Building or breaking relationships with partners in corporate social advocacy (CSA)? Decoding CSA alliance strategies in the age of cancel culture

Amid a growing cancel culture, corporate social advocacy (CSA)’s risks and negative social impacts remain largely uncharted. This study focuses on the nexus among alliance strategies in CSA, cancel culture, and consumer responses. Focusing on abortion rights, two online experiments were conducted to examine how building versus breaking relationship strategies influence consumers’ perceived business cancellation engagement, CSA legitimacy, business ethicality, and negative megaphoning intent, as well as the moderating effect of political ideology within both noncontroversial and controversial business settings. Results show that public responses to CSA strategies are mediated by perceptions of business cancellation engagement, with political ideology as a moderating variable. Distinctive mediated moderation effects were observed between noncontroversial and controversial contexts. The study introduces an innovative perspective on CSA within popular culture and delves into complex relational decisions in today’s interconnected, politically polarized stakeholder environment.