Understanding customer participation in CSR activities: The impact of perceptions of CSR,affective commitment,brand equity,and corporate reputation

This study investigates the mediating role of affective commitment in the link between perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the intention to participate in CSR activities. We also examine the moderating role of firms' brand equity and corporate reputation in the relationship between perceived CSR and affective commitment. The data were collected from two online surveys and analyzed using Hayes' PROCESS macro. The results indicate a partial mediating effect of affective commitment and a significant moderating effect of brand equity. However, the moderating effect of corporate reputation is not significant. This study contributes to uncovering the process of enhancing CSR performance.     

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Theory and Practice in a Developing Country Context

After providing an overview of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) research in different contexts, and noting the varied methodologies adopted, two robust CSR conceptualizations – one by Carroll (1979, ‘A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Performance’, The Academy of Management Review 4(4), 497–505) and the other by Wood (1991, ‘Corporate Social Performance Revisited’, The Academy of Management Review 16(4), 691–717) – have been adopted for this research and their integration explored. Using this newly synthesized framework, the research critically examines the CSR approach and philosophy of eight companies that are considered active in CSR in the Lebanese context. The findings suggest the lack of a systematic, focused, and institutionalized approach to CSR and that the understanding and practice of CSR in Lebanon are still grounded in the context of philanthropic action. The findings are qualified within the framework of existing contextual realities and relevant implications drawn accordingly. Dr. Jamali is Assistant Professor of Management at the Olayan School of Business, American University of Beirut. She holds a BA in Public Administartion from the American University of Beirut, and a Ph.D. in Social Policy and Administration, from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. Her research interests encompass corporate social responsibility, public private partnerships, learning organizations and women issues. She worked as an expert consultant on projects funded by the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development, NGOs, and other regional and local public and private firms. She is the author of numerous studies and international peer reviewed publications in various international journals, including the Journal of Management Development, the International Journal of Public Sector Management, the International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, Business Process Management Journal, Public Works, Management and Policy and Women in Management Review. Ramez Mirshak Graduated with honors from the American University in Cairo (AUC) with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration in February 2001, then worked for two years in Egypt in the field of marketing and management. In 2004–2005, pursued his Masters of Business Administration at the American University of Beirut (AUB), researching primarily issues relating to change management and corporate social responsibility under the supervision of Dr. Dima Jamali, then joined a leading international financial institution as a regional Management Associate, while maintaining links with AUB and working on several research based projects.     

Cross-listing and CSR performance: evidence from AH shares

This study investigates the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and cross-listing. In a clean setting where a change in CSR performance can be attributed to the cross-listing, we find a statistically significant and economically meaningful increase in CSR performance for the cross-listed firms. Moreover, such an increase comes mostly in technical CSR, which targets the firms’ primary stakeholders. We also find that the positive association between cross-listing and CSR improvements is more pronounced for firms with weak corporate governance. The results hold under a variety of different robustness checks.     

Uneasy Alliances: Lessons Learned from Partnerships Between Businesses and NGOs in the context of CSR

Interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has proliferated in academic and business circles alike. In the context of CSR, the spotlight has traditionally focused on the role of the private sector particularly in view of its wealth and global reach. Other actors have recently begun to assume more visible roles in the context of CSR, including Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which have acquired increasing prominence on the socio-economic landscape. This article examines five partnerships between businesses and NGOs in a developing country context that fall in the realm of CSR. The article starts with a literature review, delineating foundational underpinnings that have to be carefully designed and crafted to promote the success of collaborative ventures. An empirical study of five selected partnerships between businesses and NGOs in Lebanon is then presented, allowing to derive interesting insights into types of existing alliances, their relational characteristics as well as salient factors considered most determinant of success or failure in this regard.     

Corporate social responsibility before CSR: Practices at Aluminium du Cameroun (Alucam) from the 1950s to the 1980s

Abstract

Aluminium du Cameroun (Alucam) was set up in 1957 as a subsidiary of the French aluminium group Pechiney. Since its creation, the Alucam plant has systematically applied policies that simultaneously integrate economic, social and environmental aspects. The originality of our contribution is that we describe a case where the three elements that make up corporate social responsibility (economic, social and environmental) are intertwined. Although this combination of elements had not formally materialised at the time, the case examined shows early awareness – comparatively ahead of its time and relatively well combined between the 1950s and the 1980s – of the three dimensions of corporate social responsibility.     

