Corporate social responsibility, attitudes and behavioural intentions: an empirical study in banking industry

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how corporate social responsibility and consumers' attitude affect behavioural intention toward a bank. Drawing from the consumer behaviour literature, we hypothesise and test the relationship between corporate social responsibility, consumers' attitude and behavioural intention. A structural equation modelling (SEM) test, with maximum likelihood estimation, was performed to test the relationship among the research variables using 289 participants. The empirical results from the structural model, suggest that corporate social responsibility and its four dimensions (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic) positively influenced consumers' attitude. Furthermore, consumers' attitude was a direct antecedent of behavioural intention. An integrated model of corporate social responsibility, consumers attitude and behavioural intention tested in the banking industry in the context of a developing economy. The combination of a developing country context and, the significance of corporate social responsibility enhance the contextual contribution of the paper.