TY - JOUR
T1 - Polarized public opinion responding to corporate social advocacy
T2 - Social network analysis of boycotters and advocators
AU - Rim, Hyejoon
AU - Lee, Young Ah
AU - Yoo, Sanglim
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2020/6
Y1 - 2020/6
N2 - Despite growing attention to corporate social-political advocacy, little is known about how publics mobilize and establish relationships in social media when firms are involved in hot-button issues. Using the social network approach, this study examines a network structure which emerged around boycotting and advocating for Starbucks and Budweiser when these two brands responded to President Donald Trump's immigration ban executive order in 2017. The study identified three unique characteristics in the boycotters’ networks. The boycotters appeared not only in the aggregated brand boycotting networks, but also in the advocators’ networks. In addition, boycotters in Budweiser and Starbucks networks were engaged in boycotting other brands or organizations which were opposed to Republicans or President Trump's policy. Finally, the network of boycotters was very dense and highly connected among subgroups while that of advocators was sparse. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
AB - Despite growing attention to corporate social-political advocacy, little is known about how publics mobilize and establish relationships in social media when firms are involved in hot-button issues. Using the social network approach, this study examines a network structure which emerged around boycotting and advocating for Starbucks and Budweiser when these two brands responded to President Donald Trump's immigration ban executive order in 2017. The study identified three unique characteristics in the boycotters’ networks. The boycotters appeared not only in the aggregated brand boycotting networks, but also in the advocators’ networks. In addition, boycotters in Budweiser and Starbucks networks were engaged in boycotting other brands or organizations which were opposed to Republicans or President Trump's policy. Finally, the network of boycotters was very dense and highly connected among subgroups while that of advocators was sparse. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
KW - Boycott
KW - Corporate social advocacy (CSA)
KW - Corporate social responsibility
KW - NodeXL
KW - Social network analysis
KW - Twitter
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076547563&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85076547563&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.101869
DO - 10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.101869
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85076547563
SN - 0363-8111
VL - 46
JO - Public Relations Review
JF - Public Relations Review
IS - 2
M1 - 101869
ER -