Understanding Political Consumerism, Political Participation, and Their Antecedents

Political consumerism is a form of self-expression where consumers boycott or buycott a brand, company, or a product. The increase in the amount of these actions in recent years has led scholars and marketers improve their understanding of how and why consumers engage in political consumerism and what its predecessors are. By employing a wide scale survey among 360 participants in Turkey, this study presents empirical and qualitative evidence for boycott behavior and investigates how other forms of political participation and individual level characteristics have an effect on political consumerism. Results suggest main reason for boycott behavior in Turkey is due to political reasons and conservatism as an individual level value orientation has a negative effect on boycott behavior. In addition, online activism and voting participation behaviors have positive effects on political consumerism.