What drives consumer activism during trade disputes? Experimental evidence from Canada
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702020968942 |
| Date | 01 March 2021 |
| Published date | 01 March 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essay |
Scholarly Essay
What drives consumer
activism during trade
disputes? Experimental
evidence from Canada
Xiaojun Li
University of British Columbia
Adam Y. Liu
National University of Singapore
Abstract
What drives consumer activism during trade disputes? We investigate this important
and timely question using a survey experiment in the context of the recent Canada–US
trade dispute. We find that Canadians are more likely to express willingness to take
punitive actions in the form of boycotting during a trade conflict when they learn that
Americans are taking such actions (retaliation), when many fellow citizens are taking
such actions (peer pressure), and when they are rallied by their government (elite cue).
Among the three conditions, peer pressure has the largest effect. These findings con-
tribute to our understanding of the microfoundations of consumer activism during
international trade disputes. They also have important policy implications in a world
where both protectionism and populism are rising.
Keywords
US–Canada relations, economic nationalism, survey experiment, trade dispute,
consumer activism
Corresponding author:
Xiaojun Li, University of British Columbia, Department of Political Science, C425-1866 Main Mall, Vancouver,
British Columbia, V6T 1Z1, Canada.
Email: xiaojun.li@ubc.ca
International Journal
2021, Vol. 76(1) 68–84
!The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0020702020968942
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Consumer activism is defined as consumer movements that seek to influence the
behaviour of companies through activities such as boycotts.
1
Consumer activism
has a long history, dating back at least to the free-produce movement, an inter-
national boycott of rum and sugar produced by slave labour in the late eighteenth
century.
2
With the surge of trade protectionism and disputes around the world
today, consumer activism is also rising in response. In the summer of 2019, Japan
and South Korea were embroiled in a bitter trade dispute triggered by Japan’s
export restriction on key chemicals for semiconductor production. Angry consum-
ers in South Korea destroyed vehicles bearing the logos of Japanese carmakers,
poured Japanese beer down the drain, and compelled supermarkets to clear their
shelves of foodstuffs from Japan.
3
Elsewhere, China has also been locked in an
escalating trade war with the US since the summer of 2018. A recent survey found
that 56 percent of Chinese consumers have boycotted an American product “to
show support for China.”
4
Given its long history and prevalence, consumer activism, and its source and
consequences, have been the subject of academic research in many fields. Scholars
of International Relations (IR), for example, have examined the consequences of
consumer boycotts for cross-border trade when political tensions increase between
countries, whereas scholars of marketing science have looked into reasons for
consumer activism against multinational corporations.
5
What is less explored,
especially in light of rising trade disputes around the world, is why individual
consumers would react to economic tensions or trade disputes that do not imme-
diately affect their own welfare. In the example above, Japan’s reduction of the
shipment of hydrogen fluoride should not affect in any substantial way the daily
life of South Korean consumers, at least in the short term. On the contrary, for
Korean consumers, boycotting Japanese goods would incur costs, such as paying
higher prices and changing purchasing habits. What, then, motivates consumer
activism during trade disputes?
In this article, we take a first step toward understanding the microfoundations
of consumer activism in trade disputes by integrating the IR and marketing science
literatures. We identify three causal factors that could motivate consumer activism
in a trade dispute: retaliation, peer pressure, and elite cue. Specifically, we
1. Robert V. Kozinets and Jay M. Handelman, “Adversaries of consumption: Consumer movements,
activism, and ideology,” Journal of Consumer Research 31, no. 3 (2004): 691–704.
2. Julie L. Holcomb, Moral Commerce: Quakers and the Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor
Economy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2016).
3. Julian Ryall, “Japan’s trade war with South Korea ignites protest on the streets of Seoul,” The
Telegraph, 25 July 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/07/25/japans-trade-war-south-
korea-ignites-protest-streets-seoul/ (accessed 22 June 2019).
4. Nathan Bomey, “Chinese consumers say they’ve boycotted American products amid Trump trade
war,” USA Today, 28 June 2019, https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/28/chinese-con
sumer-boycott-american-goods-trade-war/1593357001/ (accessed 7 July 2019).
5. Christina L. Davis and Sophie Meunier, “Business as usual? Economic responses to political
tensions,” American Journal of Political Science 55, no. 3 (2001): 628–646; and Kyle Endres and
Costas Panagopoulos, “Boycotts, buycotts, and political consumerism in America,” Research &
Politics 4, no.4 (2017): 1–9.
Li and Liu 69
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