Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Response in Pakistan: A Mediating Role of Positive Moral Emotions, Attitude, and Identification with the Company

Abstract

Many companies and brands are using CSR to enhance the brand image, goodwill, and gain the confidence and trust of the people. This study’s aim is to investigate how CSR initiatives got converted into consumer favorable responses. We proposed a theoretical framework, modifying Dedeke's (2015) model that hypothesized that CSR activities and actions affect responses of the consumers towards corporate brands both directly or indirectly through mediating roles of moral emotions, attitude, and identifying themselves with the company (CCI). Positive emotions were further broken down into awe, gratitude, and elevation, whereas consumer responses were measured in terms of purchase intention (PI), recommend intention and loyalty. To establish the empirical validity, a quantitative study was conducted, a close-ended Likert scale type questionnaire was developed whilst data were gathered from 300 adult consumers from Karachi by using convenient sampling. Data were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor analysis and Structured Equation Modeling. The results concluded that CSR has a significant positive impact directly on consumer responses (Purchase Intention, Recommend Intention but not on loyalty) whereas CSR has a significant positive effect on all three positive emotions, attitudes, and CCI. However, Positive Emotions have an insignificant effect on consumer responses. Apart from gratitude affecting loyalty. Hence there is a positive mediatory effect of CCI for all dimensions of customer responses. Whereas gratitude and attitude also mediate loyalty and PI respectively.