The relative impact of corporate reputation on consumer choice: beyond a halo effect

ABSTRACT

Previous work suggests that corporate reputation generates a ‘halo effect’ where products from companies with better reputations are more likely to be chosen. We argue that corporate reputation plays a more expansive role, proposing that consumers will be less price-sensitive to offerings endorsed by companies with good reputations and that it moderates the marginal utility of product features with high clarity. We also propose that an individual’s knowledge of a company increases the likelihood its products will be purchased. Using a choice model incorporating an individual SEM-based reputation measure, we find support for these hypothesised effects in the context of television choices. The results suggest that corporate reputation warrants more attention by marketing managers to increase preferences for their products through these mechanisms.     

Company reputation and its influence on consumer trust in response to ongoing CSR communication

There is considerable disagreement in academic scholarship and beyond as to whether, in cases of bad reputations, companies will want to communicate corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities because this kind of communication is likely to increase consumers’ skepticism. In this regard, the two empirical studies discussed in this article examine the influence of prior company reputation on consumers’ trust in response to CSR communication in general and the development in response to continuous CSR activities and their ongoing communication by companies as well as by the media in particular. The two studies show that consumers’ trust in companies’ CSR activities increases after a second presentation of information by companies even in instances when companies had prior negative reputations. The second study in particular fills a gap in the literature on underlying mechanisms of consumers’ reactions to CSR communication. The results suggest that companies with prior negative reputations do not need to remain silent about their CSR activities; instead, CSR communication can help improve consumers’ trust in companies. However, the findings of these two studies also suggest that this positive development is short-lived. Consumers’ developing trust in companies’ CSR activities decreases significantly if they are exposed to negative information on these companies.     

Pricing,greening, and transparency decisions considering the impact of government subsidies and CSR behavior in supply chain decisions

In this paper, we analytically model different government subsidy strategies in a supply chain manufacturing and selling a green product. We model the interaction between greening degree and transparency level set by a manufacturer and its impact on not only the supply chain, but also consumers and the government. The supply chain is composed of a manufacturer and a retailer. The manufacturer can choose two different strategies. First, he only cares about his production profit; and second, he concerns with CSR in addition to his production profit. We develop a new transparency-based index of consumer satisfaction to model how the market reacts to manufacturer CSR decisions. The government decide three different subsidy strategies. A three-stage Stackelberg game model is developed and solved to analytically derive managerial insights. As a result, if the transparency cost coefficient is sufficiently high, the greening degree and transparency level in CSR concerns strategy are higher than when the manufacturer is not concerned with corporate social responsibility. In addition, when the transparency cost coefficient is sufficiently high, the profit of supply chain members and government are equal in both strategies. We give a real-world example of Iranian brick industry.     

CSR attributions and the moderating effect of perceived CSR fit on consumer trust,identification, and loyalty

Although many companies have engaged in corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions to elicit positive customer responses, the motivation behind CSR actions plays an important role in how effective they are, often leading to unexpected outcomes. While previous literature has placed a strong emphasis on value- and strategy-driven CSR actions, the changing consumer perceptions of and responses to these CSR actions remain less understood. Therefore, the current study investigates 1) how a company's CSR attribution affects consumer trust, identification, and loyalty and 2) how the perceived CSR fit moderates these relationships. The results indicate that value-driven, strategic, and stakeholder-driven attributions have positive effects on consumer trust, influencing consumer-company identification and loyalty positively. Further, we find that perceived CSR fit significantly moderates the relationship between strategic attribution and trust and between trust and loyalty. This study provides meaningful implications for both academia and industry, as it illustrates the changes in consumer views following the global pandemic relative to consumer views revealed in earlier studies.     

CSR Information Disclosure on the Web: A Context-Based Approach Analysing the Influence of Country of Origin and Industry Sector

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a much-discussed subject in the business world. The Internet has become one of the main tools for CSR information disclosure, allowing companies to publicise more information less expensively and faster than ever before. As a result, corporations are increasingly concerned with communicating ethically and responsibly to the diversity of stakeholders through the web. This paper addresses the main question as whether CSR information disclosure on corporate websites is influenced by country of origin and/or industry sector. Analysing the websites of 127 corporations from emerging countries, such as Brazil, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand and South Africa, it becomes evident that both country of origin and industry sector have a significant influence over CSR information disclosure on the web (CSRIDOW). Based on the data studied, country of origin has a stronger influence over CSRIDOW than industry sector.

