Let's Not Talk About That: Investigating Corporate Political Advocacy and Word of Mouth Among Liberals and Conservatives

ABSTRACT As political polarization becomes ever more pronounced, brands have been utilizing corporate political advocacy to capture target markets and enhance customer loyalty. Yet studies on how corporate political advocacy affects consumer responses have been limited. Our research focuses on how corporate political advocacy influences positive and negative word of mouth through the lens of social identification theory. Using a multi‐study design, we find that while political word of mouth is driven based on the alignment of political identities between consumers and brands, consumers' intentions to deliver word of mouth differ based on their tie strength with the intended target audience (i.e., strong, weak, or absent social ties), their own political identities, and their perceptions of a company's stance on issues. Our results provide both theoretical and practical contributions by improving our understanding of corporate political advocacy's effects on both consumers' positive and negative word of mouth intentions and how marketers can improve the effects of corporate political advocacy.