Cross-cultural differences in concrete and abstract corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns: perceived message clarity and perceived CSR as mediators

Abstract

Guided by Hofstede's (Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations, 2001) cultural value of uncertainty avoidance, this study tests whether the effect of concrete vs. abstract CSR campaign messages on attitude toward the company and purchase intention varies by cultural difference in uncertainty avoidance and whether such effect is mediated by the perceived clarity of the message and perceived CSR. Lab experiments were performed in the U.S. and South Korea with American and Korean college students. Two-way ANOVA results revealed the relative advantage of concrete message on attitude toward the company and purchase intention among Koreans (vs. Americans) with high (vs. low) uncertainty avoidance. A series of bootstrap analysis testing multiple mediation models showed that the relative advantage of concrete message among Koreans was mediated by their perceived message clarity and perceived CSR in response to the concrete message. By identifying an international CSR campaign message strategy, the findings contribute to research on cross-cultural campaigns and CSR campaign effects.

Consumer's response to CSR activities: Mediating role of brand image and brand attitude

“…When consumer encounters a brand involved in CSR (2015), Pino et al (2016), Kim and Bae (2016), Boccia and Sarnacchiaro (2017), and Luffarelli and Awaysheh (2018) provide strong evidence to the above fact. When consumer encounters a brand involved in CSR (2015), Pino et al (2016), Kim and Bae (2016), Boccia and Sarnacchiaro (2017), and Luffarelli and Awaysheh (2018) provide strong evidence to the above fact.…”

“…According to the social exchange theory, the humans form relationships based on the cost-benefit analysis and the comparison of alternatives. When consumer encounters a brand involved in CSR (2015), Pino et al (2016), Kim and Bae (2016), Boccia and Sarnacchiaro (2017), and Luffarelli and Awaysheh (2018) provide strong evidence to the above fact. Also, a considerable number of studies strongly provide evidence that CSR does not have a direct positive relationship with business outcome (Pai, Lai, Chiu, & Yang, 2015;Wong pitch et al, 2015;Wu & Lin, 2014).…”

Topic Modeling in Management Research: Rendering New Theory from Textual Data

“…In particular, with appropriate pre-processing, topic models can be used to analyze the diffusion and translation of new ideas, frames, and categories crossing national borders. For example, the cross-national diffusion of CSR has attracted scholarly attention (Kim & Bae, 2016;Lim & Tsutsui, 2012). But identifying the extent to which CSR has been locally translated and innovated would require fine-grained analysis of multiple-language corpora, which topic modeling can facilitate.…”

Corporate social responsibility and international business: examining the nexus and gaps from a developing economy perspective

“…And the Corporate Outcomes include Earnings, Cost Reduction, Corporate Image and worker satisfaction among others. This paper however argues that in communicating these outcomes to stakeholders, firms attempt to influence a positive image of themselves by using IM behaviours, taking congnisance of the possible difference in cultural background of host and home country (Kim & Bae, 2016). This paper also believes that all these stages of activity do not take place in a vacuum but are influenced by the values and interests of key constituents which are identified as the headquarters of the firm, home country of the firm, international CSR standards/rating agencies and finally the host country.…”