A reputational approach examining publics' attributions on corporate social responsibility motives

Abstract

This study introduced publics' perceived attribution about the sincerity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) purposes as the main reason why publics react differently to companies that practice similar CSR activities. The effects of congruence of CSR activities and the source of CSR-related information on publics' attribution were examined using prior corporate reputation as a moderator in an experimental setting. Overall, the study found that corporate reputation moderated publics' perceived attributions on the sincerity of the CSR purposes. Sincere motives were more severely downgraded when a negatively-reputed company engaged in a high-congruence CSR activity and used a company source than when a highly-reputed company did.