Consumer rewarding mechanism in global corporate activism: An experiment using the Russia-Ukraine War

This study explores public responses to large-scale, global corporate activism in which many companies departed the Russian market over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It aims at understanding how publics decide which company deserves to be rewarded when many of them take part in corporate activism. Using an experiment, this study specifically examines the impact of proactiveness (act before others) and commitment (complete and permanent exit) news information on motive attribution and subsequent consumer buycott and related communicative efforts. Our findings suggest that proactiveness and commitment in corporate activism reduce egoistic and strategic motive attribution while they increase value-driven motive attribution. Stakeholder-driven motive is not reduced by commitment, only by proactiveness. Proactiveness and commitment also have significant direct effects on public intention to participate in political consumerism. Three specific details emerge. First, how proactiveness and commitment impact reward intention is mediated by perceived egoistic and value-driven motives. Second, how proactiveness impacts strategic and stakeholder-driven motive attribution is moderated by commitment. Only when commitment is high does proactiveness significantly reduce perceived strategic motive and stakeholder-driven motive. Third, the indirect effect of proactiveness on publics’ “buycott” intention through stakeholder-driven motive attribution is contingent on corporate commitment such that the effect is stronger when commitment is high.