How do cultural values influence consumers’ attitudes towards brand activism?

Details

Supervisors

Hazée, Simon

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

enIn recent years, brands have increasingly taken public stances on sociopolitical issues, a practice known as brand activism. While this strategy can strengthen consumer engagement and brand loyalty, it also carries significant risks, as consumers often react with strong support or intense backlash depending on their personal values and beliefs. Understanding what drives these contrasting responses has become an important question in both marketing research and practice. However, while the literature has examined various determinants of consumer responses to brand activism, including perceived authenticity, brand-cause fit and political ideology, the role of cultural values remains largely underexplored. Most existing studies rely on Western-centric, single-country samples, leaving a significant gap in the understanding of how deeply rooted cultural orientations shape consumer evaluations of brand activism. This thesis investigates how individual-level cultural values influence consumers' attitudes toward brand activism. Drawing on Hofstede's (2001) cultural framework and operationalizing cultural values at the individual-level, the study tests the effects of five cultural dimensions (collectivism, power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation) on brand attitude. A scenario-based experimental design exposed respondents to a fictitious beer brand engaging in LGBTQIA+ activism. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to assess the incremental explanatory power of cultural dimensions beyond demographic, ideological and contextual control variables. The results confirm that cultural values collectively represent a significant predictor of brand attitude beyond control variables. However, among the five dimensions, only masculinity emerged as a significant predictor, indicating that individuals who endorse masculine values, characterized by competition, assertiveness and traditional gender roles, tend to evaluate brand activism less favorably. The other four dimensions did not reach statistical significance in this study, suggesting that their influence may be more context-dependent. These findings highlight the central role of gender-related cultural norms in shaping consumer responses to brand activism. From a managerial perspective, the study underscores the importance of cultural profiling, particularly regarding masculine versus feminine value orientations, when designing activism strategies. More broadly, this research calls for moving beyond demographic segmentation toward a culturally informed approach to brand activism.