The effect of CSR initiatives on company credibility and behavioural intentions: the role of focus
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2019-07-04
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its outcomes for companies is a much addressed topic in literature. Previous studies have only investigated the outcomes of CSR aimed at one domain, e.g. the environment, while most companies’ CSR activities are aimed at multiple domains. This study investigates the effect of CSR in multiple domains versus in one domain. The number of domains CSR is aimed at is in this study referred to as ‘CSR focus’. This study argues that CSR focus influences perceived company credibility in relation to CSR, and consumer behavioural intentions, i.e. intention to spread word-of-mouth, purchase intention, and willingness to pay. An online experiment was conducted, in which CSR focus was manipulated through two variations of the same text.
Results show that CSR focus negatively impacts perceived company credibility. A negative direct relationship was found between CSR focus and intention to spread word-of-mouth. The direct relationship between CSR focus and willingness to pay was moderated by consumers’ support for CSR. CSR focus was found to have an indirect effect on willingness to pay as well, via one of the dimensions of company credibility, perceived expertise. No significant relationship was found between CSR focus and purchase intention.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen