Abstract
Companies nowadays strive to gain public recognition through corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. However, what are consumers’ cognition and evaluations of these CSR efforts, and can they be explained by the concentric circle model, the pyramid model, the intersecting circles model, or by a combination of all three? The novelty of this study is to reexamine the traditional theoretical models in order to find an empirical answer and offer it as a reference to companies. First, we specified the causal relationships of the principles using the modified decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)-based analytic network process (ANP) (DANP); then we identified and examined consumers’ cognition and evaluation of these CSR efforts by importance-performance analysis (IPA). The research result demonstrates that, in a Taiwanese community, consumers’ cognition and evaluation of companies’ CSR rarely follows one single model. On basic economic and legal levels, consumers indicate characteristics of the intersecting circles model. On higher ethical and philanthropic levels, they exhibit characteristics of the pyramid/concentric circles models. Notably, consumers’ demands and expectations of companies have reached an ethical level but have not yet placed great value on a philanthropic level. Moreover, the actual phenomenon may be interpreted by a combination of the above-mentioned models. Low- and high-level CSRs reveal different characteristics; therefore, companies should cultivate various communication strategies to improve effectiveness.
Highlights
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) became prevalent in the 1960s, and several research projects on the topic have continued to emerge, indicating that corporations have some responsibilities to society beyond that of making profits for the shareholders [1,2]
We proposed a hybrid multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) model combining a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method with an analytic network process (ANP) (DANP)
The DEMATEL method [67] is designed to determine the degree of influence of the CSR criteria and apply them to normalize the unweighted supermatrix in the ANP
Summary
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) became prevalent in the 1960s, and several research projects on the topic have continued to emerge, indicating that corporations have some responsibilities to society (with multiple stakeholders) beyond that of making profits for the shareholders [1,2]. The focus of research has shifted from “process, antecedent, and outcome” in the past to a more complex and process-based discussion from the 2000s to the 2010s This shows that an increasing amount of people are becoming interested in how companies choose and implement CSR-related activities [4]. In order to find out an empirical answer to engage in real and effective communication with consumers, we adopted a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory-based analytic network process (DANP) to identify the causal relationships among the CSR factors and criteria from the consumer’s viewpoint. An importance-performance analysis (IPA) was utilized afterward to analyze the consumers’ cognition and evaluation of a company’s CSR activities to reconfirm the supply/demand relationship. We provide practical suggestions to companies that use CSR as a marketing strategy based on the research result and its implications
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