The combined effects of consumer-company stance congruence and consumers’ pre-existing corporate attitude in corporate social advocacy

Publics’ reactions to corporate social advocacy (CSA) initiatives can be influenced not only by their agreement with companies’ issue stances but also by their pre-existing perceptions of the companies involved. With the purpose of providing a more comprehensive understanding of CSA outcomes, this study draws on social identity theory and examines how consumer-company stance congruence in CSA interacts with consumer publics’ pre-existing corporate attitude to influence their boycott and buycott intentions. Using real companies, two experiments were conducted with CSA on two socio-political issues: abortion laws (N = 258) and gun laws (N = 257). The results from Experiment 2 showed a buffering effect of positive pre-existing corporate attitude on publics’ boycott intentions, when they have incongruent issue stances with companies. In Experiment 1, publics’ perceived like-minded opinions opposing CSA were also found to boost their boycott intention. This study adds a nuanced understanding of the triadic consumer-issue-company dynamics in CSA from the social identity and public opinion perspectives, providing useful guidelines for CSA practices.