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The current study was developed in response to the profound impact of ethical practices on the beverage industry. It aims to examine the mediating role of perceived brand trustworthiness in the relationship between brand social responsibility and brand positioning in the Tanzanian beverage industry.

The study adopted a post-positivist approach, as it encompasses a deterministic perspective where causes are believed to determine outcomes or effects. The study focused on customers of two major beverage companies in Tanzania, namely Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Data were collected from 458 customers and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings indicate that brand social responsibility serves as a valuable intangible asset, capable of establishing a competitive edge when integrated into the value proposition. Additionally, the results reveal that brand trustworthiness plays a mediating role in the connection between brand social responsibility and brand positioning.

The study employed a convenience sampling technique; hence, generalization of the findings should be approached with caution.

This study represents one of the few scholarly endeavors that explore the role of social responsibility at the product brand level in establishing brand positioning. By doing so, it contributes to the advancement of knowledge concerning the impact of brand social responsibility on building competitiveness within the context of today's competitive business environment.

Merely being known as a highly ethical or strong performer cannot shield a company from every kind of crisis. From product failures to environmental and social issues, a brand’s ability to manage crises and rapidly regain consumer trust is essential. This study aims to explore whether consumer perceptions of a brands’ prior commitments to two different areas of corporate responsibility (social and product responsibility) alleviate the postcrisis attribution of accountability and further build brand resilience, examining differences between two types of crisis situations – values versus performance crises.

A scenario-based online survey on product versus ethical labor issues was conducted. The data were collected from a highly valid, nationwide sample set of more than a thousand US consumers. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used as the primary data analysis method.

A brand’s precrisis commitment to social responsibility was found to decrease attribution of accountability across both types of crises. It also strengthened brand resilience, but this effect was more prevalent in a performance than a values crisis. The effects of precrisis commitment to product responsibility on brand resilience were minimal or insignificant across crisis types.

Previous research underexplores which types of corporate responsibility commitments provide a firm with a better protection against crises. This study significantly advances the knowledge regarding the type of commitments that can substantially increase brand resilience, which supports the rationale of making stronger commitments to social responsibility than to product responsibility. Practical insights are provided into how investments in corporate social responsibility help alleviate consumers’ negative perceptions during the outbreak of a brand crisis and build more brand muscle that enables resilience against future crises.

This paper aims to examine how consumer moral identity (MI) affects the impact of cause-related marketing (CRM). CRM is a popular hybrid marketing tool that incorporates charitable initiatives and sales promotion. CRM has strength in simultaneously encouraging consumer purchases and doing something good for the society. Drawing on the moral identity (MI)-based motivation model, this research examines how consumer MI influences consumer behavioural response to CRM.

Two field experiments were conducted to test a series of hypotheses relating to the conditional effect of MI on behavioural response to CRM.

Brand social responsibility image and emotional brand attachment positively moderated the relationship between consumer MI centrality and intention to purchase CRM sponsor brand.

Findings contribute to the literature on CRM, MI-based motivation of consumer behaviour and emotional brand attachment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how social responsibility initiatives can be integrated into different tiers of retailers’ private label brands (PLB) and introduces a conceptual model and opposing predictions building on research in social responsibility and evolutionary psychology. The empirical evidence from two studies suggests that retailers should consider the type of PLB (i.e. quality tier) in the introduction of social responsibility initiatives.

To investigate opposing predictions, the authors conducted two experiments with presence of social responsibility initiative and PLB quality tier as the factors. The authors present the results from 168 Canadian consumers focussing on two product categories.

The findings of two experiments are more consistent with an explanation based on resource synergy beliefs rather than costly signaling theory. Social responsibility initiatives enhanced consumer evaluations of high-quality PLBs, but hurt consumer evaluations of low-tier PLBs.

Retailers should differentiate the way they accommodate social responsibility initiatives based on the type of their PLBs. Specifically, the beneficial effect of social responsibility initiative only exist for high-tier PLBs. Introducing social responsibility initiatives may hurt preference for low-tier PLBs.

This paper is the first to propose two theoretical models that address how social responsibility initiatives can affect consumer evaluations of PLBs. The initial empirical evidence is more coherent with resource synergy beliefs explanation rather than costly signaling explanation. These results suggest that social responsibility initiatives have asymmetric effects for different tiers of retailers’ PLBs.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the brand social responsibility (BSR) construct, and to develop a scale to measure this construct.

Using corporate social responsibility scales and the existing literature, a pre‐test to establish an initial list of items is followed by exploratory factor analysis in order to obtain a list of descriptors and statements to measure brand social responsibility. Then, the retained items of the BSR scale and existing CSR scales are tested on a panel of 248 participants.

The brand social responsibility scale tested in this research was more focused on a brand's trustworthiness, awareness, and the brand's philanthropic activities from a consumer's perspective. The descriptors used in the scale more accurately measure consumers' perceptions of a brand's social responsibility than CSR scales, and also take into consideration the possible differences between a parent brand's SR and its subsidiary's SR.

This study, while investigating the brand social responsibility construct and developing a scale to measure it, compares existing CSR scales and emphasizes the possible differences between a parent brand's SR and its subsidiary's SR.

The brand social responsibility scale in this study is important as it is one of the few scales in the field that takes into consideration the consumer's perspective as well as the possible effects of a parent brand and its subsidiaries.

