CSR awareness, communication, and trust: how Generation Z shapes ethical consumerism in recovering economies

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the impact of three key factors — corporate social responsibility (CSR) awareness, CSR affordability and CSR management system (CSRMS) sophistication—on the CSR performance of Japanese firms.Design/methodology/approachUsing responses to 36 items developed on the Global CSR standard of ISO26000, two CSR indexes were constructed to assess the CSR management system sophistication and performance of Japanese firms. The relationship between the three key variables (CSR awareness, affordability and management system sophistication) and CSR performance was then examined through a partial least squares (PLS)-based structural equation model. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 146 firms.FindingsThe results of the study found a positive relationship between CSR performance and three exogenous variables (CSR awareness, affordability and management system sophistication). Furthermore, the study found that CSRMS sophistication played a mediating role in the relationship between CSR performance and firms' CSR awareness and affordability.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was limited to examining the CSR practices of a major province in Japan, which may hinder the generalisation of the findings to the rest of the country. Moreover, the data used for assessing the variables in this study were self-reported by the participating firms, in addition to being cross-sectional. The findings of this study clarified areas that policymakers, including Japan's business associations–Keidanren and Keizai Doyukai, and other relevant parties need to focus on for further improving CSR performances of Japanese firms.Originality/valueThis study highlights the role CSR awareness, affordability and CSRMS sophistication play in improving CSR performance. On the one hand, it identifies the critical role CSRMS plays in mediating the relationship among CSR performance, awareness and affordability. On the other hand, it advances CSR theory providing insight for practitioners to generate positive CSR outcomes.

This study examines consumers’ uses of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication channels, the relationship of such uses to consumers’ CSR awareness, and the mechanisms through which consumers’ CSR awareness can lead to their intention to participate in CSR activities. Specifically, we explored the mediation effects of consumers’ CSR associations with a company, consumers’ assessment of the company’s CSR credibility, and consumers’ perceptions of their relationship with the company, applying the conceptual frameworks of the uses and gratification theory, source credibility theory, and organization–public relationship (OPR) scholarship. We conducted an online survey of a company’s customers (N = 394), and the results showed that their level of awareness of the company’s CSR activities was positively related to the degree of use of all communication channels through which they received CSR messages, except CSR reports. The degree of the customers’ awareness of the company’s CSR programs, however, did not always correspond to the customers’ intention to participate in the programs: a crucial condition mediating between the customers’ knowledge of CSR programs and their intention to participate in the programs was their associating the company with CSR. The CSR associations influenced CSR credibility and perceived OPR quality, which, in turn, led to CSR participation intention. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Organizational values are beliefs held by organizational members regarding the means and ends that organizations �ought to� identify in the running of the enterprise. The most basic level of commonality that provides a common identity and shared sense of purpose is reflected in the company's vision. Research suggests that when employees share organizational values, they feel more loyal, committed, identify more strongly with the organization, and are more likely to stay. Espoused values that are expressed on behalf of the organization or attributed to an organization by its senior managers in public statements may be distinct from practised values. While the relationship between espoused values and organizational practices continues being researched, espoused values are also used to enhance organizations' images. Espousing socially relevant values and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is gaining enormous importance today. The main objective of this study was to investigate organizational values (both espoused and practised), vision, and CSR. It also aimed to assess employees' awareness and understanding of core values, vision, and CSR. Further, it also aimed to investigate differences among employees' awareness of core values, vision, and CSR according to gender, age, department, hierarchy, and tenure. The sample comprised 90 executives in one of India's largest automobile company, Maruti Suzuki India Limited. Maruti is a market leader, enjoying a market share of 55 per cent in the car segment. The measures included: (1) Understanding organizational values questionnaire" (self-constructed); (2) Semi-structured interviews with 20 executives; and (3) Document analysis of five years� Annual Reports and Chairman�s speeches at Annual General Meetings. Results showed that: The espoused values were: customer obsession, fast/flexible/first mover, innovation and creativity, networking and partnership and openness and learning. Employees� awareness of espoused values, vision, and CSR was moderate, very low, and fairly high, respectively. Only age and tenure influenced awareness of CSR and one core value, respectively. Older employees had better awareness of CSR than younger employees. More experienced employees were more aware of ‘customer obsession’ as compared to the less experienced ones. Awareness and understanding of vision among employees was very inadequate, with 50 per cent of employees unable to state or explain it. In contrast, the awareness of CSR was very high (95%). A small gap existed between espoused and practised values; e.g., the most important core value of customer obsession was not mentioned by even one employee as important for success in the organization. These findings have implications for making efforts towards value internalization by holding workshops, training programmes and implementing values in performance appraisal systems. It is suggested that CSR be reconceptualized as a corporate social necessity, and may even replace organizational vision as a powerful tool for managing employee-relevant outcomes. It is also recommended that organizations' strategy on CSR must be in line with their core competency to provide them with a competitive edge.

