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Not all CSR initiatives are perceived equal: The influence of CSR domains and focal moralities on consumer responses to the company and the cause
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Not all CSR initiatives are perceived equal: The influence of CSR domains and focal moralities on consumer responses to the company and the cause

Camilla Barbarossa, Yanyan Chen, Simona Romani and Daniel Korschun
Journal of cleaner production, v 380, 134949
20 Dec 2022

Abstract

Big three of morality Corporate social responsibility (CSR) CSR domains Focal moralities Pro-company responses Pro-society responses
Companies engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in various domains. As the current research establishes, consumers respond to these various domains in distinct ways, depending on the congruence of each domain with the consumer's predominant or focal morality. Two experimental studies involving 1207 consumers—obtained from a single-country sample in Study 1 and a cross-national sample in Study 2—reveal that exposing autonomy-oriented consumers to ethics-based CSR, or purity-oriented consumers to environment-based CSR, leads to more favorable pro-company responses (i.e., attitudes toward the company) and pro-society responses (i.e., intentions to donate money and volunteer for the cause). However, the hypothesized congruence mechanism does not hold when community-oriented consumers are exposed to community-based CSR. These findings suggest that congruence between the CSR domain addressed by the company and the focal morality embraced by consumers can predict consumer responses to CSR. Furthermore, the findings provide practitioners with insights into how to communicate their CSR activities to different consumer targets, in ways that enhance both business returns and societal impacts.

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10 citations in Scopus

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#9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Engineering, Environmental
Environmental Sciences
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
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