Investigating the Impact of Firm Size on Small Business Social Responsibility: A Critical Review

The impact of smaller firm size on corporate social responsibility (CSR) is ambiguous. Some contend that small businesses are socially responsible by nature, while others argue that a smaller firm size imposes barriers on small firms that constrain their ability to take responsible action. This paper critically analyses recent theoretical and empirical contributions on the size–social responsibility relationship among small businesses. More specifically, it reviews the impact of firm size on four antecedents of business behaviour: issue characteristics, personal characteristics, organizational characteristics and context characteristics. It concludes that the small business context does impose barriers on social responsibility taking, but that the impact of the smaller firm size on social responsibility should be nuanced depending on a number of conditions. From a critical analysis of these conditions, opportunities for small businesses and their constituents to overcome the constraining barriers are suggested.Jan Lepoutre is a PhD candidate in Applied Economics at Ghent University, Belgium. His dissertation focuses on the competences associated with small business social responsibility.Aimé Heene is a professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Ghent University, Belgium. He teaches strategic management for private and for public organizations and currently focuses his research on (competence-based) management in public and social profit organizations.     

Effects of Entrepreneurial and Environmental Sustainability Orientations on Firm Performance: A Study of Small Businesses in the Philippines

Why do small businesses in developing countries embrace sustainable business practices and what are the effects on their performance? We address these questions by drawing on the natural‐resource based view of the firm to argue that the environmental sustainability orientation of small businesses can be explained by their entrepreneurial orientation. Our study of 197 small businesses in the Philippines shows that an entrepreneurial strategic orientation enables them to develop a more proactive stance toward environmental sustainability practices which lead to superior firm performance. The implications of the findings for future research and for public policy for small businesses are also discussed.     

Signaling trust in print advertisements: An empirical investigation

Trust is a key component of many successful businesses, and while there are many factors in advertising that can aid in establishing trust, this paper focuses on business tenure and local ownership as potential cues of trustworthiness. Additionally we consider industry type as a potential moderating variable. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 examined the use of the statement ‘locally owned and operated’ while Study 2 looked at the length of time in business. Dependent variables were trustworthiness, brand attitude and purchase intent. Ads were created promoting consumer services from both high-trust and low-trust industries. Study 1 found the claim ‘locally owned and operated’ has no impact on attitudes and intentions as compared to relevant control. Study 2, however, shows that length of time in business accounts for differences in consumers' perception of the company and subsequent purchase intent. Consumers use trust as the foundation for making purchase decisions through the reduction of uncertainty. We examine several possible candidates for how businesses might signal trustworthiness. This paper attempts to answer this question by taking two very prevalent phrases in advertising and testing their ability to encourage a higher level of trust in the advertised service and purchase intent among consumers.     

The role of brand schemas,information transparency,and source of message on apparel brands' social responsibility communication

In today's complex business environment, apparel brands are communicating about their socially responsible (SR) practices through marketing messages to create a niche for themselves and show their SR efforts. However, SR aspects of products are difficult to verify by consumers. To help brands effectively communicate their SR efforts, this study assessed how consumers process an apparel brand's SR messages based on their prior experiences with that brand (brand schemas). Information transparency on messages and source of messages were tested as external cues to influence consumers' brand schemas and SR message evaluations in a mixed method repeated measures online experiment using a national US consumer sample. Results from regression-based conditional process analyses indicated that increased congruity of consumers' schemas to the fact that brands are SR led to more favorable attitude toward brands' SR messages. Also, presence of high information transparency on SR messages influenced consumers' schemas positively, and in turn, they evaluated messages more favorably. However, consumers were not influenced by whether messages were made by brands or third-party organizations. The study results show the importance of brand schemas and information transparency on apparel brand communications, helping both apparel brands and educators create effective SR-related marketing strategies.     

Investigating the direct and indirect effects of corporate hypocrisy and perceived corporate reputation on consumers’ attitudes toward the company

Consumers are placing increasing importance on the social responsibility of firms when making purchase decisions. Nonetheless, corporate irresponsibility has become more prevalent in the corporate world. Through corporate social responsibility (CSR), companies can showcase their virtues and appear as good citizens while ignoring many internal standards. Hence, the primary purpose of this study was to explore the impact of corporate hypocrisy on CSR belief, corporate reputation, and consumers’ attitudes toward a company that may have a bad reputation. Second, we investigated the mediating effect of CSR belief and perceived corporate reputation on the relationships between corporate hypocrisy and consumers’ attitudes toward the company. We asked a sample of respondents in Australia (n =518) to respond to a real CSR campaign launched by a beer company. The results showed that CSR belief mediates the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and consumers’ attitudes toward the company. The results indicated a perception that companies may use CSR to try to shift the blame from producers to users. The results of this study provide guidelines for managers, social marketers, and public policy makers on how to create and evaluate companies’ CSR campaigns. The results of this study contribute to the debate on how consumers respond to various CSR campaigns as well as the intended or unintended consequences of CSR in directing consumers’ attention away from the negative impacts businesses have on society.     

