CSR, CSA, or CPA? Examining Corporate Climate Change Communication Strategies, Motives, and Effects on Consumer Outcomes

Abstract

In response to the current social–political landscape, consumers’ expectations are changing. There is an increased need for companies to communicate about social issues such as climate change. This study is among the first to examine the differentiated and mediated effects of three messaging strategies: corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate social advocacy (CSA), and corporate political activism (CPA), in the context of corporations communicating about climate change, which currently lacks scholarly attention. An online-survey experiment (N = 1048) compared the messaging strategies’ effects on three consumer responses: perceived credibility, perceived reputation, and positive word-of-mouth intention. Results from a structural equation model indicate that the type of corporate climate change communication (CCCC) has a differential effect on consumer responses. The differences are magnified by the mediation of consumers’ attribution of corporate climate motives in the relationship between the climate change message and consumer responses. This study advances scholarship on CSR, CSA, and CPA, and provides theoretical and practical implications for how a corporation communicates about climate change using different communication and engagement strategies.