The Influence of CSR and Ethical Self-Identity in Consumer Evaluation of Cobrands

Abstract

An important aspect of brand perception emanates from its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity. When two brands involved in CSR activities form a cobranding alliance, their respective CSR perceptions can impact consumer attitudes towards the alliance. As an ethically-oriented strategy, the alliance can be potentially beneficial to both partner brands, and can create opportunities for promoting CSR activities. The research streams on brand management, cobranding and CSR, however, are silent about this important branding strategy that has several embedded business and societal benefits. This study examines how CSRbased consumer perceptions and ethical self-identity impact consumer evaluation of cobrands. Employing a quasi-experimental between subjects design, the study tests six cobranding scenarios in three product categories. The data were collected via structured questionnaires resulting in 318 valid responses. The data were analyzed employing the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. The results confirm that positive CSR perceptions towards the partner brands are robust indicators of attitudes towards cobrands. Further, the match between the CSR activities of the partner brands (positive CSR fit) and the product categories (product fit) influence cobrand attitudes. The results also show evidence of 'spill-over' effects, where the alliance has a positive impact on subsequent CSR perceptions towards the partner brands. Additionally, the findings demonstrate an asymmetry in the effects of the cobrand on subsequent CSR perceptions wherein consumers with low ethical self-identity show greater spill-over effects from the cobrand than those with high ethical self-identity. The study contributes to knowledge in the domains of business ethics, cobranding and social responsibility. The findings have managerial implications for designing CSR-based ethical branding strategies for cobrands.

What Dimension of CSR Matters to Organizational Resilience? Evidence from China

“…Externally, CSR disclosures can improve corporate governance ratings [49], decrease information asymmetry [50], increase confidence in capital market [51], create access to finance [52], reduce investment-cash flow sensitivity [53], and improve investment efficiency [21]. Besides, the good reputation brought by CSR contributes to increasing customer satisfaction [18,20], bringing political benefits [54], and reducing social constraints in business operations [26]. Given the above, CSR creates favorable internal and external conditions for enhancing a firm's performance and growth.…”

“…Accordingly, consistent with the mainstream view [6-10], we operationalize organizational resilience as the ability to achieve both high-level performance growth and low-level financial volatility over a long term.Then, we analyze the impact of CSR on firms' long-term growth and financial volatility respectively through the theoretical lens of CSR's performance-enhancing and performance-insuring mechanisms. The performance-enhancing view holds that CSR can promote performance growth by improving employee satisfaction and retention [11][12][13], social image [14], innovation performance [15][16][17], customer satisfaction [18,19], brand equity [20], investment efficiency [21]. The performance-insuring view on the other hand, claims that CSR can provide buffers and supports to absorb shocks, undertake appropriate responses when a company suffers from crises and adverse events, thus mitigating negative impacts and financial volatility [22,23].…”

The Evolution of CSR: An Integrated Approach

“…For better clarity and understanding, all the diverging views can be typically grouped into two main perspectives. On the one hand, a stream of scholars includes CSR among the instrumental and utilitarian strategies or strategic activities that create competitive advantage and improve companies' reputation and brand awareness among customers through communication (Alcaniz et al, 2010;Castaldo et al, 2009;Hur et al, 2014;Lantos, 2001;Luo & Bhattacharya, 2006;Porter & Kramer, 2006;Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001;Singh, 2016;Walsh et al, 2003). This residual CSR approach (Freeman et al, 2010) has been extensively criticised for being static and representing an achievement rather than an innovative and flexible process for continuous improvement (De Colle et al, 2014), to the point that CSR as such seems to have failed in its intent (Visser, 2012).…”

Gender differences on the effect of CSR engagement on team attitude and loyalty: a case study of a professional soccer club in Korea

“…Research has shown that an organisation's CSR involvement can generate positive evaluations toward that organisation (e.g., Godfrey, 2009;Irwin et al, 2003;Kim et al, 2010;Lii and Lee, 2012;Singh, 2015). Positive images associated with CSR activities seem to generate positive brand evaluations (Chang and Cheng, 2014).…”

“…The study also found a significant relationship between attitude and intention to purchase the brand in the future, demonstrating the positive effect of CSR on the attitude-intention relationship. Recently, Singh (2015) found that CSR perceptions toward the brands partnering for a cause are robust predictors of attitudes toward organisations. In the telecommunication service context, Salmones et al (2005) found that the perception of a corporation's CSR behaviour had a direct positive impact on consumers' overall evaluation of the service they received.…”