Investigating consumer attitudes and intentions toward online fashion renting retailing

Due to growth of access-based consumption businesses, it is important to understand how consumers perceive online fashion renting services. Based on two theories, the Theory of Reasoned Actions and expectancy-value approach, this study aims to examine the influence of consumers' attitudes and subjective norms on their intentions to participate in online fashion renting, and to investigate behavioral beliefs that may cause them to form favorable intentions toward online renting. In order to do this, a total of 300 sample surveys were collected from U.S. consumers. To assess the respective measurement model, confirmatory factor analyses were performed, and a structural path analysis was performed to verify the hypothesized relationships. This study empirically asserts that attitudes and subjective norms are key predictors of consumers' intentions to participate in online fashion renting. Consumers' attitudes toward online fashion renting were determined by assessing their perceptions of its relative advantages, compatibility, ownership, and ecological value. While acknowledging the influence of subjective norms and previous fashion rental experience, online fashion rental platforms are also advised to engineer strategies to engage consumers in this practice and to encourage peer referrals. This study sheds light on the determining factors that shape consumers’ attitudes towards and intentions to participate in online fashion renting, from which appropriate business strategies could be devised to enhance consumer engagement and expand the online fashion rental market.     

Consumers' willingness to pay for corporate social responsibility: Theory and evidence

In an era when consumers believe that businesses should engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR), it is vital to understand how it affects consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for the goods and services offered by such businesses. There is a need for an in-depth study into the relationship between CSR and WTP, and to identify the mediators and the moderators affecting this relationship. To investigate this, we conducted a systematic literature review based on a preliminary search result of 116 unique articles indexed on this topic in four bibliographic databases—Scopus, Google Scholar, Dimensions and Web of Science—published over the previous seven decades. The findings confirm the overall positive effect of CSR on WTP. This study also reveals the indirect effect between CSR and WTP, mediated by variables like Brand Trust, Brand Loyalty, Brand Love, Customer Satisfaction, Brand Attitude, Purchase Intention and Brand Equity. The relationship is impacted by moderators, including demographics, cause-based aspects, company characteristics, personal aspects and types of products. The theory explaining the evidence of each of these aspects provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between CSR and WTP, and the intervening variables. Based on these, a conceptual framework of this relationship involving all the variables is developed. The Theory, Context and Method (TCM) framework is employed to identify gaps and systematically make recommendations for future research. The findings of this study will aid marketers in developing pricing strategies based on a thorough understanding of consumer behaviour in terms of CSR perceptions. Scholars can use this study's conceptual framework to examine previously unexplored relationships. As the literature on CSR and its influence on consumers' purchase behaviour grows, this comprehensive systematic literature review on the effects of CSR on WTP fills an important gap.     

Consumers un-tethered: A three-market empirical study of consumers' mobile marketing acceptance

This study examines factors influencing consumers' acceptance of mobile marketing across three influential markets, namely U.S., China, and Europe. The authors develop an integrative conceptual model on consumers' attitudes and behaviors toward mobile marketing. The authors incorporate three individual-level characteristics, namely personal attachment, innovativeness, and risk avoidance and investigate how permission-based acceptance influences the relationship between consumers' attitude and mobile marketing activity. Focusing on Generation Y consumers, the model is empirically tested with data from U.S., China, and Europe. The findings illustrate several cross-market differences and similarities regarding the relationships between individual-level characteristics, attitude, and mobile marketing activity. Research and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.     

Conceptualization and Exploration of Attitude toward Advertising Disclosures and Its Impact on Perceptions of Manipulative Intent

Significant research has been conducted in an effort to understand how varying elements of disclosures (e.g., size, placement, complexity) in advertisements impact consumers' abilities to understand and recall the disclosed message. Although it is important to research the effectiveness of disclosures, advertisers may have additional concerns if the mere presence of a disclosure impacts consumers' perceptions of the company, advertisement, or brand. Little research currently exists examining the notion of consumers' attitudes toward advertising disclosures or how they might impact the effectiveness of the disclosed message, attitude toward a given communication, or overall evaluation of the brand. We introduce the concept of attitude toward advertising disclosures and develop a scale to measure consumers' attitudes toward disclosed messages. The resultant 14‐item, multidimensional scale is then used to demonstrate how attitude toward advertising disclosures plays a moderating role in influencing consumers' perceptions of manipulative intent.     

