CSR beauty in the eye of the beholder: Influences of retailer image congruency and consumer personal valuest

Relatively limited research has addressed how consumers’ personal values influence their reactions toward a retailer’s CSR practices. Since personal values affect how consumers respond to CSR practices, it is expected that consumers holding different values would show a different degree of support toward different types of CSR. Thus, this study examined whether the positive relationship between a retailer’s image-congruent CSR practices and brand attitude is moderated by consumers’ varying levels of support toward different types of CSR. Consumer personal values were proposed as the reason for their varying levels of support toward CSR practices. The survey research method was utilized to examine these research questions. Findings generally sustain hypotheses that image congruency of CSR will positively affect consumers’ brand attitude, which is moderated by different levels of support associated with different types of CSR. Additionally, consumers considering different personal values as important indeed support CSR practices differently.