Exploring the role of issue involvement and brand attachment in shaping consumer response toward corporate social advocacy (CSA) initiatives: the case of Nike’s Colin Kaepernick campaign

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

“…Despite the accumulation of research, the risk of CSA has been rarely discussed. Among the studies discussing the potential negative effects of CSA, most of them explored the direct implication when a corporation's stance collides with some people's stance on an issue and indicated a negative relationship between CSA attitude and negative consumer responses (Li et al, 2021;Overton et al, 2020). This study adds evidence to this line of research and encourages scholars to dig deeper into the mind of stakeholders who oppose a corporation's stance.…”

“…Second, current CSA literature more frequently takes a top-down approach and views the CSA practice from an organization's perspective without considering individual characteristics (Dodd and Supa, 2015;Park and Jiang, 2020;Yim, 2021). Along with emerging studies considering the role of involvement (Li et al, 2021;Overton et al, 2020;Parcha and Westerman, 2020), this study suggested that social issue activism is an important factor in explaining the effects of stance-action consistency on negative consumer responses. Individual characteristics and physical attributes such as gender, age and education have been documented to influence stakeholders' reactions to CSR communication (Rosati et al, 2018;Wisse et al, 2018).…”

“…Unsatisfied customers are more likely to spread NWOM (Laczniak et al, 2001). In CSA literature, people's attitudes toward a company's stance on controversial issues affect NWOM negatively (Li et al, 2021;Overton et al, 2020). Boycott denotes activist groups' campaigns to stop the transaction between consumers and companies (Garrett, 1987).…”

“…However, consumers who are activists on a social issue are cognitively and emotionally involved in the issue (Li et al, 2021). Thus, they would hold higher standards for companies' CSA engagement.…”

“…and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) (Li et al, 2021;Overton et al, 2020). However, the inconsistency between corporate statements and actions is an alarming fact of unethical behavior in CSA promotions, which is likely to generate negative responses.…”