Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

This research builds on the halo effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature in marketing to provide insight into the positive effect of CSR in a service encounter. Using a company’s green practices as CSR, this research examines how customers’ perceptions of CSR might spill over into their evaluations of the company and behavioral intentions in a service recovery context. The results, from 418 participants of the scenario-based role-playing experiment, indicate that CSR and service recovery have a significant effect on customer satisfaction, trust, word-of-mouth recommendations, and repeat patronage intentions in a casual-dining restaurant setting. Also, an interaction effect suggests that the CSR effect is more pronounced in a positive service recovery compared to a negative service recovery. The findings of this research provide researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of CSR and the positive influence it has on customer responses in a service encounter.