Measuring the effect of messages about social responsibility

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This article examines the effects of public relations messages about corporate social responsibility (SR) on individuals' attitudes toward corporations. The authors defined three types of SR: a “profit” concept where a corporation's idea of social responsibility is to maximize profits in order to promote economic efficiency and further the free market system; a “good citizen” concept, where corporations are concerned with undertaking activities to promote the public good; and a “leader” concept, where emphasis is placed on the corporation's leadership role in solving special problems. The “good citizen” concept emerged as embodying goals that were viewed most favorably by participants in the authors' research experiment.