The impact of corporate social responsibility initiatives on consumers' behavioural intentions in the Egyptian market

Abstract

The scarcity of research on the public's responses towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries has inspired this research. The research is aimed at studying the consumers' awareness of, their attitude and behavioural intentions towards socially responsible companies in the Egyptian market. The relevant CSR literature was recapitulated into a conceptual framework, and an empirical study was conducted through a mixed research design. Exploratory qualitative interviews were conducted with corporate managers of a sample of five companies in the Egyptian market. Then, a descriptive quantitative research was conducted through a survey on a non‐probability sample of consumers. The results revealed that consumers in Egypt are actually aware of the CSR concept and even tend to develop positive attitude towards socially responsible companies. Yet, when it comes to the evaluative purchasing criteria that consumers value the most, economic criteria are apparently still given a priority over the social criteria.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries as an Emerging Field of Study

“…Similarly, Tian et al (2011) find that CSR awareness is an antecedent, particularly among consumers, with a higher level of purchase intention among consumers who are aware of the CSR activities of the firm in question. Finally, some studies explored other personal characteristics, including, for example, consumer commitment and intentions (Arli and Lasmono 2010;Carvalho et al 2010;Kolkailah et al 2012), and attitudes towards human rights and/or other ethical orientations (Pless and Maak 2009). Puncheva-Michelotti et al (2010), for example, explore how decisions to support the initiatives of socially responsible firms are influenced by their attributions concerning specific aspects of human rights.…”

“…Lin 2010) Attitudes towards cultural patterns, such as Guanxi, Ghandhian notions of trusteeship(Arora and Kazmi 2012) Increased attractiveness of (identification with) the firm CSR knowledge and expertise Awareness of CSR(Alas and Tafel 2008;Balasubramanian et al 2005;Erondu et al 2004;Gupta and Hodges 2012;Kolkailah et al 2012;Lam 2009;Tian et al 2011) Increased firm attractiveness in the eyes of both consumers and employees (Duarte 2010) Knowledge of environmental issues and commitment to environmental protections(Fryxell and Lo 2003) Other personal characteristicsIncreased identification with the firm in the eyes of both consumers and employees)Positive orientations and purchase intentionsIncreased positive orientations and purchase intentions from consumers(Auger et al 2007;Ramasamy and Yeung 2009) Stewardship of a particular leader(Mohan 2001;Wheeler et al 2002) Individual consumer, commitments and intentions(Arli and Lasmono 2010;Carvalho et al 2010;Juscius and Sneideriene 2013;Kolkailah et al 2012;Ramasamy et al 2010) Individual attitudes towards human rights and/or ethical orientation(Pless and Maak 2009;Puncheva-Michelotti et al 2010) Individual perceptions of and attitudes towards various dimensions of corporate…”

Antecedents and consequences of consumers’ attitudinal dispositions toward cause-related marketing in Egypt

“…There is also difference in the intensity of CSR between the two worlds that is referred to as "North-South CSR Divide" (Gugler and Shi, 2009). Hence, studying CSR in developing worlds, such as Egypt, is becoming more and more critical (Kolkailah et al, 2012).…”

Can Business and Social Strategies be Truly Aligned?: A Highlight of P&G Egypt’s Corporate Social Responsibility Framework

“…The most conclusive CSR definition is Carroll's (1979), where CSR is defined from a normative perspective (Podnar and Golob, 2007) and identified as four main responsibilities that a company must fulfill; economic, legal, ethical and discretionaryalso referred to as philanthropic responsibilities (Carroll, 1979;Karem Kolkailah et al, 2012). The economic dimension of CSR requires companies to be profitable while providing the goods and services needed by society.…”

“…In 1991, Carroll re-organized this definition into multiple social responsibilities that are represented in a pyramid shape where economic responsibility is the basic corporate responsibility and discretionary responsibility is on the top. The four responsibilities are aggregative and have to be fulfilled simultaneously (Carroll, 1991;Karem Kolkailah et al, 2012). The economic and legal responsibilities are socially required, ethical responsibility is socially expected, and discretionary responsibility is socially desired (Carroll, 1991;Jamali and Mirshak, 2007).…”