Abstract:
Although previous researches have examined some of the effects of corporate sociopolitical advocacy, little is known about its impact on loyalty. The authors develop a model that explains the effect of congruence between an organization’s stance and their customers’ stance – relating to corporate sociopolitical advocacy – on loyalty, in terms of a direct effect and an indirect effect via customer-company identification. Using structural equation modeling, the authors test the model with data from a survey of 190 customers of three organizations in the Netherlands. Results show that congruence between stances of an organization and their customers positively, yet only indirectly via customer-company identification, influences loyalty, in terms of repurchase intention and willingness to pay more. Implications of these results, both for theory and practice, as well as avenues for further research are discussed.
