 관련변수들이온라인 불매운동태도를 매개로 어떠한 인과관계가 있는지를 알아보았다. 또한 온라인 불매운동태도와 온라인 불매운동의도의 관계에서 자기감시성의 조절효과에 대해 분석하였다. 연구결과를 보면 첫째, 온라인 불매운동의도에는 온라인 불매운동 용이성, 불매운동 커뮤니티 소속감, 온라인불매운동태도가 영향을 미치는 변수로 나타났다. 둘째, 온라인 불매운동경험, 사회적 혜택, 소비자시민성 변수는온라인 불매운동태도를 매개로만 온라인불매운동의도에 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 자기감시성이 온라인 불매운동태도와 온라인 불매운동의도 간의 관계를 조절하는 것을 확인하였다. 즉, 소비자의 자기감시성이 높을수록 온라인 불매운동태도가 온라인 불매운동의도로 연결되는데 긍정적인 영향을 주는 것이다. 따라서 대부분소비자들이 불매운동이 바람직하다고 생각하는 사회적인 분위기를 조성한다면 온라인 불매운동에 대해 긍정적으로 생각하는 자기감시성이 높은 소비자들의 온라인 불매운동의도는 더욱더 높아질 것이다.

A Study on Influencing Factors on Consumer Boycott intention by Applying Extended Model of Goal-Directed Behavior

This study is to apply a goal-directed model for ethical consumption behavior and to see which factors influence consumers’ boycott intention. We identify factors related to a goal-directed model for consumers, level of ethical consumption tendency, and boycott desire; in addition, factors that affect boycott intentions were also analyzed. The results of this study are as follows. First, consumers’ boycott intentions are not high and public intention motivation is relatively low. Second, negative anticipated emotion shows an indirect effect with boycott desire as a mediator. Third, ethical consumption tendency has a significant effect on boycott desire and boycott intention. Therefore, we have to let consumers know that boycott actually shows a consumer’s right and that it is also necessary to conduct various ethical consumption education.

Determinants of consumer’s willingness to boycott surrogate products

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the willingness to boycott among Malaysian consumers towards the surrogate products associated with Israel. The present study was based on the previous and an ongoing war and conflict in the Middle East.Design/methodology/approachSeveral surrogate products associated with Israel were selected. A total of 468 respondents from various backgrounds participated in this study. Analysis was performed using multiple regression analysis (MRA).FindingsResults showed that three factors were significant in predicting the willingness to boycott. They were animosity, subjective norms and product judgments. Anticipated emotions (both positive and negative emotions) were found to be insignificant in predicting the willingness to boycott the surrogate products.Originality/valueThe present study addresses the boycott intention in Malaysia where multi-races and multi-religions exist, in the context of the ongoing war and oppression by Israeli government toward the Palestinians. The results have some implications to multinational firms, especially those perceived to have direct links with the aggressors.

Antecedents of customer participation in business ecosystems: evidence of customers’ psychological ownership in Facebook

Customers can influence the health of business ecosystem through their participation. What are the determinants of customer participation at the business ecosystem level? This study addresses this question by proposing a research model integrating the organizational socialization of customers, customer participation, and psychological ownership. It proposes customers’ psychological ownership as an antecedent of their participation in the business ecosystem. No study to date has empirically examined customer participation in business ecosystems. This study tests the hypotheses based on online survey data from 397 Facebook users. The results show that psychological ownership is a significant determinant of customer participation in the business ecosystem via word-of-mouth (WOM) and boycott intention. The result of our study also indicates that customer socialization significantly affects customer participation in the individual firm, which in turn leads to an increased psychological ownership. This study (a) broadens the concept of customer participation by examining it via the business ecosystem lens and (b) highlights WOM and boycott activities as examples of customer participation at the business ecosystem level.

