Consumer attitudes to CSR platforms, CSR initiatives, and reactions to CSR-based marketing strategies in Flemish Belgium and the Netherlands: A cross-cultural comparison.
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2015-06-26
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en
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In recent years, the topic of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been studied extensively. CSR is globally implemented and reported by corporations in order to show their stakeholders they actively support social and environmental issues and are ‘doing good’. Consumers are a large and important stakeholder group for corporations involved with CSR. Despite the global relevance of CSR and the increasing globalisation process, few studies to date have investigated consumer perceptions of CSR cross-culturally. Hence, the present investigation compared consumer attitudes to CSR platforms and CSR initiatives, and their reactions to CSR-based marketing strategies in Flemish Belgium and the Netherlands. Using a survey, opinions regarding these CSR practices were collected from 228 respondents (114 Flemish, 114 Dutch). Furthermore, other scales measured respondents’ cultural orientation related to CSR and the extent! to which they provided socially desirable answers. Contrary to expectations, results indicated that Dutch and Flemish consumers have surprisingly similar attitudes to CSR platforms and initiatives, which were generally found to be positive. Their responses - in terms of attitude to the company and consumer-company identification (i.e. the extent to which consumers identify with the company described) to six CSR-based marketing strategies were also similarly positive. One of the hypotheses assumed that consumer-company identification would have a moderating effect on the influence of CSR-based marketing strategies on consumers’ purchase intention, and was confirmed on the basis of the findings. The present study seems to confirm previous findings on what consumers perceive as important CSR practices, and contributes to a greater understanding of consumer perceptions of CSR cross-culturally. Future research may experimentally compare the effect of the most effective CSR-based marke! ting comm unication strategies on Flemish and Dutch stakeholders, or across other cultures that are likely to be involved with one another with regard to managing stakeholder and CSR communications.
Keywords: corporate social responsibility; consumer perceptions; cross-cultural; CSR platforms; CSR initiatives; CSR-based marketing strategies; the Netherlands, Flemish Belgium
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