Social commitment or self-interest? Effect of responsible practices performance motivations of firms on the consumer decision-making process

Due to the increasing dynamism of global economic activity, all kind of organizations are nowadays concerned for maintaining their involvement with demands and changes of society. Particularly, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained increasing importance within both public and private organizations, it being the subject of much investigation and debate among both researchers and practitioners. In this sense, discussion of CSR implications for consumer behavior has been a common topic in recent marketing literature, demonstrating in some cases, a link between CSR and positive responses by consumers and inconclusive effects in others. In the context of such controversy, experts call for further investigation about the consequences of CSR on consumer behavior. Within this line of research, the present paper analyzes the influence of motivations attributed to CSR practices in business settings on four stages of consumer decision-making process. For that purpose, it was conducted a survey study which reached a final sample of 400 Spanish consumers. Regression analysis revealed that, while expectations of social-oriented goals in responsible firms is positively related to consumers’ goodwill over the various stages of their purchase decisions and actions, the potential effects of profit-based considerations are more complex.     

Doing good matters to consumers: the effectiveness of humane-oriented CSR appeals in cross-cultural standardized advertising campaigns

This investigation contributes to the advancement of international advertising theory by developing a model of cross-cultural consumer responses to humane-oriented corporate social responsibility (CSR) appeals in advertising and by testing it using structural equation modelling with data from six countries (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, USA, and Chile). The model includes ad-, advertiser-, product-, and behaviour-related variables.

Based on survey data from 924 subjects, the model received support in all six countries which suggests that humane orientation is a favourable cultural dimension for advertising purposes, even in countries in which humane orientation is less highly valued. The higher the perceived degree of humane orientation in an advertisement, the more positive was the evaluation of the ad, and the more likely subjects were to evaluate the advertiser as being socially responsible. These two variables positively influenced attitudes towards the product and, consequently, behavioural intentions. Some support was found for a moderating influence of country on the relationship between perception of humane orientation in the ad and the evaluation of that ad and on the relationship between perception of humane orientation in the ad and perceived degree of social responsibility of the advertiser. Implications for the use of humane-oriented CSR appeals in international advertising are discussed. Results suggest that international advertisers may pursue a standardized campaign in multiple markets when incorporating humane-oriented CSR appeals. Limitations and directions for further research are addressed.     

Role of variability in cultural dimensions across generations in the context of CSR advertising in an East Asian market

The study examines how, across generations, Korean consumers perceive corporate social responsibility (CSR) ads when various ad appeals (help-self vs. help-other) are employed. The findings show that younger consumers have bicultural orientations compared to older consumers who have collectivistic cultural orientations. The findings showed that younger consumers were more likely to form favourable attitudes toward CSR ads and products when they viewed help-other ad appeals over help-self ad appeals compared to older consumers. Furthermore, the study revealed that variability in biculturalism plays a significant role in viewing CSR ads with help-self ad appeals. Further managerial implications and future study ideas are discussed.     

Partnerships Between Businesses and NGOs in the Field of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Model of Success From the Perspective of Relationship Marketing

Social alliances have become a mechanism that businesses and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have adopted in order to work together to address complex social problems that neither sector alone has the knowledge and resources needed to deal with appropriately. In combining the 2 different perspectives, these partnerships can create mutual value. Many such alliances have, however, been unsuccessful. The present work focuses on designing a theoretical model of successful partnerships between businesses and NGOs constructed within the perspective of relationship marketing—a theory that is found to be well suited to setting up and maintaining successful, long-term, relational exchanges.     

