Consumer empowerment in corporate social responsibility: the effect of participatory CSR on company admiration and word-of-mouth communications

Abstract

Purpose

This study conceptualizes participatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a consumer empowerment strategy and examines the effect of participatory CSR on consumer responses in a social media setting.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a 2 (type of CSR campaign) × 4 (tone of consumer comments) between-subjects experimental design. The sample comprises college students and nonstudent participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Findings

Data indicate that the participatory CSR program leads to higher levels of perceived self-efficacy and social worth, which subsequently results in stronger intentions to spread positive word of mouth about the company’s CSR efforts. The findings suggest that participatory CSR has the power to boost a company’s reputation as an “admired” company through consumer empowerment.

Originality/value

This study advances the scholarship of CSR by explicating participatory CSR communication as a consumer empowerment strategy and providing empirical evidence for the effect of participatory CSR on public responses. The overall findings support the notion that CSR communication as an important function of public relations can generate public engagement with the organization and further co-create meaning with publics for mutual benefit.

Citation

Park, H. and Kim, S.-Y. (2022), "Consumer empowerment in corporate social responsibility: the effect of participatory CSR on company admiration and word-of-mouth communications", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 346-367. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-02-2021-0025