IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i9p5174-d549331.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Brand Sustainability Obstacle: Viewpoint Incompatibility and Consumer Boycott

Author

Listed:
  • Chih-Chien Wang

    (Graduate Institute of Information Management, National Taipei University, New Taipei City 237, Taiwan)

  • Shu-Chen Chang

    (Department of Advertising, Chinese Culture University, Taipei City 111, Taiwan)

  • Pei-Ying Chen

    (Graduate Institute of Information Management, National Taipei University, New Taipei City 237, Taiwan)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Chih-Chien Wang & Shu-Chen Chang & Pei-Ying Chen, 2021. "The Brand Sustainability Obstacle: Viewpoint Incompatibility and Consumer Boycott," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-23, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5174-:d:549331
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5174/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5174/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vicente Lima Crisóstomo & Fátima de Souza Freire & Felipe Cortes de Vasconcellos, 2011. "Corporate social responsibility, firm value and financial performance in Brazil," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 7(2), pages 295-309, July.
    2. Bearden, William O & Rose, Randall L, 1990. "Attention to Social Comparison Information: An Individual Difference Factor Affecting Consumer Conformity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(4), pages 461-471, March.
    3. Amrinder Kaur & Puja Chhabra Sharma, 2018. "Social sustainability in supply chain decisions: Indian manufacturers," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1707-1721, August.
    4. SandIkcI, Özlem & Ekici, Ahmet, 2009. "Politically motivated brand rejection," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 208-217, February.
    5. Joonhyeong Joseph Kim & Insin Kim, 2018. "Moral Imagination, Parasocial Brand Love, and Customer Citizenship Behavior: Travelers’ Relationship with Sponsoring Airline Brands in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, November.
    6. Lombart, Cindy & Louis, Didier, 2014. "A study of the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility and price image on retailer personality and consumers' reactions (satisfaction, trust and loyalty to the retailer)," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 630-642.
    7. Suzanne C. Makarem & Haeran Jae, 2016. "Consumer Boycott Behavior: An Exploratory Analysis of Twitter Feeds," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 193-223, March.
    8. Loussaïef, Leïla & Cacho-Elizondo, Silvia & Pettersen, Inger Beate & Tobiassen, Anita E., 2014. "Do CSR actions in retailing really matter for young consumers? A study in France and Norway," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 9-17.
    9. Dongwoo Shin & Ji Song & Abhijit Biswas, 2014. "Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) generation in new media platforms: The role of regulatory focus and collective dissonance," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 153-165, June.
    10. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    11. Shuchi Gupta & Nishad Nawaz & Abhishek Tripathi & Saqib Muneer & Naveed Ahmad, 2021. "Using Social Media as a Medium for CSR Communication, to Induce Consumer–Brand Relationship in the Banking Sector of a Developing Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, March.
    12. Ke Zhang & Kineta Hung, 2020. "The Effect of Natural Celebrity–Brand Association and Para-Social Interaction in Advertising Endorsement for Sustainable Marketing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-20, August.
    13. Yu, Qionglei & McManus, Richard & Yen, Dorothy A. & Li, Xiang (Robert), 2020. "Tourism boycotts and animosity: A study of seven events," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    14. Scheidler, Sabrina & Edinger-Schons, Laura Marie, 2020. "Partners in crime? The impact of consumers' culpability for corporate social irresponsibility on their boycott attitude," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 607-620.
    15. Silvia Platania & Martina Morando & Giuseppe Santisi, 2020. "Psychometric Properties, Measurement Invariance, and Construct Validity of the Italian Version of the Brand Hate Short Scale (BHS)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-13, March.
    16. Sen, Sankar & Gurhan-Canli, Zeynep & Morwitz, Vicki, 2001. "Withholding Consumption: A Social Dilemma Perspective on Consumer Boycotts," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(3), pages 399-417, December.
    17. Fetscherin, Marc, 2019. "The five types of brand hate: How they affect consumer behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 116-127.