Dealing with poor online ratings in the hospitality service industry: The mitigating power of corporate social responsibility activities

Hospitality service providers' reputation and sales can be strongly damaged by low ratings on platforms such as Tripadvisor, Booking, or Yelp. In this research, we investigate how the potential damaging effects of poor ratings of a hospitality service providers' can be mitigated by corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Building on the self-affirmation theory, we suggest and provide evidence for the notion that CSR (vs. non-CSR) cues affect more positively guests’ evaluation of a service provider when online ratings are low. When the ratings increase, CSR cues are not better than other cues to improve evaluations. Further, we detail the underlying mechanism whereby guests allocate more weight to CSR (vs. non-CSR) cues when they form an evaluation of a low-rated (vs. higher-rated) service provider, which increases the warm-glow feelings that they anticipate and, eventually, their evaluation. We test our model with two experiments on two different samples (US and European), involving different CSR cues (environmental and social) and different types of service provider (hotel and restaurant). We then discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our research for hospitality professionals, as well as for policy makers.     

CSR and the national institutional context: The case of South Korea

The different institutional contexts in which businesses practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) lead researchers to challenge the validity of the extant standardized global approach. This study follows recent studies in employing institutional theory to explore the specific pressures and factors that lead CSR practices to differ between countries, and how they lead to those differences. The study is a detailed qualitative analysis of CSR practice in South Korea, a country with very different value and governance systems from the US and UK where contemporary CSR evolved. Contrary to simplistic expectations, Korea shows a concern for short-termism more than for sustainability; and a normative more than a strategic orientation in its CSR, where CSR lies at a crossroads between implicit and explicit CSR behavior. The practices reflect many Korean institutional factors, but not in simple and direct ways. Institutional factors interact in intricate ways to create complex and dynamic pressures for CSR practice. CSR research needs to consider these interactions and dynamic processes with care and institutional theory can help provide a sufficiently intricate research framework.     

The effect of affective response to corporate social irresponsibility on consumer resistance behaviour: validation of a dual-channel model

ABSTRACT

This paper delineates a dual-channel model of consumer resistance towards corporate social irresponsibility. The model assumes a conditional mediational relationship among affective response to corporate social irresponsibility and ethical judgement as drivers of consumers’ inclination towards boycotting, protesting and negative word-of-mouth. Mediation-analysis results are largely in line with the model hypotheses: Affective response to corporate social irresponsibility solely has a significant direct effect on resistance inclination of consumers with a low preference for ethical products. Moreover, contractualistic and moral equity (utilitarian) judgement mediate(s) the effect of affective response on resistance intention for consumers with high (low) ethical product preferences. Based on the empirical findings, the paper presents practical implications and avenues for future research.     

Overcoming Consumer Skepticism in Cause-Related Marketing: The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility and Donation Size Claim Objectivity

Even though cause-related marketing has become an increasingly popular marketing tool, consumers have become skeptical about this strategy. Consumer skepticism is likely to lower the acceptance of advertising claims. The current study investigates how marketers might minimize consumer skepticism by varying the level of perceived corporate social responsibility and the level of claim objectivity regarding donation size. The results indicated that consumers were more likely to disbelieve the ad claim when the advertiser was perceived to be socially irresponsible than responsible. In addition, consumers were more likely to disbelieve the ad claim when the donation size was stated subjectively than objectively.     

The effect of cross-listing on the environmental,social, and governance performance of firms

We propose that cross-listing is associated with better environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, because cross-listed firms adopt ESG practices to mitigate the liability of foreignness (LOF) in foreign financial markets. Institutionalization processes have made ESG practices important for managing challenges associated with the LOF. With tests involving the S&P Global 1200 index, we show that cross-listing improves corporate social responsibility (CSR; i.e., social and environmental dimensions) but not corporate governance. The effects of cross-listing on CSR also depend on investor protection regimes of listing destinations: Stronger regimes correspond with poorer CSR performance, suggesting that they limit managerial discretion.     

Corporate Social Reporting Practice: Evidence from Listed Companies in Bangladesh

This article presents an empirical investigation into the corporate social reporting practices of listed companies from Bangladesh, where corporate social reporting is a matter of voluntary disclosure. Analysis of annual reports published in 2007 reveals that only 15.45% of listed companies made such disclosures. This article presents an extensive survey of the contents, form, nature, and extent of corporate social reporting practices of listed companies. Analysis over a wide range of industries reveals that companies in the banking sector secure the highest rank in terms of corporate social reporting; three fourths of all disclosures are generalized qualitative statements without any attempt at attestation; more than one half of the disclosures are located in the director's report; and the mean amount of disclosures was less than half a page.