IIB INTERNATIONAL REFEREED ACADEMIC SOCIAL SCIENCES JOURNAL Temmuz-Ağustos-Eylül 2014 Sayı: 15 Cilt: 5 Yaz Dönemi July-August-September 2014 Issue: 15 Volume: 5 Summer Term Jel: M30 www.iibdergisi.com ID:392 - K:410 99 HEDONISM, MATERIALISM AND CONSUMER BOYCOTTS PARTICIPATION Dursun YENER 1 , Tolga DURSUN 2 , Kader OSKAYBAŞ 3 1 Beykoz Vocational School of Logistics 2-3 Maltepe University Abstract : Consumer boycotts are extreme case of consumer behaviour. Consumers can boycott the firms for various reasons. Each individual has different motivations for participation in boycotts. Consumer boycotts are required sacrifice for consumers. Although materialism and hedonism are important issues in consumer behaviour, they are just the opposite of boycotts in terms of personal sacrifice from pleasures. In this study, the relationship between materialism, hedonism and participation to consumer boycotts have been statistically analyzed with a sample size of 519 people. As a result of these analyses, participation to consumer boycotts has negative relationship with materialism and hedonism. However, materialism and hedonism has positive relationship with one another. Key Words: Consumer Boycotts, Materialism, Hedonism 1. Introduction Consumer boycotts are an important topic in con- sumer behavior and boycott literature is rapidly increasing. In every country and every sector, all firms can become a target for boycotts. The aim of boycotters might be causing financial harm, image harm or just to force the target to change an unethical behavior. These campaigns can result in a significant financial loss or losing market share. With technological developments, calling for a boycott is especially easy through the Internet. Marketing literature focuses on consu- mer boycotts from different perspectives. Some of them look into its consequences while some analyze the motivations behind participating in a boycott. There are many factors which have an effect on boycott participation. Materialism and hedonism are two of these factors. Both factors have important place in marketing and their relationship with other marketing concepts are subject to further academic researches. 2. Consumer Boycotts Consumer boycotts are opposition behavior (Cla- udy, 2011: 41) and the structural form of “a vote in the marketplace” as the weapon of resistance (Penaloza and Price, 1993: 124). A consumer boycott was defined as an attempt by one or more parties to achieve certain objectives by urging individual consumers to refrain from making selected purchases in the marketplace (Friedman, 1985: 97-8). A review of past literature provides a variety of definitions of boycotts. Garreth (1987) defines a boycott as “a concerted refusal to do business with a particular person or business to