Research Article
Consumers’ Attributions, Perception, and Responses on CSR Activities
Kyungpook National University
Kyungpook National University
Kyungpook National University
Published: January 2012 · Vol. 41, No. 2 · pp. 173-200
DOI: https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/
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Abstract
Most of companies recognize the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to attract consumers' attention and focus on different facets of CSR activities (e.g., ethical management, environmental campaign, human employee, and social welfare) with the pursuit of profit, one of the most fundamental purposes of corporate management. So far, CSR activities are perceived to improve corporate images, to enhance competitiveness of companies, and to have positive effects on consumers' product attitude, purchase intention, and customer loyalty in the prior research related to CSR activities. However, in some of recent studies, the effect of CSR was not positive. It is because consumers actually do not recognize CSR activities well. In addition, in the prior research, it have been identified various antecedents of CSR, such as fit, attribution of motivation, and consistency that affect the perception of CSR activities. Although the type of consumers' attribution can be more complex than traditional view, the prior research was conducted by experimental method that polarized the motivation of CSR activities (e.g., profit-oriented vs. social issue-oriented or other-oriented vs self-oriented). As a result, the findings related to consumers' attribution for CSR activities are limited to understand. This study examines consumers' attributions of CSR activities as antecedents influencing the perception of CSR activities, and corporate identification, corporate reputation, trust, loyalty and word-of-mouth intention as consequences of perceived CSR activities. The result of this study with survey data of 200 customers shows that consumers respond positively to CSR activities when they recognize values driven motivation, not to CSR activities when they recognize strategic, stakeholder driven, or egoistic motivation. In other words, consumers recognize CSR activities are companies' values driven motivation. Also, the perception of CSR activities have significant influences on corporate reputation, trust, customer loyalty, and wordof-mouth intention, except for corporate identification. CSR is a type of corporate associations related to corporate ability association. CSR has significant effects on consumers' attitude and response to corporation. Finally, the result of this study will guide and help managers understand the attributions of CSR activities and plan the effective and efficient business strategies.
