The “company politics” of social stances: How conservative vs. liberal consumers respond to corporate political stance-taking

While prior research has made progress in addressing the role of political ideology in marketing, an important question remains regarding corporate political stance-taking (CPST): how does a consumer’s political ideology (conservative vs. liberal) affect responses to companies’ stances that agree vs. disagree with the consumer’s ideology? We address this question through the lens of balance theory, finding that liberal (vs. conservative) consumers have stronger reactions to companies’ stances due to the priority placed on CPST. That is, liberals exhibit wider variance between agreement and disagreement with companies’ stances across consumer responses (patronage intentions and willingness to pay) than their conservative counterparts. In line with balance theory, attitude toward the company mediates the results.