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Partners in crime? The impact of consumers' culpability for corporate social irresponsibility on their boycott attitude

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  • Scheidler, Sabrina
  • Edinger-Schons, Laura Marie

Abstract

Corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) covers a diverse spectrum of wrongdoings, ranging from tax evasion to bad working conditions in supply chains. If consumers conclude that a company is responsible for a CSI incident, one commonly used regulatory behavior are boycotts. However, pressure is mounting that partial responsibility for certain CSI incidents should also lie with customers due to how their consumption demands help drive irresponsible company conduct. To date, no research has established whether a consumer culpability path for CSI exists next to the corporate culpability path. The study at hand focuses on how the novel construct of consumer culpability impacts consumers' boycott attitude and which role CSI-type specific consumer benefits play (e.g., low prices stemming from bad working conditions). Findings are based on a sample of consumers' (N = 5662) unaided recall of over 500 unique CSI incidents of 460 companies that were categorized in a stakeholder-based typology.

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  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:109:y:2020:i:c:p:607-620
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.03.043
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. María Iborra & Marta Riera, 2023. "Corporate social irresponsibility: What we know and what we need to know," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1421-1439, May.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. François Maon & Valérie Swaen & Kenneth de Roeck, 2021. "Coporate branding and corporate social responsibility: Toward a multi-stakeholder interpretive perspective," Post-Print hal-03275858, HAL.
    7. Jingchen Ma & Xu Huang, 2023. "Knowledge-Based Faultlines and Corporate Social Irresponsibility: Evidence from Chinese High-Polluting Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-18, September.
    8. 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).
    9. Chunguang Quan & Shasha Yu & Xiaojuan Cheng & Feiyue Liu, 2022. "Comprehensive efficiency evaluation of social responsibility of Chinese listed logistics enterprises based on DEA-Malmquist model," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 1383-1398, December.
    10. Xi Zhong & Liuyang Ren & Tiebo Song, 2022. "Beyond Market Strategies: How Multiple Decision-Maker Groups Jointly Influence Underperforming Firms’ Corporate Social (Ir)responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 481-499, June.
    11. Rong Liu & Jiawei Yang & Jifei Wu, 2022. "When Big Data Backfires: The Impact of a Perceived Privacy Breach by Pharmaceutical E-Retailers on Customer Boycott Intention in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-13, April.
    12. Xiaoyang Zhao & Jie Mi, 2024. "Firms’ corporate social irresponsibility behaviors during interplay with consumers in evolutionary game models," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.

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