A study of ethnic perception gap on consumer boycott of Korean and Canadian University students

Purpose In this paper, the authors aim to offer a cross-cultural comparison of the boycott intentions of university students in Canada with those of students in Korea. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected from students at Inje University and York University via self-administered questionnaire. A t-test found that Canadian students’ answers showed significantly greater scores in ethnocentrism, boycott attitudes prior to reading the target article and motivations related to self-enhancement compared to those acquired from Korean students. However, the motivation of counterarguments and the boycott intentions of Korean students’ toward Rogers, the parent company of Maclean’s magazine, showed significantly higher scores than those gained from Canadian students. Findings The boycott case used in the study is Maclean’s magazine, a Canadian news magazine, which published a controversial article called, “Too Asian? Some frosh don’t want to study at an “Asian” University”. A noticeable gap in each group of students’ boycott attitude and intentions toward Rogers, the parent company of Maclean’s magazine was found. Originality/value In the multiple regression analysis, the boycott motivation of self-enhancement was the most influential variable on boycott intentions. The boycott case examined in this paper is a practical case study of cross-national grouping as well as the perceptional difference of the locus of corporate accountability that comes from cross-cultural backgrounds.

How a paracrisis situation is instigated by an online firestorm and visual mockery: Testing a paracrisis development model

On the framework of cognitive appraisal theory, the current research proposes a paracrisis development model that illustrates how the cognitive appraisal of social norms and visual mockery in the social media evokes negative affect and subsequent coping behaviors in terms of boycotts. To test the model, an online experiment was conducted simulating a real-world paracrisis situation in which a user's Facebook commentary regarding a company's billboard ad sparked a social media outcry. Results of the study showed that both social proof and visual mockery played a role in the negative climate of opinion and perception of a crisis. Social proof and visual mockery also aroused negative affect. Notably, visual mockery affected negative affect of self rather than others, while social proof had a greater impact on negative affect of others than self. The elicited negative affect not only increased boycott intentions but it also mediated the effect of visual mockery on boycott intentions. In conclusion, the paracrisis development model showed empirical evidence for the role of social media triggered events in forming a crisis perception and potentially leading to boycotts in the interplay of social proof and visual mockery.

20-30대 소비자의 불매운동관련 특성이 온라인 불매운동의도에 미치는 영향: 소비자역할인식의 조절효과를 중심으로

20-30대 소비자의 불매운동관련 특성이 온라인 불매운동의도에 미치는 영향: 소비자역할인식의 조절효과를 중심으로

The Sustainability Roots of Anticonsumption Lifestyles and Initial Insights Regarding Their Effects on Consumers' Well‐Being

This article introduces the concept of sustainability‐rooted anticonsumption (SRAC), which refers to consumers' anticonsumption practices of voluntary simplicity in living and, on a smaller level, collaborative consumption and boycotting with the goal of supporting sustainable economic development. The SRAC measurement approach is validated based on three empirical studies. Results of a representative German sample (Study 2) reveal that SRAC is predominantly negatively linked to consumer overconsumption dispositions. Exemplary, voluntary simplification and boycott intention may result in declining levels of indebtedness. Study 3 shows that psychosocial well‐being is positively related to SRAC and overconsumption. However, a simplified lifestyle and a greater willingness to boycott are not necessarily associated with psychosocial well‐being. This article provides insights for practitioners and policymakers to leverage existing SRAC values via “new” business models (sharing offers) or to influence the existing level of consciousness to effectively pave the way for solid progress in the sustainability movement.

An Expectancy-Value Approach to the Study of Beliefs Underlying Consumer Boycott Intention

In order to (a) investigate the expectancy-value model supporting the beliefs behind boycott intentions in thetheory of planned behaviour, and (b) to identify the specific beliefs that could be used as targets incounter-boycott participation interventions, this paper adopts a socio-cognitive approach to examine the beliefsunderpinning consumers' boycott intention. A randomized systematic sample of 500 respondents completed aquestionnaire measuring both the indirect and direct TPB variables with respect to boycotting. The statisticalresults confirmed the validity of the expectancy-value principle in the TPB. By delineating the beliefs that werestatistically significant predictors of direct TPB measures and intention, the study identified belief targets thatcan be utilized to develop countermeasures persuading consumers not to boycott American companies in theArab World. This application of a socio-psychological theory to consumers' boycott behaviour yieldedsignificant contributions both at the empirical and the managerial levels.

Influence of Anonymity to Consumer's Boycott Intention in the Online Environment

Influence of Anonymity to Consumer's Boycott Intention in the Online Environment