scholarly journals Communicating Environmental CSR towards Consumers: The Impact of Message Content, Message Style and Praise Tactics

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3981
Author(s):  
Julia Christis ◽  
Yijing Wang

While engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gradually become mainstream in the business context, the investigation of CSR communication and its effectiveness remains limited. This study examines how environmental CSR communication affects consumer perception and behavior through an experiment design. We distinguish three CSR communication factors—message content (climate responsibility vs. sustainable use of natural resources), message style (greenhushing vs. uniform vs. greenwashing) and praise tactics (consumer praise vs. company praise)—and assess their impacts on consumer trust, purchase intention and consumer advocacy, respectively. We also investigate the moderating role of attributed intrinsic and extrinsic corporate motives on engaging in environmental CSR. An online experiment (N = 304) revealed that a uniform message style outperforms the other two styles, whereas greenwashing is found to be least effective. In addition, attributed intrinsic corporate motives moderate the impacts of environmental CSR communication on consumer trust, purchase intention and consumer advocacy, respectively. No moderation effect was found for attributed extrinsic corporate motives. The findings provide important implications for effective environmental CSR communication with respect to specific message styles and attributed corporate motives.

Author(s):  
Yuming Zhang ◽  
Fan Yang

Companies use corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures to communicate their social and environmental policies, practices, and performance to stakeholders. Although the determinants and outcomes of CSR activities are well understood, we know little about how companies use CSR communication to manage a crisis. The few relevant CSR studies have focused on the pressure on corporations exerted by governments, customers, the media, or the public. Although investors have a significant influence on firm value, this stakeholder group has been neglected in research on CSR disclosure. Grounded in legitimacy theory and agency theory, this study uses a sample of Chinese public companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange to investigate CSR disclosure in response to social media criticism posted by investors. The empirical findings show that investors’ social media criticism not only motivates companies to disclose their CSR activities but also increases the substantiveness of their CSR reports, demonstrating that companies’ CSR communication in response to a crisis is substantive rather than merely symbolic. We also find that the impact of social media criticism on CSR disclosure is heterogeneous. Non-state-owned enterprises, companies in regions with high levels of environmental regulations, and companies in regions with local government concern about social issues are most likely to disclose CSR information and report substantive CSR activities. We provide an in-depth analysis of corporate CSR strategies for crisis management and show that crises initiated by investors on social media provide opportunities for corporations to improve their CSR engagement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3832
Author(s):  
Gao Wei ◽  
Wang Lin ◽  
Wu Yanxiong ◽  
Yan Jingdong ◽  
Sadik Yusuf Musse

Prior literature has largely addressed corporate social responsibility (CSR) from outcomes related to organizational themes. However, its importance for achieving consumer-related outcomes is something that has been largely ignored by contemporary researchers. Likewise, how CSR communication through social media can create positive emotions on the part of consumers has to date been under-explored. Hence, the present study aims to fill these gaps by investigating the impact of CSR communication of an organization through social media on consumer loyalty. The study also proposes electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) as a potential mediator between this relationship. The proposed model of the present study was tested in the banking sector of a developing country. The data were collected from a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed through the structural equation modeling technique (SEM). The results of the present study validated that CSR communication of a bank through social media directly and indirectly, through e-WOM, influences consumer loyalty in a positive manner. The results of the present study will be helpful for policymakers to better understand how well-planned CSR communication of an organization on social media can lead towards better consumer-related outcomes such as consumer loyalty and e-WOM.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 1217-1230
Author(s):  
Shuchi Gupta ◽  
Nishad Nawaz ◽  
Adel Abdulmhsen Alfalah ◽  
Rana Tahir Naveed ◽  
Saqib Muneer ◽  
...  

