The Relationship among Corporate Social Responsibility, Consumer-Company Identification, Brand Prestige, and Purchase Intention

Mei-Hua Chen,Pei-Ni Tai,Bryan H Chen

doi:10.5539/ijms.v7n5p33

Abstract

This study analyzes relationships between corporate social responsibility, consumer-company identification, brand prestige, and purchase intention. A self-report survey yields data for 252 college students. After confirming reliability and validity of survey questionnaire, the structural equation modeling was used for tests the model. Results were summarized as follows: (a) CSR image has a significant positive effect on brand prestige and consumer-company identification. (b) Brand prestige has a significant positive effect on consumer-company identification. (c) Consumer-company identification has a significant positive effect on purchase behavior. (d) Consumer-company identification mediates the effect of CSR image on consumers’ purchase intention. This outcome reveals that CSR image creates consumers’ identification with the company, which may enhance consumers’ purchase intention.

Highlights

The last two decades have seen growing important placed on research in corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Carroll & Shabana, 2010; Malik, 2015)
Our results exhibited that the effect of CSR image on brand prestige were statistically significant (β= .57, p
Our results revealed that consumer-company identification partially mediated the effect of CSR image on purchase intention

Summary

Introduction

The last two decades have seen growing important placed on research in corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Carroll & Shabana, 2010; Malik, 2015). Researches indicate that CSR can increase brand value, bolster consumer loyalty, and escalate sales revenue (Jeong, Paek, & Lee, 2013; Lee, Lau, & Cheng, 2013). An increasing number of consumers have made their purchase decisions by observing the company’s CSR practices or ethical behaviors (Davies, Lee, & Ahonkhai, 2012; Grimmer & Bingham, 2013). When conscientious consumers find out that the company with a good CSR reputation, they tend to reward the company (e.g., Carrotmob, word-of-mouth, buying products); once consumers discover that the company was “doing badly”, they would like to adopt punish behavior to reflect consumers’ indignation (e.g., complain, boycott, and protest) (Sweetin, Knowles, Summey, & McQueen, 2013). As Smith (1995) pointed out, we are living in the “ethics era”

Methods

Results

Conclusion