مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

 مجله تحقیقات بازاریابی – Journal of Business Research

The history of corporate social responsibility (CSR) dates back to as early as the 1950s, when businesses and academic researchers start exploring the relationship between business and society (Carroll, 1999). Scholars define CSR as a discretionary commitment from the company regarding its activities to give back to the society where the company operates (Carroll & Shabana, 2010), which implies maintaining an equitable and workable societal balance among the claims of the various stakeholders of an enterprise (Frederick, 2006).

The concept of CSR emerges in Western developed countries as a result of the concerns of investors, companies, and campaigners. Even though not studied in detail, some authors have highlighted the vital role of CSR in fighting poverty and acting reasonably in developing countries (Patacconi & Weisert, 2013; Visser, 2008). Due to the lack of constituencies and institutions providing social goods in general (Samy, Ogiri, & Bampton, 2015), CSR seems more important for developing countries than for their richer counterparts (Baughn, Bodie, & McIntosh, 2007; Khan, Lew, & Park, 2015). In fact, Lund-Thomsen, Lindgreen, and Vanhamme (2016) confirm that the lack of institutionalization of CSR leads to companies in developing countries engaging in socially irresponsible behavior. Socially irresponsible behavior generates negative moral emotional responses toward companies and their products (Grappi, Romani, & Bagozzi, 2013).

Despite the growing emphasis on CSR in developing countries, national initiatives in the less developed countries are sparse (Hamm, 2012; United Nations, 2007). In fact, the extant research on CSR focuses mostly on the context of developed countries, with only a few empirical studies on the developing countries (Denni & Lasmono, 2010; Dobers & Halme, 2009; Fox, 2004; Pham, 2011; Ramasamy & Yeung, 2009). This study aims to fill the aforementioned gaps by examining (1) how consumers perceive the concept of CSR in a developing country and (2) whether perceptions of a company’s CSR initiatives can influence consumers’ responses about the company’s product offerings, in the context of Vietnam. Specifically, this study examines the relationships between consumers’ ethical ideologies, perceived CSR, and product evaluations. The rest of the study is as follows. Section 2 provides a theoretical framework and set of hypotheses, which the empirical study in Section 3 tests. Section 4 discusses the results of this study and, finally, Section 5 presents a discussion concerning the conclusions and implications.