Does perceived treatment of unfamiliar employees affect consumer brand attitudes? Social dominance ideologies reveal who cares the most and why

Matthew A. Maxwell-Smith, Tiffany Barnett White and Denise Lewin Loyd

Journal of Business Research, 2020, vol. 109, issue C, 461-471

Abstract: We investigate when, why, and for whom information regarding the treatment of unfamiliar employees—those with whom consumers have had no prior contact—is most likely to affect brand attitudes and intentions. Three experimental studies that varied whether a brand ostensibly offered employees more versus less favorable working conditions and benefits observed that: (i) perceptions of treatment of unfamiliar employees have a substantial impact on brand attitudes and corresponding intentions; (ii) political ideologies regarding the acceptance of inequality and dominance between societal groups play an important role in determining the magnitude of these effects; and (iii) joint effects of dominance ideologies and perceived employee treatment are mediated by empathy toward the employees and trust that workforce issues are handled appropriately. Thus, consumers empathize with and respond to distressing conditions of poor treatment for unfamiliar employees, and in this way, employee voices can have a powerful impact on their brand.

Keywords: Branding; Management; Labor relations; Social dominance orientation; Social dominance theory; Political ideology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296319308057
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:109:y:2020:i:c:p:461-471

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.12.039

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().