Building brand equity with cause-related marketing: A comparison with sponsorship and sales promotion

Building brand equity is a key objective for a range of communication activities; however, greater understanding is required on how different communication options compare in their impact on consumer response to a brand. In particular, firms are increasingly using cause-related marketing (CRM) to achieve business as well as social objectives, yet there has been limited research comparing the effectiveness of this strategy to other communication methods that may achieve similar brand-related outcomes. Using an experimental design, we examine consumer attitudes toward CRM and CRM's impact on brand attitude compared with two other communication options: sponsorship and sales promotion. Our results show that consumers respond more positively to CRM and that this strategy can be more effective in achieving brand-related objectives. However, consumers must perceive that the partnered cause fits with the brand. In fact, perception of fit plays a more critical role in determining the impact of CRM than in the impact of sponsorship or sales promotion. These findings suggest that when firms are considering their communication mix, CRM can be a more effective way of developing favorable brand associations, but managers must associate with causes that consumers will perceive to fit with the brand. Furthermore, this fit should be communicated.     

Corporate social responsibility: Stakeholders influence on MNEs’ activities

This research attempts to examine how specific stakeholder groups influence multinational enterprise (MNE) corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in South Korea. Generally speaking, the results show that both primary (e.g., consumers, ‘internal managers and employees’ and business collaborators) and secondary stakeholders (e.g., governments, media, local community and NGOs) positively influence MNEs’ CSR. Contrary to previous research, this work also demonstrates that business collaborators have a negative and significant effect on MNEs’ CSR. Based on the findings this paper wishes to offer a framework for MNEs to thoroughly consider the impact of stakeholders when drawing a picture for their CSR strategy. Further, this work also hopes to contribute to current discussions in the area of CSR by bringing a new stream of research into the international business field. In addition, this work strives to provide useful and practical implications for MNEs wanting to operate in the South Korean market.     

Customizing a consumers’ story for you: The impact of protagonist geographical distance on willingness to share

Consumers' stories, which reveal the interactions between consumers and brands from the perspective of consumers, are increasingly prevalent in advertisements and service communications. Although previous research has explored the impact of consumers' story plots, elements, types, and endings on story effectiveness, the connection between the audience and story protagonist is often of greater concern to consumers. This study examines how the geographical distance between audiences and consumers' story protagonists can prompt audiences to share a consumers' story. A dataset was collected from leading social platforms, and four scenario–based experiments were conducted, which demonstrated that the geographical distance between the protagonist and audience enhanced audience–protagonist similarity and interpersonal identity leading to a more positive willingness to share the story. Additionally, the effect of geographical distance on willingness to share is stronger when the story is based on true events; this effect is attenuated when the story is fictitious. The findings provide a proximal protagonist that advertisers can use in a story to prompt audiences to share consumers’ stories.     

The impact of risk perceptions on the attitude toward multi-channel technologies

ABSTRACT

Several studies show that retailers experience favorable outcomes if consumers use multiple channels. Thus, retailers aim to encourage consumers to do so in a convenient way by offering multi-channel technologies (MCTs). However, not much is known about what affects a positive attitude toward such technologies. Our study investigates how different risk perceptions influence the attitude toward specific MCTs in comparison (check and reserve, click and collect, availability check). Moreover, we examine whether the customer’s general purchase channel preference moderates these effects. Results show that three risk dimensions have significant impacts on the attitude toward MCTs. These effects are generally worst for click and collect, as the negative effects (product quality and data risk) are highest, while the positive effect (product availability risk) is lowest, compared to the other two MCTs. Additionally, we generally find that the more a customer prefers buying via the online channel, the weaker the effects of the risk dimensions on the attitude are. Our findings provide implications on how to improve consumers’ attitudes toward the selected MCTs by influencing their perceptions of different risk dimensions.     

Painting Your Point: The Role of Color in Firms' Strategic Responses to Product Failures via Advertising and Marketing Communications

Color plays a significant role in firms' strategic marketing communications and advertising. This research examines how color (red versus blue) in advertising and marketing communications that follow a firm's failure dynamically influences consumers' interpretations of negative firm information and sensitivity to the firm's response to the failure. We find that the color red used in postfailure advertising and firm marketing communications narrows the scope of consumers' conceptual attention on the firm failure and makes consumers less sensitive to a firm's response to the failure. In contrast, exposure to the color blue expands the scope of consumers' conceptual attention and makes them integrate the firm's response in their firm evaluations. In addition, the negative effect of red is mitigated via the use of a more benign cue, leading to the broadening of the scope of conceptual attention and integration of a firm's response that are consistent with blue cues.     

Regional influences on the prevalence of family versus non-family start-ups

We integrate insights from family business and organizational ecology into the entrepreneurship field by constructing a theoretical framework that explains how the regional context impacts family and non-family start-ups in differing ways. Regional count data models based on a rich longitudinal dataset reveal that while economic factors such as population size and growth in regions are primarily associated with the number of non-family start-ups, factors related to regional embeddedness, such as pre-existing small family businesses as well as favorable community attitudes toward small businesses, are more strongly associated with the number of family start-ups. Our research provides support for the notion that ‘the regional context’ is an important yet under-theorized area for research on venture creation and family business.     

