The impact of corporate social responsibility authenticity to advocacy behaviors in Vietnam dairy industry: The role of attitude and trust

Abstract

In recent decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become one of the standard business practices to gain businesses competitive advantages. Witnessing the great success of many businesses implementing CSR, companies are increasingly deploying CSR campaigns while many of those actions do not truly help the environment and society. The act of taking advantage of consumers' interest in CSR to polish the buiness' name has negatively led to an adverse response from consumers, giving them a reason to boycott the untrustworthy brand and showing more wariness toward the term CSR. In that context, a new concept: corporate social responsibility authenticity (CSR authenticity) was born and is increasingly appreciated by consumers when choosing a brand. In addition, some evidence shows that the emotions of customers can also influence their shopping behavior. Therefore, this research surveys customers in the dairy industry in Vietnam, particularly customers of four big brands: Vinamilk, TH True Milk, Dutch Lady, and Nestle to examine the relationship between the new concepts: of CSR authenticity, and advocacy behaviors, through the mediated role of two factors: attitude and trust. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the results show that CSR authenticity has a positive impact on consumers' advocacy in both ways: directly and indirectly through customer attitudes and trust. Through these results, the authors aim to raise awareness about the importance of authenticity while doing CSR as well as provide advice on how to organize an effective CSR campaign.