Beyond the unfollow button: Navigating social media influencer boycotts in the digital marketplace

Abstract

Social media influencer (SMI) boycotts are instances in which the public withdraws its collective support for specific brands or individuals because of their violation of certain moral standards. Research on this phenomenon remains limited however. This study fills gaps in the literature by examining the dynamics of SMI boycotts, specifically their multifaceted actions, and exploring both dedication and constraint factors influencing boycott behavior. Using a sample of 724 respondents who reported having engaged in boycott behavior, drawn from the government-hosted Taiwan Communication Survey, collected through probability-proportional-to-size sampling, we analyze various real-world boycotts in Study 1. In Study 2, an experimental design, we investigate how violation context (health misinformation, financial deception, and intellectual property violation) and boycott size (small vs. large) affect boycott intentions. Our findings reveal that boycott size has differential effects across violation contexts, with financial deception having the strongest size effects, followed by intellectual property violation; health misinformation provokes minimal sensitivity to boycott size. This study enhances existing knowledge on boycott behavior within the framework of consumer participation facilitated by social media.