Does customer engagement in corporate social responsibility initiatives lead to customer citizenship behaviour? The mediating roles of customer‐company identification and affective commitment

Abstract

AbstractThis study examines how customers' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect their customer citizenship behaviour and the mediated link through customer‐company identification and affective commitment. Working with a sample of 615 banking service customers in South Korea, structural equation modelling is employed to test the research hypotheses. The results of this study suggest that customers' perceptions of CSR are positively related to their customer citizenship behaviour. Second, customer‐company identification was found to mediate the positive relationship between customers' perceptions of CSR and customer citizenship behaviour. Third, customers' affective commitment towards their organization also mediated the positive relationship between customers' perceptions of CSR and customer citizenship behaviour. Finally, the relationship between customers' perceptions of CSR and customer citizenship behaviour is sequentially and partially mediated by customer‐company identification and affective commitment. The theoretical and managerial implications of the results and the limitations of the study are discussed, and future research directions are suggested.