Influences of Reciprocity on a Consumer Boycott in an Experiment

By conducting a boycott experiment, this paper studied whether the reciprocity of consumers affects boycott decision. The boycott experiment is a two-stage post-offer market game, in which a seller first decides an asking price and then consumers decide to purchase goods after observing the asking price. To find the effect of reciprocity on consumer’s purchase decision, the level of information provided to the consumers corresponding to the previous asking price and another consumer’s boycott history, on average, was modified. Consequently, the sellers lowered the asking price with the belief that disclosing additional information about their previous profit fractions decreases the consumer’s purchase frequency. Moreover, consumers’ purchase frequency is affected by both the given value of the goods and the asking price, but not by the different levels of information provided. Therefore, the consumers appear to have no reciprocity preferences on a boycott.