Leveraging organizations’ political activity for consumer engagement

The developmental study here proposed moves from recent facts concerning global brands which took part in and influenced political discussions surrounding US President Donald Trump’s policies. Although there is a long tradition that considers organizations from a political perspective, the issue of how corporate political involvement is perceived within society is understudied. In this regard, authors propose a conceptual model for investigating the relationship between Corporate Political Activity (CPA) and consumer engagement. Following existing literature, the model considers the types of CPA as moderators of this relationship and the corporate brand reputation as the mediator variable. Two steps of analysis are considered for further empirical application of the model: the first one will apply a qualiquantitative approach collecting data from social media posts of brands and consumers following a political event, while in the second phase an experimental research will be conducted for the confirmation of preliminary results.