The Process of Organizational Identity: What Are the Roles of Social Responsiveness, Organizational Image, and Identification?

Despite anecdotal claims attesting to the influence that social responsiveness has on the purchase behaviors of consumers, this article examined if a specific initiative could result in such outcomes. We investigated the extent to which the Drive for Diversity (D4D) initiative affected consumers’ perceived image and patronage directed toward NASCAR. This study was partially motivated by the importance of social initiatives in practice to underscore their influence on customer-related outcomes. As such, the findings indicated that the NASCAR’s D4D and the perceived image of the organization are key variables in the model. The results also highlighted the mediating role of image and the moderating role of identification on the proposed relationship. More specifically, the authors found that the socially responsive initiative only moderately influenced consumers’ intentions but when coupled with the image of the organization, this relationship became far more impactful.