    18. Juran Kim, 2018. "Social dimension of sustainability: From community to social capital," Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 175-181, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yu-Yin Chang & Heng-Chiang Huang, 2021. "Exploring Patterns of Evolution for Successful Global Brands: A Data-Mining Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Bangwool Han & Agung Yoga Sembada & Lester W. Johnson, 2021. "Leveraging Underdog Positioning and Consumer Trait Agreeableness for Sustained Marketing Strategy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Alyahya, Mansour & Agag, Gomaa & Aliedan, Meqbel & Abdelmoety, Ziad H., 2023. "A cross-cultural investigation of the relationship between eco-innovation and customers boycott behaviour," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tian Zeng & Anne‐Françoise Audrain‐Pontevia & Fabien Durif, 2021. "Does corporate social responsibility affect consumer boycotts? A cost–benefit approach," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 796-807, March.
    2. Nieves García-de-Frutos & José Manuel Ortega-Egea & Javier Martínez-del-Río, 2018. "Anti-consumption for Environmental Sustainability: Conceptualization, Review, and Multilevel Research Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 411-435, March.
    3. Seong Ho Lee, 2021. "Effects of Retailers’ Corporate Social Responsibility on Retailer Equity and Consumer Usage Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-9, March.
    4. Thanh Hoai Nguyen & Hai Quynh Ngo & Pham Ngoc Nha Ngo & Gi-Du Kang, 2018. "Understanding the Motivations Influencing Ecological Boycott Participation: An Exploratory Study in Viet Nam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    5. Moser, Andrea K., 2016. "Consumers' purchasing decisions regarding environmentally friendly products: An empirical analysis of German consumers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 389-397.
    6. Valor, Carmen & Antonetti, Paolo & Zasuwa, Grzegorz, 2022. "Corporate social irresponsibility and consumer punishment: A systematic review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 1218-1233.
    7. He, Hongwei & Kim, Sumin & Gustafsson, Anders, 2021. "What can we learn from #StopHateForProfit boycott regarding corporate social irresponsibility and corporate social responsibility?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 217-226.
    8. Jaeki Song & Fatemeh Mariam Zahedi, 2005. "A Theoretical Approach to Web Design in E-Commerce: A Belief Reinforcement Model," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(8), pages 1219-1235, August.
    9. Francisco-José Cossío-Silva & María-Ángeles Revilla-Camacho & Beatriz Palacios-Florencio & Dolores Garzón Benítez, 2019. "How to face a political boycott: the relevance of entrepreneurs’ awareness," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 321-339, June.
    10. Iyer, Rajesh & Muncy, James A., 2009. "Purpose and object of anti-consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 160-168, February.
    11. He, Yi & You, Ya & Chen, Qimei, 2020. "Our conditional love for the underdog: The effect of brand positioning and the lay theory of achievement on WOM," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 210-222.
    12. Eugene Song, 2020. "South Korean Consumers’ Attitudes toward Small Business Owners Participating in the 2019 Anti-Japan Boycott," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-14, May.
    13. Veloutsou, Cleopatra & Chatzipanagiotou, Kalliopi & Christodoulides, George, 2020. "The consumer-based brand equity deconstruction and restoration process: Lessons from unliked brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 41-51.
    14. Han, Heesup & Yu, Jongsik & Kim, Wansoo, 2019. "An electric airplane: Assessing the effect of travelers' perceived risk, attitude, and new product knowledge," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 33-42.
    15. Kim, Changju & Yan, Xiuyan & Kim, Jungkeun & Terasaki, Shinichiro & Furukawa, Hiroyasu, 2022. "Effect of consumer animosity on boycott campaigns in a cross-cultural context: Does consumer affinity matter?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    16. Remi Trudel & Jill Klein & Sankar Sen & Niraj Dawar, 2020. "Feeling Good by Doing Good: A Selfish Motivation for Ethical Choice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 39-49, September.
    17. Cindy G Grappe & Cindy Lombart & Didier Louis & Fabien Durif, 2021. ""Not tested on animals": How consumers react to cruelty-free cosmetics proposed by manufacturers and retailers?," Post-Print hal-03379593, HAL.
    18. Murat Hakan Altintas & Bahar F. Kurtulmusoglu & Hans Ruediger Kaufmann & Serkan Kilic, 2013. "Consumer boycotts of foreign products: a metric model," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 15(34), pages 485-504, June.
    19. Shi, Wei & Wei, Jingran, 2023. "In the crossfire: Multinational companies and consumer boycotts," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    20. Carmela Donato, 2021. "Disgust and preference for familiar brands," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2021(1), pages 5-23, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5174-:d:549331. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.