Citation

Xu H, Rim H, Dong C. Public Relat. Rev. 2024; 50(2): e102441.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.pubrev.2024.102441

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Publics' reactions to corporate social advocacy (CSA) initiatives can be influenced not only by their agreement with companies' issue stances but also by their pre-existing perceptions of the companies involved. With the purpose of providing a more comprehensive understanding of CSA outcomes, this study draws on social identity theory and examines how consumer-company stance congruence in CSA interacts with consumer publics' pre-existing corporate attitude to influence their boycott and buycott intentions. Using real companies, two experiments were conducted with CSA on two socio-political issues: abortion laws (N = 258) and gun laws (N = 257). The results from Experiment 2 showed a buffering effect of positive pre-existing corporate attitude on publics' boycott intentions, when they have incongruent issue stances with companies. In Experiment 1, publics' perceived like-minded opinions opposing CSA were also found to boost their boycott intention. This study adds a nuanced understanding of the triadic consumer-issue-company dynamics in CSA from the social identity and public opinion perspectives, providing useful guidelines for CSA practices.

Language: en

Keywords

Boycott; Buycott; Consumer; Corporate attitude; Corporate social advocacy; Stance congruence