Corporate Social Responsibility Marketing Research Articles

The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on Customer Loyalty : Evidence from the Travel Agencies and Hotels

Despite the increasing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) marketing practices, the role of CSR has little been explored in the area of tourism and hospitality marketing especially in regard to the potential effects of CSR initiatives on customer responses. Also, there are few scholars, if any, who overviewed this concept in the developing countries. By understanding the effectiveness of CSR practices in the market place and its impact on customers’ responses toward the company, travel agencies and hotel operation will be able to attract new customers as well as keep strong relationships with current customers. CSR marketing will provide the firm a competitive edge over its competitors. This paper explores how customers’ perceptions of firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) determine customers’ behaviour and influence customer loyalty through satisfaction and commitment. To investigate such influence, data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to a sample of 350 customers of Egyptian hotels and 300 customers of Egyptian travel agencies. A total of 335 responses from hotels’ customers and 260 responses of travel agencies’ customers were collected and analyzed using structural equation modelling method. Results showed that CSR contribute to achieving customer loyalty in both sectors and confirmed the roles of satisfaction and commitment as mediating variables. These results imply that CSR can be used as a main tool for marketing strategy. Certain CSR marketing actions could work better than others to create positive identification and image of the company.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Buyer-Supplier Relationships: Is it Beneficial for Top-Tier Suppliers to Market their Capability to Ensure a Responsible Supply Chain?

AbstractThis study assesses how top-tier suppliers market their capabilities to ensure a responsible upstream supply chain to their downstream buyers, and how the marketing of corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related supply management practices affects the reputation of top-tier suppliers in business-to-business (B2B) markets. In a cross-functional multiple-case study involving marketing, purchasing, and sustainability executives of five supplier organizations in Central Europe, we explored four distinct approaches for marketing superior CSR management abilities in B2B markets that potentially foster long-term comparative advantages: (1) Fact-based communication of measurable CSR capabilities, (2) targeting of indirect customers and influencers, (3) marketing through education, and (4) marketing of CSR as a service. Moreover, our inductive results provide evidence that the effective marketing of CSR capabilities enhances a supplier’s reputation only if it sends consistent signals to the market. Therefore, a close integration of marketing and purchasing is crucial for achieving signaling consistency. Building on an established framework of purchasing-marketing integration in the particular context of CSR we developed a crossfunctional theory on the link between marketing, supply chain alignment and reputation, which is expressed in four sets of testable research propositions.

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Activities and Corporate Governance in Imperfectly Competitive Markets

We investigate the incentives of firms' owners to commit voluntarily to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in an oligopolistic market. The socially responsible attributes attached to products are considered as credence goods, with consumers forming expectations about their existence and level. We show that hiring an ‘individually’ socially responsible CEO and delegating to him the CSR effort and market decisions acts as a commitment device for the firm's owners and credibly signals to consumers that the firm will undertake the ‘missioned’ CSR activities. We also find that CSR activities are welfare enhancing for consumers and firms and thus, they should be encouraged. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Doing Good Does Good? Sustainable Marketing of CSR and Consumer Evaluations

ABSTRACTThis study focuses on the effect of the sustainable marketing of three types of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives – sponsorship, cause‐related marketing, and philanthropy – on consumer evaluations with the moderating effect of psychological distance (social distance and spatial distance). Four hundred and eighty subjects participated in a 3x2x2 between‐subjects factorial design experiment. The results of the analyses were significant and in the direction hypothesized. Philanthropy was found to have a stronger effect on consumer evaluations, followed by sponsorship and cause‐related marketing. However, the relationship between CSR initiatives and consumer evaluations was significantly stronger when consumers perceived the focal brand with low social distance as well as the cause with low spatial distance. The findings thus provide support for the importance of psychological distance in moderating CSR initiatives. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Benefits of Employee Trust: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective

Research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has tended to focus on external stakeholders and outcomes, revealing little about internal effects that might also help explain CSR-firm performance linkages and the impact that corporate marketing strategies can have on internal stakeholders such as employees. The two studies (N = 1,116 and N = 2,422) presented in this article draw on theory from both corporate marketing and organizational behavior (OB) disciplines to test the general proposition that employee trust partially mediates the relationship between CSR and employee attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Both studies provide evidence in support of these general relationships. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the context of CSR and corporate marketing research.

Corporate social responsibility: impacts on strategic marketing and customer value

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has impacted on the policies and behaviours of companies throughout the world. However, relatively little attention has been devoted to the link between CSR and strategic marketing. The impact of CSR initiatives on customer and other stakeholder relationships is key to performance improvement. It is also important to recognise that CSR initiatives may achieve undesirable effects and that barriers exist to their effective implementation. We provide a framework examining the degree and type of corporate response to CSR imperatives and the moderating effects of employee/manager perceptions, other stakeholder perceptions, and the company's social credibility. We examine the impact of CSR on customer value, and importantly the need for a resonating value proposition that underlines how a supplier's CSR adds value for the customer. We conclude with a new management agenda for marketing strategy that examines CSR opportunities and risks.

