Perceived authenticity and corporate legitimacy of Internet portal CSR activities: focused on Korean Naver user

Abstract

ABSTRACT As the global market for Internet portal services expands, there is a growing interest in identifying corporate social responsibility considering the social influence and business characteristics of Internet portal operators. This study explores the diverse dimensions of CSR of IPOs, examines how CSR efforts affect CSR authenticity in each dimension, and investigates whether CSR authenticity mediates the effects of CSR efforts on corporate legitimacy. In addition, by setting the respondents’ political orientation as the moderator, conditional indirect effect of CSR authenticity was further confirmed. An online survey was conducted on of Korean Naver users who actively use Internet portal services. Among the various CSR efforts of IPOs, strengthening of democratic contributions, universal service delivery, and consumer protection were shown to increase both cognitive and socio-political legitimacy through CSR authenticity. In particular, the effect of CSR efforts on cognitive legitimacy through perception of CSR authenticity was significantly higher in users with progressive political orientation. This study is significant in that it theoretically systematizes the CSR dimensions considering the complex business nature and business characteristics of IPOs and provides empirical results and implications for CSR activities that future IPOs should focus on, which can increase corporate legitimacy.