How to face a political boycott: the relevance of entrepreneurs’ awareness

Abstract

Despite the growth in the number of consumer boycotts, the marketing literature has paid little attention to the factors that could explain such behavior or the effect of boycotts on entrepreneurial initiatives. Several studies have examined the motivations of customer boycott behavior. Nevertheless, its relation to other attitudinal variables and with firm-related characteristics has not been analyzed or has been dealt with only partially even though the implications are crucial for incumbents and start-ups to adapt their strategies. This paper examines the factors that could explain the consumer’s decision to boycott a brand because of its location in a specific country. The relevance of addressing this gap is based on the boycotts’ impact on local firms and start-ups performance. This study addresses this issue by proposing a model that considers consumer-related variables and the perceived importance of brands. The hypotheses proposed in this research are verified via variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling. The authors tested their framework during an actual boycott to Catalonian products and firms promoted on social media in Spain. The discussion of the results and their implications contribute to improving entrepreneurs, managers and academics’ comprehension of the determinants of customers’ intentions to participate in a boycott. This can also provide entrepreneurs and managers with a guide to orientate the design and implementation of strategies that enable the reduction of customer abandonment due to political boycotts. The main value of this research is that it provides a comprehensive model that includes different sorts of variables that could be involved in consumer boycott behavior. This model can support flexible entrepreneurial and managerial practices to help entrepreneurs to adapt rapidly to changes in the market due to boycotts.