Materialism Domains and Perceived Risk Effects on Consumer Boycott Effectiveness

Abstract

As markets for goods and services become global, competition among companies becomes more intense. Companies’ success is strongly influenced by consumer needs and expectations. To successfully compete, firms must meet or exceed these expectations. In addition to that understanding consumers’ boycotting behavior has emerged as an integral part of firms’ competitive advantage building. Even though consumer boycott has become a subject of increasing concern in recent years, to academics and practitioners, to date, consumer behavior literature provides little help in understanding the factors affecting consumer boycott effectiveness. Good management requires not only a clearer understanding of the consumers’ purchase behavior, but also an understanding of boycotting behavior and how it may be reduced. In order to expand the knowledge on boycotting behavior, this study examines the relationship between consumers’ boycotting effectiveness and perceived risk, and success, centrality, happiness domains of materialism. The results show that an increase in perceived risk leads to an increase in boycotting effectiveness and there is a negative correlation between boycotting effectiveness and centrality domain of materialism.