Social networking sites are increasingly used to promote corporate social responsibility initiatives. Consumers can like, share, or comment on corporate social responsibility messages on social networking sites, signaling public approval or disapproval and affecting an individual’s perceived legitimacy of the organization. Especially for controversial companies, such as alcohol brands, both perceived legitimacy of a cause and consumer purchase intention might be enhanced by expressions of public support on social networking sites. However, few studies have explored this relationship. The findings from Experiment 1 suggest that the number of followers (low vs. high) affected perceived legitimacy and purchase intention Experiment 2 revealed that the effects of comment valence on attitudinal and behavioral intention interacted with the number of followers. These findings advance our current knowledge of factors associated with perceived legitimacy of companies that promote corporate social responsibility campaigns on social networking sites. Implications for advertising research and practice are discussed.

Introduction

Companies have increasingly invested in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, such as charity, sustainability, and programs that enhance consumer and employee welfare (Sprinkle & Maines, 2010). Considering that 83% of Americans expect brands to support social causes (Carmichael, 2012), knowing how to communicate and engage effectively with consumers through CSR initiatives is crucial. Companies engage in CSR initiatives to gain legitimacy (Du & Vieira, 2012), repair image (Vanhamme & Grobben, 2009), and increase purchase intention (PI) (citation withheld for blind review). Alcohol companies belong to a controversial category due to the addictive nature of alcoholic beverages and the detrimental social impact that addiction can have on families and communities (Grougiou, Dedoulis, & Leventis, 2016). For this reason, alcohol companies have actively promoted “drink responsibly” in their CSR campaigns (Barry & Goodson, 2010). However, due to perceived incongruence between certain behaviors associated with consuming alcoholic beverages and the promotion of responsible drinking, consumers might easily doubt the intention behind these CSR initiatives (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004), making legitimacy harder to establish (Smith, Cukier, & Jernigan, 2014; Wolburg, 2005). Thus, controversial industries must better understand the channels that might help them establish legitimacy. Gaining social support might be one way to increase legitimacy (Suchman, 1995). In a marketplace saturated by social media, a good platform for gaining social support for a CSR initiative is social networking sites (SNS). CSR reports and corporate websites typically reach a small audience and research suggests that expansion of promotional efforts through SNS pages (Jeong, Paek, & Lee, 2013) or advertising (Perks, Farache, Shukla, & Berry, 2013) could increase visibility. On SNS pages, consumers can express support for or disapproval of companies, and these expressions become visible through information cues (e.g., number of followers or user comments). These cues inhibit scrutiny of the source (Metzger & Flanagin, 2013; Sundar, 2008) because other consumers, not the company itself, generate them. For example, Anheuser-Busch’s “Friends Are Waiting” video was part of a drunkdriving prevention campaign posted to Budweiser’s Twitter account. This video received significant social support in the form of likes, views, and retweets and garnered positive press coverage for the company (Kim, 2016; Messner et al., 2013). Despite the importance of SNS activity to CSR campaigns and recent examples of successful CSR initiatives on SNS pages, the extent to which this type of public support might affect perceived legitimacy of a controversial brand and/or purchase intention is still unknown.