Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Performance: The Moderation Mechanism of Relationship Marketing Orientation

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship among concepts like corporate social responsibility (CSR), firm performance, and relationship marketing orientation a transition economy, like Vietnam. A model incorporating the key determinants was tested with a sample of 242 owners, senior managers, and CEOs in Vietnamese enterprises in the marketing communications industry. Four concepts of CSR are used in this study, including economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic. Relationship marketing orientation (RMO) has six components: trust, bonding, communication, shared value, empathy, and reciprocity. In this study, the RMO concept plays a moderation role to the relation in the research model. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data collected. The results show that RMO moderates the relationship between CSR and firm performance. In particular, all components belong to RMO moderating to this relation in different ways. The study also suggests that Vietnamese senior managers, CEOs, as well as owner, should upgrade their perceptions about the importance of all research concepts. Therefore, they could improve their competitiveness into the market-orientation economy. A significant limitation of this study is the examined research model conducting in such a typical service industry, marketing communications, in Ho Chi Minh City. Other service industries may be investigated in other cities or provinces in Vietnam market.