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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 study aims to adopt a mixed-methods approach (accounting and business data) to analyse the effects of the financial institution’s governance on both the knowledge of social responsibility and the consumer’s attitudes and behaviours, and testing the moderating role of the brand identification in the banking sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this concept has been neglected in previous studies.

Data were collected from a sample of 600 respondents in two major Tunisian cities. Participants were selected on the basis of a convenience sampling in which the structural equation modelling method was adopted through SMART PLS 3.0 software.

The results showed that good corporate governance has a positive influence on the knowledge of the company's social responsibility, which positively influences its brand image. Therefore, the company's brand image positively influences the customer’s satisfaction, which positively influences the recommending behaviour of the financial institutions in the COVID-19 era. However, the brand identification has no moderating effect.

Managers of financial institutions are advised to pay particular attention to good corporate governance, as it is mandatory for these companies to assume social responsibility and make it known to clients. Therefore, it is obvious to create a good image in the mind of the consumers to satisfy them to recommend the company in question. It is interesting to mobilise the period of health crisis (COVID-19) to create a favourable attitude among the customers because they are sensitive when evaluating and ranking financial institutions according to the relationships that exist especially during this period.

In fact, there are many studies that dealt with the banking sector. Some of them dealt with the sector through the institutional accounting section while others dealt with the sector through the commercial and marketing section. Therefore, the first contribution of this research is to test a mixed model made up of accounting and commercial data. This model is among the first to determine the effects of the financial institution's governance on the knowledge of social responsibility and on the consumer’s attitude and behaviour to test the moderating role of brand identification in the banking sector. The second contribution is to test this model in a period of health crisis (COVID-19). The third contribution is the use of a mixed sample of data collected from two regions. Then, the fourth contribution is the addition of tests for the verification, robustness and validation of the results obtained. Finally, the fifth contribution is the addition of control variables to test their effects on the research model.

This paper seeks to explore whether corporate heritage as a component in planned communications can be important to foster a responsible corporate brand image among consumers.

A research model with three hypotheses was created and tested through linear multiple regression analysis, including 199 brands. The dependent variable, responsible brand image, was obtained from a Swedish consumer survey (n=8,015). The independent variables were measured through content analyses of the brands' webpages.

The findings support that presence of corporate heritage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication is positively related to responsible brand image with consumers. It is notable that the results indicate that corporate heritage identity on its own does not influence positive consumer perception on responsibility, unless it is linked to CSR communication.

Previous research has indicated the significance of cultural context on what constitutes effective CSR communication. As this study is limited to a Swedish consumer sample, the authors therefore recommend further research including a wider national context in order to validate the findings.

The study and findings can inspire and inform companies how corporate heritage can be utilised in brand communications to facilitate CSR credibility among consumers.

By introducing history and heritage as a perspective on CSR communication and responsible brand image, the paper adds to the growing literature on corporate heritage identity and branding. The findings also add to the CSR communication literature calling for more knowledge on elements that build effective CSR communication.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

This study aims to explore the relationship between the consumer perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the buying behaviour in the brand clothing Salsa. This paper intends to analyse if the consumer knows about the meaning of social responsibility in the economic, social and environmental contexts.

This paper used a survey to assess the perception of the consumer of the social responsibility practices of the Salsa brand. The questionnaires were administered to consumers in the north of Portugal. The survey questions were tested through an exploratory factor analysis. A least squares estimation was performed to test the hypotheses.

The consumers revealed that they have four dimensions of perceptions of CSR: ecological reasons, no discrimination reasons, recycling reasons and communication reasons. The results suggest that the consumers consider that there are four aspects of CSR: economic, social, ecological and recycling. When it was verified that the personal concerns, regarding environment and recycling, play an important role in consumer decision, the seven stages of the consumer decision process developed by Blackwell et al. (2006) were evaluated. In this sense, it was observed that the knowledge of social responsibility practices and the dimensions of perceptions of CSR revealed by the consumers influence the purchase of the company’s products.

This paper obtained an interesting result in the sense that the consumers distinguish the environmental aspects on ecological and recycling. It is also observed that this distinction, allied to the knowledge of social responsibility practices carried out by the company, leads to the affirmation that the final disinvestment stage of the consumer decision process plays an important role in consumer decision.

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 purpose of this paper is twofold: to examine the effect of corporate social responsibility, social media marketing, sales promotion, and store environment on the perceived value and customer retention in the retail industry; and to provide a significant contribution to the existing literature by examining the mediating effect of the perceived value between the stated factors and customer retention.

