CSR, Co-Creation and Green Consumer Loyalty: Are Green Banking Initiatives Important? A Moderated Mediation Approach from an Emerging Economy

Abstract

The homogenization of the banking segment has made it difficult for banking institutions to practice the quality of services that are needed in order to retain consumers. Thus, these days, finding ways to increase consumer loyalty—especially green loyalty—has become a challenge for the banking industry around the planet. Research has long acknowledged that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a strategic concern that could help organizations to increase consumer loyalty. However, the impact of CSR practices on green consumer loyalty is rarely addressed in the extant literature. Hence, the present research investigated the impact of CSR on green consumer loyalty with the mediating effect of co-creation in the banking industry of Pakistan. The study also introduced green banking initiatives as a moderator between the mediated relation of CSR and green consumer loyalty, with the intention that such a moderator would strengthen this indirect relationship. The structural equation modeling technique was used for the data analysis. The results confirm that CSR enhances consumer loyalty, and that co-creation partially mediates this relationship. Furthermore, green banking initiatives further strengthen this relation. The results of the current survey could help banking institutions learn how they can develop core strategic considerations based on the integration of CSR co-creation and green banking initiatives.

Sustainable Businesses Speak to the Heart of Consumers: Looking at Sustainability with a Marketing Lens to Reap Banking Consumers’ Loyalty

“…In order to address the situation, the authors adopted another strategy for data collection, and approached the respondents when they were leaving the banks or when they were present outside the ATM premises. The collection of data in such a way is in line with previous researchers [42,43,66].…”

“…More recently, Moisescu [41] reported that the telecommunication companies implementing sustainable (economic, social, and environmental) policies have better consumer loyalty than those that did not incorporate sustainability at the core of their business objectives. There are different studies on the topic of CSR and customer loyalty in the banking sector that confirm that CSR is positively related to consumer loyalty [34,42,43].…”

“…Arguably, there are disagreements that whether CSR activities of a bank have a significant impact on customer behavior, including satisfaction [53,54] and loyalty [55,56]. In a recent survey, Sun, Rabbani, Ahmad, Sial, Cheng, Zia-Ud-Din, and Fu [43] examined the relationship of CSR activities to consumer loyalty, and found a positive association between CSR activities of a bank and consumer loyalty. Likewise, researchers such as Ahmad, Scholz, Ullah, Arshad, Sabir, and Khan [42] also explored the relationship between CSR and consumer loyalty in the banking context, and established that the CSR activities of a bank help enhance consumer loyalty.…”

The Relationship of Sustainability Communication on Social Media with Banking Consumers’ Loyalty through e-WOM

“…Hence, the study established that CSR communication through social media is directly related to consumer loyalty. This finding also seeks support from the extant literature [12,26,58]. Moreover, the results of the present study also confirmed that e-WOM is a potential mediator between CSR communication of social media and consumer loyalty.…”

“…Second, the banking industry of China is very competitive in the present era of digitalization. This stiff competitive environment makes it challenging for every bank to hold its consumers because holding consumers in a tough industry is very difficult [26]. The present study here argues that well-planned CSR communication of a bank on social media enables a bank to shape the behavior of their consumers positively.…”