Public Segmentation and Government–Public Relationship Building: A Cluster Analysis of Publics in the United States and 19 European Countries

Clustering consumers who engage in boycotting: New insights into the relationship between political consumerism and institutional trust

“…The socio-economic stratification of political consumerism has been empirically observed in several studies (Yates 2011;Hong et al 2012;Koos 2012;Acik 2013). In contrast to men's traditional dominance of participation forms, there is strong theoretical and empirical support that women shop politically more frequently than men, the most plausible explanation being related with traditional female roles in provisioning (Yates 2011;Koos 2012;Acik 2013).…”

“…Yate's (2011) research found that the more years of full-time education, the greater the likelihood of consumers engaging in political consumerism. On the other hand, several studies postulate that monetary resources can constitute a budget restriction for political consumerism (Yates 2011;Hong et al 2012). The socio-economic status (SES) model, developed by Verba and Nie (1972), offers a relevant explanation for this relationship, by establishing a link between education, socio-economic status, and political participation.…”

“…Considering Zhang's (2015) assertion, that political consumerism results from the impacts of both individual characteristics and societal determinants, this study follows Hong's et al (2012) methodology, by assuming that a combination of objective variables (demographics) with inferred variables (social participation, interest in politics, generalized trust and human values) will generate a comprehensive segmentation model to study European boycotters. Next we present the theoretical foundation for the selected variables.…”

“…By including social participation as a variable in the segmentation of boycotters, this research incorporates individuals' connectedness to society, which, in turn, has been associated with trust in government institutions (Hong et al 2012). …”

“…Social participation refers to individual participation in diverse social organizations, such as non-profit organization or political parties (Hong et al 2012). Political consumption is generally understood as a form of self-expressive participation with a more individualized and advocatory format, when compared to traditional political participation (Baek 2010).…”