The nexus between corporate social responsibility and target-based customer citizenship behavior

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an increasingly important strategy used by firms to improve consumers’ favorable responses. Drawing on social identity theory, social exchange theory, and equity theory, this study developed an integrative model to examine how CSR, benevolence trust, and individualism-collectivism orientation jointly affect two types of target-based customer citizenship behavior (CCB): firm- and customer-oriented. Empirical evidence was obtained from 396 hotel customers in North Cyprus, and a structural equation modeling approach was applied. The findings show that CSR has a positive impact on target-based CCBs and is a stronger predictor of customer-oriented CCB than firm-oriented CCB. The findings also revealed that benevolence trust mediates the relationship between CSR and CCB and that individualism-collectivism orientation directly moderates the CSR-CCB link. Additionally, customers’ individualism-collectivism orientation moderates the indirect effects of CSR and customer-oriented CCB through perceived benevolence trust but does not moderate the indirect effect of CSR on firm-oriented CCB through perceived benevolence trust. The research contributes to the literature by uncovering the underlying mechanism of how and under what conditions CSR promotes target-based CCBs in the hospitality context.