An ethical framework for the marketing of corporate social responsibility

An ethical framework for the marketing of corporate social responsibility

An Ethical Framework for the Marketing of Corporate Social Responsibility

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an ethical framework for the marketing of corporate social responsibility. Methods The approach is a conceptual one based on virtue ethics and on the corporate identity literature. Furthermore, empirical research results are used to describe the opportunities and pitfalls of using marketing communication tools in the strategy of building a virtuous corporate brand. Results/conclusions An ethical framework that addresses the paradoxical relation between the consequentialist perspective many proponents of the marketing of CSR adopt, and ethical perspectives which criticize an exclusive profit-oriented approach to CSR. Furthermore, three CSR strategies in relation to the marketing of CSR are discussed. For each CSR strategy it is explored how a corporation could avoid falling into the promise/performance gap.

Sea change: Santa Barbara and the eruption of corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs have proliferated among the world's largest corporations. While the lion's share of scholarly attention has been devoted to the competitive advantage of CSR as a branding strategy, very little notice has been taken of CSR's history, particularly the emergence of CSR programs during the politically turbulent l960s and l970s. The paucity of historical attention has led to several distortions, including the failure to recognize CSR's origins as a survivalist reaction to crisis, and the resulting overemphasis of CSR as an unambiguously ethical model of managerial proactive effectiveness. Based on an examination of newspaper records of a politically crystallizing oil spill in the waters off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, and an analysis of CSR's market penetration and rhetoric, this paper offers an alternative framework for reexamining corporate social responsibility.

Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Satisfaction, and Market Value

Abstract Although prior research has addressed the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on perceived customer responses, it is not clear whether CSR affects market value of the firm. This study develops and tests a conceptual framework, which predicts that (1) customer satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between CSR and firm market value (i.e., Tobin's q and stock return), (2) corporate abilities (innovativeness capability and product quality) moderate the financial returns to CSR, and (3) these moderated relationships are mediated by customer satisfaction. Based on a large-scale secondary data set, the results show support for this framework. Notably, the authors find that in firms with low innovativeness capability, CSR actually reduces customer satisfaction levels and, through the lowered satisfaction, harms market value. The uncovered mediated and asymmetrically moderated results offer important implications for marketing theory and practice.

Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Satisfaction, and Market Value

Although prior research has addressed the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on perceived customer responses, it is not clear whether CSR affects market value of the firm. This study develops and tests a conceptual framework, which predicts that (1) customer satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between CSR and firm market value (i.e., Tobin's q and stock return), (2) corporate abilities (innovativeness capability and product quality) moderate the financial returns to CSR, and (3) these moderated relationships are mediated by customer satisfaction. Based on a large-scale secondary data set, the results show support for this framework. Notably, the authors find that in firms with low innovativeness capability, CSR actually reduces customer satisfaction levels and, through the lowered satisfaction, harms market value. The uncovered mediated and asymmetrically moderated results offer important implications for marketing theory and practice.

Has Environmental Investment a Marketing Effect in Turkish Banking Industry?

The increase in environmental consciousness around the world since 1970's pushed firms to engage in socially responsible behaviors. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has naturally gained attention in the academic and business world (Colvin, 2001; Harrison & Freeman, 1999; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001; Waddock & Smith, 2000). The reasons for these socially responsible behaviors are not only the external obligations or regulatory compliance but also the firms desire to increase competitiveness, to improve stock market performance (Bansal & Roth, 2000; Drumwright, 1994, 1996; Klassen & Mclaughlin, 1996; Russo & Fouts, 1997; Waddock & Smith, 2000) and to create a positive self‐image among consumers. There have been numerous studies on CSR suggesting a link between social initiatives and consumer's positive product and brand evaluations, brand choice and brand recommendations (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Drumwright, 1994; Handelman & Arnold, 1999; Osterhus, 1997; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001). Moreover, the consumers are continuing to become more interested in CSR and green product market is fast growing so the use of CSR initiatives by the firms to receive the support of the society and to influence consumer behavior has become quite common. However, these socially responsible steps must also have an effect on corporations' major objective: maximizing the profits.

Corporate social responsibility in Portugal: empirical evidence of corporate behaviour

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to explore corporate social responsibility (CSR) evidence and, especially, the experience and practice of enterprises in Portugal.Design/methodology/approachAs a generally accepted principle, the corporate social report is a communication and measurement object. But there are limitations concerning availability and accuracy of the data that could create constraints and diminish the scope of this report. Thus, the methodology for this paper is subdivided into two different aspects of research: First, an individual perspective about each enterprise studied and second, a general perspective applied to CSR in Portugal. The sample used was based on the survey developed by the Instituto ETHOS, applied to a sample of enterprises carried out in Portugal, during the year 2002. It was published by Exame in a special edition – “The guide of socially responsible enterprises”. So, the authors analyze and present the results that are of interest in the area of CSR activity. In order to do so the authors develop a principal component analysis to sort and group the original data.FindingsThe preliminary analysis generated three components of CSR: the external influence (CSR external), the market influence (CSR market) and the operative influence (CSR operative) of the enterprises in Portugal.Originality/valueThis research shows cultural differences and helps to highlight the importance of more research in this area in the newly expanded European Community. It also highlights the relationship between CSR activity and corporate image and performance.