While some companies are withdrawing support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, other companies are continuing their support, leading to uncertainty around whether and how these strategic decisions affect consumer responses. This study aims to examine how consumers respond to DEI (dis)continuance within the context of corporate political advocacy as a function of political ideology.
This paper uses two studies, one using Web-scraped data and one experiment.
The results show that generally, patronage responses to DEI discontinuance are negative. This effect is moderated by political ideology, where conservative (liberal) consumers respond more positively to DEI discontinuance (continuance) and liberals exhibit more polarized responses than conservatives. Self-brand connection and perceived brand authenticity mediate the effects.
Consumers have exhibited varied responses to companies’ retraction/reduction of DEI efforts, raising the question of whether and how companies should engage (or disengage) in DEI in their marketing strategies. To date, research has not addressed this question. The results have implications for theory and practice in corporate political advocacy and brand management.