Organizing Corporate Social Responsibility in Small and Large Firms: Size Matters

Based on the findings of a qualitative empirical study of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Swiss MNCs and SMEs, we suggest that smaller firms are not necessarily less advanced in organizing CSR than large firms. Results according to theoretically derived assessment frameworks illustrate the actual implementation status of CSR in organizational practices. We propose that small firms possess several organizational characteristics that are favorable for promoting the internal implementation of CSR-related practices in core business functions, but constrain external communication and reporting about CSR. In contrast, large firms possess several characteristics that are favorable for promoting external communication and reporting about CSR, but at the same time constrain internal implementation. We sketch a theoretical explanation of these differences in organizing CSR in MNCs and SMEs based on the relationship between firm size and relative organizational costs.     

Impact of personalization and privacy concerns on information disclosure and pricing

Advances in IT have enabled some firms to offer personalized products according to the private information disclosed by consumers, while others are still offering standardized products, which brings about asymmetric competition. For consumers, disclosing private information for personalized products leads to reduced misfit cost as well as privacy loss. To illuminate the impact of consumers' trade-off between the benefit of information disclosure and the associated privacy concerns on firms' asymmetric price competition, we consider a setting where only one firm is capable of product personalization based on consumers' personal information. The capable firm makes a profit from selling the product and monetizing consumers' information. We demonstrate that as the capable firm becomes more adept at personalization, he may raise or lower the price depending on his profit foci, and an improvement in his capability does not always guarantee a higher profit. Counterintuitively, an increase in the unit misfit cost (i.e., greater product differentiation) can, under certain circumstances, intensity price competition, making both firms worse off and leading to higher consumer surplus. We also show that when consumers are more privacy-concerned, there exists an indirect effect that weakens the impact of an increase in price on the monetization of consumers’ information, and hence price competition can be mitigated and both firms can be better off. Furthermore, we demonstrate that product personalization with misfit-reducing effect always increases consumer surplus under the asymmetric competition. Our findings provide firms and policy-makers with great managerial insights.     

Building an integrative model of small business growth

The purpose of this article is to develop an integrative model of small business growth that is both broad in scope and parsimonious in nature. Such a “big picture” model provides an opportunity (1) to gauge how much we really know about small business growth, when we simultaneously consider the constructs from the dominant perspectives, (2) to assess the contribution of each of these perspectives, (3) to examine the indirect effects that some constructs from one perspective might have on small business growth through constructs from another perspective, and (4) to consider different levels of analysis. Based on an analysis of data from 413 small businesses, we derive a set of propositions that suggest how entrepreneurial orientation, environmental characteristics, firm resources, and managers’ personal attitudes directly and/or indirectly influence the growth of small businesses.      

The effectiveness of nutritional information on foodservice companies’ corporate social responsibility

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of nutritional information disclosure and healthful menu context in the relationship of nutritional knowledge and consumers’ perceived CSR toward a foodservice company. Furthermore, the relationship among CSR, brand image, attitude and purchase intention was investigated. The study was designed with scenario experimental questionnaires: 3 (different nutritional information levels: no information, calorie only and content with six segments of nutritional information) X 2 (menu context: healthy or unhealthy menu context). Confirmatory factor analyses, structural equation modelling and analysis of variance analysis were used in order to examine the study hypotheses. The results of this study indicate that consumers’ nutritional knowledge helps increase consumers’ perceived CSR which has an impact on brand image, attitude and behavioural intention, however, no moderating effects of nutritional knowledge and healthful menu context were found. Furthermore, purchase intention was significantly affected by CSR, attitude and brand image. Therefore, disclosure of nutritional information and offering healthful menu would help restaurants gain a positive CSR which also would help them to expect consumers’ favourable purchase intention.     

How power distance belief,self-construal,and relationship norms impact conspicuous consumption

Building on the idea that luxury products can signal the owner's status to others, this research elucidates how fundamental and pervasive social factors—power distance belief (PDB), self-construal, and relationship norms—dynamically impact consumers' preferences for conspicuous consumption. Through three experiments, we found that (1) high-PDB consumers are more likely to prefer conspicuous consumption compared to low-PDB consumers, and this effect is mediated by their need for status; (2) the relationship between PDB and conspicuous consumption is enhanced under interdependent self-construal, attenuated under independent self-construal, and mediated by consumers' need for status; (3) these effects are moderated by relationship norms, such that the positive effect of PDB on conspicuous consumption under interdependent self-construal is attenuated when communal relationships (vs. exchange relationships) are salient. Our conceptualization and findings contribute to the literature on the dynamics of individuals' status-related behavior in social psychology and related fields, and provide important practical applications for luxury businesses.