Corporate political activism crises response and attachment styles

Anubhav Aggarwal

doi:10.17918/D86T0J

This dissertation investigates how consumers' attachment styles affect their responses to corporate political activism stands. Traditionally, businesses have shied away from politics, except when lobbying for more favorable business policies. But in the past few years, many companies have moved beyond lobbying and have gotten involved in or have been pulled into controversial social and political issues, which often pit different segments of society against each other. Examples of corporate political activism (CPA) include the stands taken by Apple on gay marriage, Starbucks on Immigration, and NCAA on LGBT rights. Given the contentious nature of such issues, these companies have faced a backlash from consumers that hold contrary views. Such crises, related to a company's political activities, are becoming common and can lead to severe deterioration of customer relationships with a company. Handling CPA crises in a manner that minimizes damage to these relationships is of critical importance. Given that a company has no option but to upset some customers when responding to CPA crises, knowing which customers are more likely to excuse its actions is of great value as it enables the company to minimize crises damage by accommodating customers that are less forgiving. In this dissertation, I employ attachment theory to develop response strategies that can be used in case of CPA crises. Attachment theory is particularly useful in predicting consumer response to CPA crises as it can (a) help identify consumers who are more likely to continue their relationship with the company despite CPA related transgressions (e.g. taking an opposing stand), and (b) guide the development post-crisis communication strategies that improve the chances of appeasing disgruntled consumers (e.g. message frames). Study 1 investigates the impact of consumers' attachment styles on their response to a company's decision to reverse its original stand on the issue of gun control. As predicted, results show that avoidant consumers have greater purchase intention than anxious consumers when the company changes its stand even when the change aligns with their own stand on gun-control. Study 2 shows that the effect of a company's decision to reverse its original stand or stand by it on consumers' purchase intent is mediated by the perceived responsiveness of the company. Avoidant consumers are more likely to perceive a company to be responsive when it doubles down on its original stand even when it is opposite to their own views on the issue. Study 3 explores the use of dependent versus independent message frames to communicate a company's decision to reverse its stand to minimize the negative impact on perceived responsiveness for avoidant consumers.

Corporate political activism crises response and attachment styles

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Corporate political activism crises response and attachment styles

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Drexel University Social media