Standing for politics: What consequences for brands?

This research explores how corporate political activity (CPA) afects consumers’ online behavior. Recently, brands’ engagement in the political realm has expanded as results of new trends such as globalization and technology advancement. How ever, it is still not clear how this more activist approach is perceived by consumers. Drawing from attribution theory and corporate hypocrisy, this study explains how consumers’ e-WOM spread once brands develop CPAs in terms of action and com munication. A mixed-method design combining a content analysis (Study 1) with an online experiment (Study 2) is presented to obtain a multifaceted representation of the phenomenon. Study 1 provides information on consumers’ reactions toward CPAs shared online, while Study 2 delves deeper to test the efect of CPA on con sumers’ negative e-WOM, by comparing a political communication initiative with a political action and proposing perceived genuine concern and hypocrisy as the underlying mechanisms of this efect. This research ofers insightful theoretical and practical implications, providing brand managers actionable levers on how to reduce negative e-WOM.