Consumers Reactions to Admirable or Reprehensible Corporate Behavior

This work investigates how consumers of a brand from a company perceived as behaving in a socially responsible (reshoring) or irresponsible (offshoring) way react. Four field experiments were performed on adult consumers to test hypotheses. Results show the process through which consumers of a brand from a reshoring or offshoring company come to feel pride or shame, respectively, depending on the level of identification with the company. Pride and shame are shown to lead to intentions to purchase and compensatory behaviors, respectively. An integrative framework based on research on self-conscious emotions and research on social identity is developed and contrasted with recent research based on moral emotions and their role in responses to corporate socially responsible and irresponsible action.