مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد تاثیر مسئولیت اجتماعی شرکتی بر حمایت از برند مصرف کننده – الزویر 2019

We investigate the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumer advocacy behaviors toward corporate brands. We focus on the mediating roles of positive moral emotions (awe, gratitude, and elevation) and attitudes. The moderating effects of social justice values and empathy on such mediation processes are further explored. A between-subjects field experiment is used to test our hypotheses on a sample of adult consumers. The results show that both positive moral emotions and attitudes mediate the effect of perceived CSR actions on brand advocacy behaviors; however, social justice values and empathy play a different role in regulating the elicitation of moral emotions and attitudes, depending on the type of CSR actions. We add to extant research on CSR and consumer-brand relationships by showing that CSR actions influence brand advocacy of corporate brands and further providing an integrated theoretical framework to explain psychological mechanisms underlying such an effect.

Introduction

Relationship marketing has received increasing attention from both business practitioners and academics in recent years. Recent research shows that relationship marketing initiatives increasingly link consumer ethics and moral identity with corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Vitell et al., 2016). Companies often go to great lengths to promote their CSR in order to enhance their brand image and reputation. CSR actions can be seen as one type of ethical relationship marketing practice; therefore, it is important for managers to understand how their companies’ CSR initiatives influence consumer-brand relationships. According to Malhotra and Agarwal (2017), an under-researched area in consumer-brand relationships is how firms’ ethical relationship marketing practices influence consumer moral identity, self-brand overlap, moral emotions, moral judgement, and subsequently customer-brand relationships. The current study addresses this gap in research by investigating how and when (i.e., under what conditions) company CSR initiatives influence consumer brand relational outcomes such as brand advocacy behaviors toward the company (i.e., corporate brands). Until relatively recently, the dominant theories and research in moral behaviors, business ethics, and CSR actions were rational models. Thinking, reasoning, moral judgements, and cognitive processes were the core elements of these approaches (e.g., Kohlberg, 1969; Rest, 1986; Trevino, 1986). Previous research on consumer responses toward CSR focused also on cognitive or evaluative processes (Sen, Du, & Bhattacharya, 2016). For instance, as Peloza and Shang (2011) summarize, much CSR research addresses only consumer cognitive reactions to CSR, such as attitudes toward the company or brand (73 out of 165 reviewed studies) and attitudes toward the CSR activities (52 of 165 studies). Beginning about a decade ago, Haidt and various colleagues pointed-out shortcomings of this research and proposed an alternative based on moral emotions (Algoe & Haidt, 2009; Haidt, 2003, 2012). Building on Haidt’s work, some studies have begun to explore consumer emotional reactions to CSR. For instance, moral emotions such as gratitude and elevation (Romani & Grappi, 2014; Romani, Grappi, & Bagozzi, 2013a; Xie, Bagozzi, & Grønhaug, 2015), pride and guilt (Kim & Johnson, 2013) have been shown to be drivers of consumer positive responses toward the company (i.e., corporate brand). However, the intuitionist approach (e.g., Haidt, 2012) does not consider evaluative process but rather only emotional processes. We consider that both cognitive processes and emotional processes can be operative in CSR contexts. Either the cognitive approach or intuitionist approach is incomplete by focusing on only one type of psychological mechanism. There is a need to integrate both cognitive processes and emotional processes in understanding consumer responses toward CSR.