Theory of planned behaviour and boycotting: the moderating role of socio-political control and demographics

Abstract

PurposeThis study examines the predictive ability of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to explain consumers' intentions to boycott “unethical”super market (S/M) products. It aims to expand the TPB by investigating the moderating role of politics and selected demographics in the formation process of behavioural intentions.Design/methodology/approachA survey with personal interviews was conducted in the urban area of Thessaloniki, Greece. The two-stage area, in combination with the stratified sampling, resulted in a representative sample of 420 useable questionnaires.FindingsConsumers were found to be mostly influenced by subjective norms to participate in a boycott campaign against “unethical” products, the next time they visited an S/M. Moderation analyses revealed that the effect of subjective norms gets higher in the group of consumers with lower policy control (PC) scores; the effect of attitudes gets higher in those with higher leadership competence (LC) in the society. Furthermore, the effect of attitudes on intentions gets stronger in men, younger than 44 years old, better educated and earning relatively higher incomes.Originality/valueThe contribution of this study to the boycotting research agenda concerns the expanded TPB model; it introduces scantly so far exogenous variables, namely politics and demographics.

Do consumer boycotts really matter with global companies? The moderating effect of gender differences

“…, 2012; Stolle et al. , 2005), a few recent studies have found the opposite, suggesting that men show greater involvement (Delistavrou, 2021; Fernandes, 2020). In contrast, while Krishna and Kim (2019) found a nonsignificant result of gender differences, Neilson (2010) contended that gender is a lesser prominent factor in explaining consumer boycotts.…”

“…These include consumers' perceptions of a firm's egregiousness toward the factory closings in terms of a cost-benefit approach (Klein et al, 2004), consumer animosity to the specific country drawn from the animosity model (Ettenson and Klein, 2005) or consumer animosity to a locality from the perspective of socio-psychological theories (Coss ıo-Silva et al, 2019). In relation to the effects of consumers' psychological and motivational factors, prior studies applied TPB and demonstrated how attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control increase the boycott intention (Delistavrou, 2021;Delistavrou et al, 2020;Farah and Newman, 2010). Yet, Lavorata (2014) found an unanticipated result, suggesting that boycott intention enhanced by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control is negatively linked to actual boycott behavior.…”

“…To address our research, following early investigators (Delistavrou, 2021;Delistavrou et al, 2020;Farah and Newman, 2010), we anchor our study in TPB. As the nature of boycotts is outlined in the work of Delistavrou (2021), the South Korean boycott campaign against Japanese products cannot be an improvised, impulsive and unconscious action. Rather, such a campaign represents consumers' conscious, planned behavior as a sign of protest to the Japanese government.…”

“…First, building on TPB, this study advances boycott literature by empirically testing how consumers' psychological and motivational factors are linked to actual boycott participation in an ongoing boycott campaign. While some studies using the TPB shed light on positive associations of the three psychological and motivational factors with boycott intention (Delistavrou, 2021;Delistavrou et al, 2020;Farah and Newman, 2010), Lavorata (2014) suggested a negative linkage between boycott intention and actual behavior. As Vermeir and Verbeke (2008) also pointed out, our knowledge on whether and how such consumer motives are associated with actual boycott behavior is obscure.…”

“…, 2005), only a few have offered insights on possible explanatory mechanisms conceptualizing gender in consumer boycotts (Cruz et al. , 2017; Delistavrou, 2021; Krishna and Kim, 2019; Lindenmeier et al. , 2012; Neilson, 2010).…”