PurposeThis study examines the corporate social responsibility (CSR) awareness of major Chinese airports during the 2013–2017 period as well as its influence on the airports' performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors first used a content analysis to quantify CSR awareness of the examined airports reflecting their annual and CSR reports. Alongside other characteristics such as location and size, CSR awareness’ influence on the airports' performance (measured by data envelopment analysis [DEA]) was consequently examined.FindingsThe CSR awareness varies among airport and over time; however, an increasing concern about this issue is found in the Chinese airport industry. Particularly, Chinese airports tend to focus more on customers and the society and that increase of CSR awareness could improve the airports' performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors analyzed only four Chinese airports, and the data may be influenced by other factors such as politics, culture, business behaviors or management. Studies with larger sample (e.g. more airports from China and/or other countries) or with more CSR aspects and indicators will contribute to this matter.Originality/valueThis is the first study to combine the content analysis and the DEA into a single framework to examine the relationship between CSR awareness and performance, especially for Chinese airports. It can therefore provide important practical implications to Chinese aviation managers.

Following the global financial crisis and major corporate scandals, perceptions of companies and their leadership have been damaged (Bedi et al., 2016). Since then, research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained importance and companies need to incorporate environmental and social concerns into their decision-making, as outcomes are not evaluated solely on economic or financial criteria (Courrent et al., 2018). Research on CSR has traditionally focused more on the institutional or organizational level of analysis, e.g., on how the CSR performance of a company is related to its financial performance (Flammer, 2015; Wang et al., 2016). However, in the past decade, the concept of micro-level (i.e., individual level) CSR drew more attention, as it takes a more person-centric approach to show how individuals react to CSR initiatives. Employees play a special role when it comes to CSR, as they are internal stakeholders and recipients of CSR, but also spokespersons towards other stakeholder groups, e.g., customers and suppliers. Scholars provided empirical evidence for the positive effects of CSR perception on individual behavioral (Cheema et al., 2020) and attitudinal outcomes (Aguinis & Glavas, 2019). Although literature has investigated multiple outcomes of CSR, extant literature still lacks a better understanding of how the employees’ perception of CSR is formed and when and why employees experience CSR differently (Aguinis et al., 2020). This research aims to assess the influence of different types of media (i.e., internal and external sources) on the perceived CSR performance of employees. Drawing on social identity theory, we build on and extend the stream of literature which shows that employees derive value and emotional meaning from their identification with their employer. Our study was conducted through a self-reported online survey across various industries and functions. We focused primarily on middle managers (n = 901) as survey respondents, because they are less involved in high-level CSR decisions and therefore less prone to social desirability bias (James et al., 2017). In order to test our model, we performed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and developed a structural equation model using SPSS AMOS 27. We tested the link between different types of media, CSR awareness, and the employees’ perceived CSR performance. Besides providing more nuanced empirical evidence on how CSR perceptions are formed, our expected results will provide firm leaders with guidance on the relevance of internal media to shape the CSR perception of their employees. The CSR activities of a firm are likely to resonate better with individuals if these are more informed about them.