With the advent of the Internet and other digital technologies, contemporary businesses from all sectors are using social media for communication with consumers to engage them meaningfully with a brand. However, the use of social media for corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication is relatively new to the existing literature. Likewise, the impact of CSR communication through social media (CSR-S) on consumer emotions and behavior is, to date, underexplored. To address this, the present research aims to test the relationship of CSR-S on brand admiration and consumer purchase intention. The study proposes a direct relationship between CSR-S and purchase intention with a mediating effect of brand admiration. The data were collected from the banking consumers of Pakistan through a self-administered questionnaire. The authors distributed 800 questionnaires and received 463 questionnaires useful for data analysis, so the present research study response rate was around 59%. The data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique in AMOS. The results revealed that CSR-S is positively related to purchase intention (β = 0.233). The results further showed that brand admiration partially mediates this relationship (β = 0.079). The survey respondents confirmed that their bank’s CSR communication helps enhance their purchase likelihood and their feelings of admiration for their bank. These findings will help policymakers at banking institutions better understand the importance of CSR communication on different social media platforms to achieve consumer-related outcomes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angie Chung ◽  
Hua Jiang

Purpose Based on the framing theory and the associative network theory, the purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model that examines the impact of employing corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication in apology statements after negative publicity. Specifically, this study examines the role of CSR fit and CSR history in reducing anger and negative word-of-mouth (NWOM). This study also examines whether perceived CSR motivation and skepticism toward the apology statement mediate the effect of CSR fit and CSR history on anger and NWOM. Design/methodology/approach This study was a 2×2 between-subject design manipulating CSR fit (high or low) and CSR history (long or short). Findings The findings of this study suggest that strategically employing CSR communication in an apology statement after negative publicity may reduce negative consumer reactions. Originality/value The effects of CSR history and CSR fit have been studied in different contexts, but the effects of mentioning the two components in terms of apology statements had been understudied. This paper fulfills an identified need to study how employing CSR communication in apology statements after negative publicity can mitigate negative audience reactions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (7) ◽  
pp. 1215-1232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Li

The focus in this study is on the effect on Chinese consumers’ intention to purchase proenvironmental products of 3 types of marketing information: environmental knowledge relating to a product, information about corporate social responsibility, and descriptive norms about environmental protection. I also examined the impact of social presence on the consumers’ intention to purchase. I conducted 2 laboratory experiments with 723 participants and findings indicate that each of the 3 kinds of marketing information and social presence had a significantly positive effect on participants’ purchase intention, and the effect of marketing information on corporate social responsibility and environmental knowledge was weakened when consumers made the decision with social presence. The findings expand research on marketing information of proenvironmental products and provide insight into the effect of social presence. Suggestions are made for the government and manufacturing managers that may increase Chinese consumer purchase of proenvironmental products.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10221
Author(s):  
Sufyan Habib ◽  
Nawaf N. Hamadneh

E-commerce industry has witnessed a phenomenal growth globally due to the sudden spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the advancement of mobile Internet technology, with fast adaption of online shopping technologies by the customers. Previously, online shopping was only available in a few product categories and to a select group of consumers. The COVID-19 guidelines related to safety, physical distancing, closure, lockdown, and other restrictions have insisted that consumers shop online. Because of e-commerce growth, the grocery (FMCG) industry is also equipped with advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and block chain technology. This paper analyzes the UTAUT2 model and its influence on perceived risk and consumer trust in online purchase intention of grocery categories of products among Indian customers. We tried to analyze the growth potential of new technologies in grocery retail and formulated the hypotheses. The results showed that the spread of COVID-19 pandemic had a significant influence on the online shopping behavior of Indian customers. The outcome of the study partly assists businesses in understanding the impact of the factors of consumer adaption of technology, perceived risk associated with online transaction, consumer trust in online technologies and consumer online purchase intention of grocery products. To promote e-commerce in India, the current study suggests that marketers should try to develop consumer trust and lowering the perceived risk associated with online shopping. Some management implications and future area of study based on empirical findings are also highlighted in the present research work.


2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 7-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valérie Swaen ◽  
Ruben C. Chumpitaz

This research aims at analyzing the impact of consumers' perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities on their trust toward the company and at highlighting the underlying mechanisms and conditions of this impact. This paper is based on a questionnaire survey administered to a sample of 618 consumers about cosmetics and sportswear. Results show that consumers' perceptions of CSR activities have a positive influence on their trust toward the company, directly and indirectly through the influence on perceived quality of the products offered and consumer satisfaction.


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