Consumers’ decision to boycott “unethical” products: the role of materialism/post materialism

Abstract

Purpose

Although boycotting campaigns have been increasing, a limited amount of academic research has been focussed on the antecedents of consumers’ participation in the retail field. This paper presents an examination of consumers’ intentions to boycott the “unethical” supermarket products by a Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) application. Materialism/Post-materialism was incorporated in the research as a moderating variable.

Design/methodology/approach

Personal interviews were taken in a sample (420) selected by a probability sampling method. Structural equation modelling was performed to analyse the data.

Findings

TPB was found powerful to explain boycotting intentions. Consumers, who more strongly intent to boycott, are affected more by social norms than by attitudes and perceived behavioural control. Those consumers believe more strongly that boycotting “unethical” retail products will generate valuable outcomes, will comply with their referents’ expectations and will not be obstructed by any barriers. Post-materialists were found to hold stronger intentions than materialists. Materialists are mostly influenced by their attitudes and their perceived control over participation in boycotting. On the contrary, post-materialists are solely influenced by their feelings regarding social pressure to boycott.

Research limitations/implications

Control for social desirability should be included in future research. National or multinational samples more effective for generalization. The ability of other psychographics or demographics to moderate TPB relationships could be further investigated.

Practical implications

Retailers, who try to avoid potential boycotts, should primarily aim to diminish the social influence towards boycotting. Secondarily, they should aim to decrease the consumers’ positive attitudes and perceived controllability over participation in boycotting. On the other side, consumers’ groups or associations when designing a boycott campaign should address their call targeting to post-materialist consumers. Messages for a boycotting call should enhance the important referents’ pressure towards a friendlier society in which people’s action is able to ethics in the market.

Originality/value

In this study, TPB was expanded by the incorporation of values, namely Materialism/Post-materialism, as a moderating factor.

Citation

Delistavrou, A., Krystallis, A. and Tilikidou, I. (2020), "Consumers’ decision to boycott “unethical” products: the role of materialism/post materialism", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 48 No. 10, pp. 1121-1138. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-04-2019-0126