This study examined the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) engagement and implementation on business resilience among sustainable resort hotels in Palawan, Philippines. Using a descriptive-correlational method, the study analyzed the demographic profile of resorts: type, location, size, and years in operation, and assessed the extent of CSR practices and resilience based on respondents’ ratings. Findings revealed a high level of CSR engagement, particularly in environmental, economic, ethical, and social dimensions, with economic and environmental responsibilities rated highest. Among the CSR implementation factors, communication, embeddedness, awareness, and evaluation, communication emerged as the most practiced. Business resilience, assessed in terms of preparedness, adaptability, and recovery, was rated highest in recovery. Multivariate Analysis of Variance revealed that ethical CSR engagement varied significantly by years in operation, while CSR embeddedness and preparedness varied by location. Recovery also varied based on years in operation. Regression analysis showed that environmental, ethical, and economic CSR significantly predicted all three resilience components, while social CSR related strongly to recovery. CSR communication and embeddedness also positively influenced resilience. Mediation analysis indicated that CSR implementation partially mediated the relationship between CSR engagement and resilience, with communication as the strongest mediator. The study underscores the need for tailored CSR and resilience strategies based on resort characteristics. Strengthening environmental, ethical, and economic CSR efforts and improving CSR communication and embeddedness can significantly enhance resort resilience and sustainability. A proposed framework serves as a strategic guide for aligning CSR initiatives with resilience planning, aiming to enhance the long-term sustainability of resort hotels. Keywords: Business Management; Corporate Social Responsibility; Business Resilience; Sustainable Tourism, MANOVA, Multiple Regression; Resorts Hotel, Palawan, Philippines

The way corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication relates to corporate reputation has attracted an increasing amount of attention from communication and business researchers and practitioners. To place our study in the context of CSR and employee communication, we proposed a CSR communication—motives—organizational identification—corporate reputation model. Data collected from an online Qualtrics survey (n = 811) supported all the proposed hypotheses linking informativeness and factual tone in CSR communication, employee-perceived intrinsic/other-serving motives of their organizations’ CSR activities, organizational identification, and corporate reputation. Specifically, informativeness and a factual tone in CSR communication were positively related to employee-perceived intrinsic/other-serving motives of their organizations’ CSR activities. Employee-perceived intrinsic/other-serving motives of their organizations’ CSR activities were positively associated with employee organizational identification. Employee organizational identification was positively related to corporate reputation. In addition, employee-perceived intrinsic/other-serving motives of their organizations’ CSR activities and employee organizational identification turned out to be two significant mediators in the proposed model between CSR communication and corporate reputation. We conducted a two-step structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis to analyze the collected data. The theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to deconstruct the term “tribalism” for its application to foster context and industry-based corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication system in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThis research used both the qualitative and quantitative research methods of data collection; it is an in-depth survey with multiple data collection settings.Findings(1) There is a pattern of CSR communication across the three industries sampled. (2) CSR across three industrial sectors is much about “donation” and “gift”. (3) CSR functions are now in a stand-alone corporate communication department. (4) CSR communication lacks the participatory mechanism to really involve the host communities' concerns. (5) Across the four organizations, CSR communication is often as financial or annual reports. (6) There is a general feeling and understanding that CSR and corporate communication in corporate organizations in n Nigeria require a more participatory mechanism. (7) CSR policy in Nigeria is till much of legal enforcement and efforts to have a national CSR commission has gone beyond legislation process.Research limitations/implicationsThis research was only able to collect data from four selected organizations representing just three industrial sectors (freight-forward, banking/finance and insurance) in Nigeria. There was no external funding to capture more organizations.Practical implicationsThe first implication of the findings of this study is that, for the practice of CSR and communication by corporate organizations in Nigeria, the system is much a top-down and non-participatory. This means host communities and other stakeholders do not have considerable participation in the organization's CSR and communication process. The companies in this study select or budget for CSR interventions they consider valuable to communities in most cases. This pattern of CSR operation cuts across the four selected organizations in this study. Thus, it could be argued that this pattern is an industrial/national phenomenon because all the respondents indicated that their organizations operate CSR based on what other related companies do in Nigeria. Second, the fact that CSR and communication by corporate organizations in Nigeria are regulatory influenced means many organizations may try to evade CSR activities by not budgeting for it.Social implicationsMeanwhile, in this study, deconstructing the evolutionary perspective which sees tribe as a primitive form of organization and relation characterized by the absence of a centralized collaborative system, it is argued that tribalism can catalyze systemic participation and oneness. In line with this perspective, tribal corporate organizations in Nigeria would model an alliance for CSR and communication system on proximity of operational context, that is, Nigeria. Being part of a tribe, corporate organizations as against the public ones will represent an identity reference for social corporate communication in Nigeria.Originality/valueDespite the theoretical problematic issues raised by the notion of tribe, it is deconstructed in this study to define modes of social organization, and it reflects native perceptions of a changing collective identity. Thus, it is also argued in this study, that there will be an increase in works on tribalism in organization communication and CSR in Nigeria as emerging business and global market will continue to shape the operation environment.