A quantitative research approach was utilized, collecting data from customers of department stores in the east coast of Malaysia. In total, 278 valid questionnaires were used in the analysis of data using the structural equation modeling.

The findings indicate that perceived value has a significant positive effect on customer retention. The outcomes also showed that social media marketing has an insignificant effect on the perceived value, whereas its effect on customer retention is positive and statistically significant. Additionally, the results confirmed that corporate social responsibility and store environment have significant positive effects on the perceived value and customer retention. Moreover, the findings showed that sales promotion has a significant positive effect on the perceived value, but its effect on customer retention is insignificant. Finally, the results revealed that the perceived value mediates the relationships between all of the independent variables and customer retention.

The results of this study improve our understanding of how these factors affect customer retention in the retail industry.

This paper aims to investigate whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts that are oriented toward shared value creation generate any perceptual advantages in terms of consumer product attributes evaluations compared with other types of CSR. The study also uncovers consumers’ pathways that channel the impacts of corporate associations on corporate and product evaluations and purchase intention.

This study uses a between-subjects experimental design. In all, 274 undergraduate students from a North American university participated in the 2 (low versus high corporate ability levels) × 4 (CSR types) study. The data were analyzed using the methodologies of path analysis and multiple group analysis in the context of structural equation modeling procedure.

The findings show that in the context of shared-value CSR, CSR image (i.e. consumer judgments on the moral aspect of the company) can spill over to product attributes evaluations, including perceptions of “product innovativeness” and “product social responsibility,” which, in turn, translate to purchase willingness. Meanwhile, perceived corporate trustworthiness mediates the effects of CSR image and corporate ability (CA) image on the overall corporate evaluation, which subsequently influences consumer product evaluation and purchase intention.

The research provides direct evidence showing that companies have the potential to improve their corporate brand and, in turn, their product evaluations by putting a stronger emphasis on the social responsibility components of their image and placing this at the core of their strategic agenda. Importantly, a contribution to the literature by identifying differential effects of CA image versus CSR image on consumer perception of product innovativeness within different CSR categories is made. The limitations of the research are discussed, which include the usage of a fictitious company and brand and a convenience sample.

The study offers guidance to managers in regard to their choice of different CSR practices to fulfill their company’s product-related strategic goals.

The present study takes a critical stance to show that previous experimental work investigating the impact of CSR image on product evaluations relied predominantly on bipolar manipulations of CSR practices (bad versus good) rather than bringing many shades of CSR into consideration. By incorporating a wide array of CSR formats, especially value-creating CSR, current research generates potential implications based on differential effects of various CSR focuses, which have not been captured by previous studies.

This study aims to enhance the understanding of what significance consumers place on different aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) when evaluating and purchasing grocery brands and products.

The paper builds on existing literature and theories on CSR and marketing, as well as literature on consumers' perceptions of CSR related issues. The Swedish empirical study has two parts; the first explorative stage based on qualitative method and in‐store face‐to‐face interviews through which important consumer attitude‐based attributes of social responsibility are identified in a grocery context. The second quantitative part is based on questionnaires that describe the grocery brand positions and performances along these attributes.

Results point to three general attitude‐based dimensions for CSR positioning and that retail brands can indeed, in relation to leading national brands, build a CSR image. Further, this image is shown to have an impact on consumers' intention to buy. This is also the case for “me‐too” retail brands. The CSR dimension of greatest impact on overall CSR image is product responsibility, whereas human responsibility influences the customer purchase intentions the most. Environmental responsibility, perhaps the most commonly used CSR dimension, is in this study recognised to exert least impact on both overall CSR image and on purchase intentions.

This study is limited to a Swedish context and to one specific purchase situation. Future studies could involve validation of factor structure, relationship between CSR and preference, and ability to positioning in another market, perhaps in more mature markets in terms of well‐developed structures of CSR and health/organic organic products (e.g. the UK). A postal survey would allow the use of longer and evaluated measurement scales previously used in organic food research.

This study substantiates that retailer brands can indeed be distinctly positioned according to aspects other than price, e.g. as here exemplified, the concept of CSR. This relationship has hitherto not been identified outside the UK. The finding that CSR is less clearly connected to the expected dimension of environmental responsibility entails new added knowledge to this research field. The analysis has, moreover, resulted in more a simplified description of the basic dimensions of CSR containing three instead of, as often in the literature, six dimensions.