A boycott is the action taken to express the refusal to enter into or continue a commercial, personal or political relationship with an individual or , due to the commission of some reprehensible fault that those involved do not agree to allow. The boycott implies that by not buying or selling a certain company, or not following the plans or the flow of what it says, the company falters and tries to change the plans or actions that it was carrying out.
The word comes from the Irish captain Charles Boycott, in the Agrarian War of 1870 in Ireland, who proposed to cut the existing relations with the earl to force him to give up his position by lowering the leases of the lands (Charles being the administrator of the count's estates Erne).
Boycotts are specific pressure maneuvers that seek to correct or, in a certain way, cancel the actions undertaken by certain companies and achieve what is wanted. If the boycott is prolonged in time for more complex purposes, the word "embargo", instead of boycott.
Among the most prominent boycotts worldwide we find the apartheid in South Africa, against companies like Shell, Kellogg's or Coca Cola, to prevent malicious operations from continuing and to try to abolish segregationist policies (which was finally achieved in 1994).
It is important to highlight how boycotts are carried out, since they can end up harming companies, employees, family members, manufacturers, transporters, contractors and Suppliers related, etc ... That is, a boycott can sabotage or distort the operations of companies.