The impact of corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility on boycott intention: The mediating role of corporate reputation and the moderating role of company size

Abstract

With consumers becoming more and more implicated in social and environmental issues, businesses ‘practices have to reflect the demand for CSR. Companies who succeed at being socially responsible are usually rewarded by consumers, whereas those who fail to act ethically will have to face the consequences of their actions. Among other things, boycotting is seen as being a good strategy to show dissatisfaction and demand change from enterprises. The present thesis thus investigates the impact of CSR and CSI on boycott intention leveraging a quantitative approach. In addition, we strived to determine the mediating role of corporate reputation between the relationship of CSR/CSI and boycott intention. Finally, the moderating effect of company size on the link between CSR/CSI and boycott intention has been explored. A 2X2 factorial between-subjects experimental design has been conducted to test the different hypotheses of the theoretical model which were developed as a result of a thorough literature review. The present research significantly demonstrated the direct effect of CSR/CSI on boycott intention as well as the mediating effect of corporate reputation in that relationship. However, we could not conclude for the moderating role of company size. Based on those findings, managerial and theoretical implications were provided as well as suggestions for future research.