Recipient-brand value misalignment: How corporate sociopolitical activism reshapes gift giving decisions

• Corporate sociopolitical activism has the power to reshape gift giving decisions. • Recipient-brand value misalignment introduces the problem of goal conflict for givers. • Givers avoid choosing ideologically aligned brands when gifting to a recipient with opposing sociopolitical views. • Giver-brand value alignment leads to close brand-self distance. • Brand-self distance is a weaker predictor of the giver’s brand choice when there is a recipient-brand value misalignment. Corporate sociopolitical activism literature demonstrates that consumers often choose brands whose sociopolitical values are aligned (vs. misaligned) with their own. Yet, limited research has investigated consumer decision making in the context of corporate sociopolitical activism when the choices are gifting decisions. Our work addresses this gap. We find that givers are more likely to select brands with values that align (vs. misalign) with their own when recipients also share these values. However, this preference attenuates when the recipient’s values conflict with the brand’s. We further show that brand-self distance explains this attenuation. Givers perceive there to be less brand-self distance when their views are aligned (vs. misaligned) with a brand’s. However, brand-self distance is a weaker predictor of a giver’s brand choice when the recipient’s values are misaligned (vs. aligned) with the brand’s. We discuss our contributions to research on brand activism, gift-giving, and goal conflict.