Purpose The chapter develops a phase model of strategic planning in integrated corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication by presenting CSR as a mindset in communication processes. Design/methodology/approach The chapter provides rationales for establishing a new phase model of strategic planning in CSR communication by adapting existing models of strategic communications. In this context, the main focus is on the need to involve stakeholders in CSR communication processes (Morsing & Schultz, 2006). Findings The chapter argues that in the sense of CSR communication, stakeholders should be involved in the strategic planning process from the beginning, with respect to the issues that the corporation and targeted stakeholder groups have in common. Research limitations/implications The chapter concentrates on selected key aspects of CSR and CSR communication. In particular the aspects such as reputation, credibility, ethical alignment and stakeholder involvement are considered as prerequisites for understanding the construction of the phase model. Practical implications This chapter provides practical implications for developing communication concepts in CSR communication in daily business practice. Originality/value This chapter facilitates a comprehensive understanding of strategic CSR communication as part of CSR reflected in the development processes of communication concepts.

In recent years, both business enterprises and society at large have begun to assign significant value to corporate social responsibility (CSR), and consumer health has come to be an important factor in this regard. This study therefore explores whether different levels of awareness of CSR result in differences in the relationships among brand image, brand attitude, satisfaction and repurchase intention, as well as their intensity. Fast-food chain MOS Burger is used as a case study. In addition, the interference effect of consumer’s awareness of CSR on the brand image relational model is analyzed. In order to achieve the above goal, a consumer survey was conducted in Taiwan, from which 535 valid questionnaires were collected. The average value of consumer awareness of CSR was used to categorize respondents into two groups. SEM (structural equation modeling) analysis showed that the impact of experiential image on brand attitude was significantly stronger among consumers with low awareness of CSR, as compared to those who were highly aware of CSR. This suggested that CSR has a partial interference effect. These results can serve as reference for companies in making CSR-related decisions and formulating brand strategies.

Purpose This paper is explorative in its nature and aims to create a deeper understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication within stakeholder networks. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to focus on how CSR communication is organised and communicated within stakeholder networks from a semiotic perspective. More specifically, the paper looks at the CSR communication of Nordic-based multinational companies. Design/methodology/approach The research design of this study is twofold. First, eight in-depth interviews were conducted with senior managers in five Nordic-based global industrial companies in order to understand how their CSR communication is organised. Second, CSR messages from the interviewed companies’ websites and annual sustainability reports were semiotically analysed in order to understand the codes used in the CSR message in the communication to the stakeholder network. Findings The result of the research consists of a communication platform for CSR communication in stakeholder networks and a list of specific semiotic codes applied to CSR messages targeting various actors in a company’s stakeholder network. The developed CSR communication platform together with the specific CSR codes have practical value for managers aiming to develop the company’s CSR communication in a stakeholder network context. Originality/value The study contributes to the scarce literature on CSR communication in business management. It particularly highlights the need to consider a more in-depth, semiotic approach, when developing and studying CSR communication in a stakeholder network context.

