Philanthropy, integration and innovation? Exploring consumer responses to different types of corporate social responsibility under different product involvement and brand equity context

Abstract

In today's competitive market, an increasing number of organizations are engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a strategic tool because of its positive effect on society. This has brought about the implementation of various forms of CSR initiatives over the years. However, in addition to the numerous studies which have discussed the relationship between CSR initiatives and financial outcomes for organizations, it has been realized that there can be varying results for different types of CSR engagement. Hence, this experimental study aims to not only study the different consumer responses towards different types of CSR initiatives based on an action-oriented CSR framework, but also how the aforementioned relationship can be affected by different levels of product involvement and brand equity.

Findings from our survey replicated existing literature that generally, a higher action-oriented type of CSR will lead to more positive brand attitude. However, an interesting result is that CSR Integration types received opposite brand attitudes between low and high involvement products. There is also no significant evidence to imply that brand equity affects the relationship between the different action-oriented types of CSR and consumer brand attitudes, together with low and high product involvement levels.

This study highlights to the companies the importance of finding the most suitable and relevant strategy for establishing a dominant CSR type amongst the mix they have in their business. By further understanding the different consumer reactions to different CSR types, companies can communicate their CSR efforts in the most effective way and ultimately, achieve a balance in business and societal benefits.