A REVIEW OF BOYCOTTS AND BRAND LOYALTY IN INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

Boycotting consumer behaviour has been damaging for several business in recent past. This abstract provides a critical review of the boycotting literature from 1900 onward. The review seeks to answer the following questions: What are the gaps and omissions in the boycotting consumer behaviour research? How may they be overcome? To answer these questions, the review scrutinizes blind spots in the treatment of boycotting behavior, role of religious, cultural and political influences in boycotting behavior research in both positivist and critical scholarships. We reviewed systematically 115 academic articles published in 25 top marketing journals ranked in the ABS (Association of Business Journal Schools) Review covered publications from 1990 -2013. Focus was on journals ranked from 1 - 4 and we used the EBSCO and ProQuest search engines using the keyword Boycott as it represent a precise and specific meaning in marketing journals and. The theoretical contribution is threefold: first, the review demonstrates that contemporary framing of boycotting behaviour literature should be expanded to cover aspects of boycotting behaviour beyond its external influences i.e. organisers - promoters- and the boycott target and put the focus once again on individual consumers. Second, the review explains why and how other strands of boycotting behaviour than religion also manifest as salient causes of difference in boycotting consumers. Third, the review reveals that political and religious context has explanatory power in boycotting behaviour. Boycotting literature should capture the intertwining influences of religion, politics and consumer culture. The paper also provides a set of useful recommendations to capture and operationalize methodological and theoretical changes required in the consumer boycotting behaviour literature.