Using a national survey of US consumers, this study demonstrates the positive effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication factors on consumers’ CSR knowledge, trust, and perceptions of corporate reputation. The study also examines the role of a stakeholder-specific factor of consumer–company identification in the process of CSR communication. The findings suggest that the positive effects of CSR informativeness are enduring and independent of consumers’ identification levels with a company, whereas the positive consequences of the personal relevance, transparency, and factual tone of CSR communication intensify as the identification levels increase. Although CSR communication in which a self-promotional tone is adopted has a negative relationship with consumer trust and corporate reputation, such negative effects are not evident among consumers with very high identification levels with a company. Such CSR communication in fact improves consumers’ CSR knowledge and, in turn, has a positive effect on corporate reputation.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become very vital for any corporation as many voices demand that entities must be accountable for business decisions and actions. Since universities are vital entities in the society as they provide higher education to the human factor, they have a huge role that compels them to adhere to CSR and to make it a part of their strategic planning. The study is about measuring the awareness of CSR in the management of universities in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The study used a descriptive survey method to analyze the relationship between Communication, CSR activities and Management’s transparency with the level of awareness of CSR. The respondents of the study are the top and middle level managers of universities where the primary tool in gathering data was a structured questionnaire. Secondary sources were utilized as well, such as: books, articles, unpublished thesis and other printed resources related to the study that were used to support and strengthen the findings of the study. The main finding is, there is a significant relationship between CSR activities and communication with awareness of CSR.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine whether and how internal and external typologies of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employees’ CSR participation (CSRP) differentially impact organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and turnover intentions (TI), mediated by meaningful work (MW) and affective commitment (AC) and moderated by CSR motive attributions.Design/methodology/approachBootstrapped structural equation modeling using AMOS and mediation and moderation analysis using Hayes’ Process macro in SPSS are performed on a sample of 193 employees from diverse industries in India.FindingsThe CSR-work outcomes relationship is rather multifaceted. Internal CSR (ICSR) and CSRP directly promote the meaningfulness of work and AC. Further, all three kinds of CSR (ICSR, external CSR (ECSR) and CSRP) influence work behaviors (OCB and TI) sequentially via MW and AC. Intrinsic (extrinsic) CSR attributions strengthen (weaken) the positive effect of ECSR on MW. Nevertheless, the conditional indirect effects could not be established, warranting further investigation.Practical implicationsThe management must elevate employees’ CSR awareness allowing them to partake in the planning and execution of CSR programs that are authentic, righteous and seamlessly unified with core business activities to nurture work meaningfulness and positive employee attitudes and behaviors.Originality/valueThis is the foremost study that involves a bibliometric analysis of employee-based CSR research and a systematic meta-analytic review of the relationship between CSR and meaningfulness from employees’ perspectives. The present study is novel as it divulges an integrative framework about how employees’ CSR perceptions, participation/volunteering and attributions collectively influence the work outcomes at three levels (namely, cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral), drawing on sensemaking, needs and justice-based views, social identity, social exchange and attribution theories. Thus, new nuances are added to extant micro-CSR literature.

In this research, we addressed the following questions that are becoming increasingly important to managers in the banking industry of Ghana: is there a relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) awareness, firm commitment and organizational performance? If yes, how is the relationship between these three variables? The study adopted both qualitative (case study) and quantitative methods respectively. Banks were selected to gather data, which was acquired from answers obtained from our administered questionnaire and also through interviews. The population of the survey constituted the management and non-management staff and customers of UT Bank Ghana and Barclays Bank Ghana Ltd in Ghana. Hypotheses of the study will be analyzed using correlation and regression. Results of the study show that there are high positive correlations between the constructs of corporate social responsibility (CSR) awareness, firm commitment and organizational performance.