By exploring the evolution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and evaluating major frameworks of CSR provided in a wider range of early works, this paper attempts to identify key domains of CSR and propose the revised CSR framework for strategic CSR management processes. The paper provides extended insights into how the concept of strategic CSR is integrated into city branding and design and highlights and addresses the roles of CSR that are inter‐linked to city brand management in terms of sustainable value creation to meet a community's societal, political or economic objectives.

The overall content of this paper is concerned with theory of CSR and the fundamental logic behind city branding. The frameworks are developed based upon the historical review of theory and observation of trends in the current issues.

The paper funds that CSR is an integral framework to encompass not just principles of social responsibility, but processes of social responsiveness and outcomes of social performance as well.

Notwithstanding a number of management literature that seeks out strategic linkages between competitive advantage, a crucial strategy concept and CSR, research concerned with the relationship between CSR and city branding is at in its infancy. There is a need to examine the essential ingredients that produce design‐driven value in the process of implementing strategic CSR into city branding. Future research, taking the difference between the firm/product and the city into account, will further investigate how city branding and design can be implemented to reflect social responsibility, notably in terms of the process and evaluation.

The paper not only presents the revised framework of CSR and major constituents of strategic CSR but also seeks to enlighten and establish a new connection between CSR and value creation that bring us an innovative perspective when implemented in city branding and design.

This study aims to investigate employees’ perceptions of socially responsible financial services brands in Saudi Arabia. The study also identifies the motives and challenges for Islamic banks for higher involvement in social responsibility initiatives to enhance their brand values.

An inductive approach was used in this study to identify the motives and challenges related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The research design uses a qualitative approach where in-depth interviews were carried out among the employees in the financial services sector in Saudi Arabia.

Findings provide insights about how CSR initiatives for financial services brands in a developing and Islamic country are perceived. Results show that the focus of CSR activities is on the attribute of CSR, the magnitude of CSR and attitude towards CSR. Results show two main motives to engage in CSR activities, which are instrumental and ethical motives. The main challenges are related to the government, business, charitable organisations and customers and society.

Implications exist for how CSR is perceived in a new context and in the financial services industry. Understanding the current perception of CSR from a financial service brand perspective helps policymakers to develop appropriate platforms for financial service providers to become more socially involved.

The major contribution of this study lies in investigating the CSR perception among the key stakeholder (i.e. the employees) from a brand management perspective in the Saudi Arabian financial services sector. Further, this study shows the main motives and challenges, which local financial service brands face to become socially responsible. The categories of attributes, magnitude and attitudes can be used to enhance brand value in one of the economically advanced countries in the Arabic world, Saudi Arabia. In the first category “attribute”, the perception of socially responsible banks are highlighted, while the elements of CSR, including its dimensions, are emphasised in the second category “magnitude”. The third category “attitude” shows two themes, including stakeholders’ issues and business-related issues.

The study aims to examine the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate branding (CB) and brand loyalty (BL) in the Indian Banking industry. The study further intends to examine the direct and indirect effect of CSR on BL when CSR becomes an integral part of CB.

A structured questionnaire using seven-point Likert’s scale is the instrument for data collection. Stratified random sampling is used to collect the cross-sectional data from 430 savings bank customers in India. A new scale is developed and used to measure the CB as a single construct. A multi-model path using structural equation modelling is used to test the hypotheses. Direct and indirect model path analysis is used to examine the integrated effect of CSR and CB on BL.

The results of the study show that there is a significant impact of CSR components (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic) on CB to enhance customer BL. The study offers new insight into the relationship between CSR and BL by introducing CB as the mediating factor. However, the relationship between “legal responsibility to CB” and “philanthropy responsibility to BL” demonstrate a negative coefficient in the path analysis. Further, the result of the direct and indirect model path analysis confirms that customers’ BL can be enhanced more efficiently when CSR becomes an integral part of CB.

The strategic incorporation of CSR tools as an integral part of CB strategy can help the managers in the banking industry to enhance their customers’ BL. Besides economic and legal responsibilities, managers need to give more emphasis on the ethical and philanthropic responsibilities as critical positioning tools to develop firm’s corporate brand followed by enhancing BL.

Scale development and validation of CB as a single construct is an original move in this study. Additionally, the study is a pioneer to examine the direct and indirect effect of CSR on customers’ BL using CB as a key mediating factor.

Taking a dynamic endogenous perspective, this study aims to examine neglected endogeneity issues in the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and brand value and the relationship’s moderation by corporate governance.

The study uses the three-stage least squares (3SLS) method on 990 samples of the 110 most valuable listed companies published by the World Brand Lab for 2013–2021 to empirically test the two-way interactive endogenous relationship between CSR and brand value.

The findings reveal that increasing investment in CSR increases brand value in the current period, which prompts companies to reduce investment in social responsibility, resulting in a decline in future brand value. Concerning the moderating effect of corporate governance variables, the size of the board of directors and the board’s proportion of independent directors positively regulate the relationship between CSR and brand value. By contrast, the proportion of executive shareholdings has a negative impact.

This study’s findings complement previous studies on endogeneity in the relationship between CSR and brand value, and enrich the literature on corporate governance, CSR and brand value as a whole. In addition, the study uses the 3SLS method, which avoids endogeneity problems and eliminates the one-sidedness of the subjective selection of instrumental variables.