The Relationship of Corporate Social Responsibility, Brand Trust and Electronic Word of Mouth

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has happened for nearly two years, and all the countries worldwide accept to live with the pandemic. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is considered a competitive strategy to help businesses gain customers' trust and strengthen their brand image in the long term. Electronic Word of Mouth (EWOM) has proven its close relationship with CSR and brand trust with digital platforms. The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship of CSR to brand trust and EWOM in the Vietnamese market during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper applied both the qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative approach is to confirm and adjust the scale, whereas quantitative research aims to find the relationship of CSR to brand trust and EWOM. The result indicated that CSR has a closed relationship with brand trust and EWOM and the impact of responsibility towards consumers to CSR is the most robust influencing relationship. The study has proposed recommendations to improve and develop CSR for Vietnamese enterprises.