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This study aims to explore the strategies corporations use in engaging stakeholders to sustain healthy corporate partnerships and create value for the corporate entity and the society in which they operate and their influence on the corporate manager’s cognitive abilities and decision-making.

The authors used an interpretive research approach leveraging the strengths of qualitative method of content analysis and comparative and critical analyses to report the results. Interpretive methods incorporate social theories and standpoints that view reality as the social construction of understandable events in the context of organizational communication.

The findings of this study suggest that corporations are assumed to follow and execute the principles of engaging stakeholders to achieve corporate social responsibility (CSR) claiming to manage a sustainable and responsible business practices that recognize local cultures, human rights and protect the environment. However, little attention has been paid to the cognitive reasoning of the individuals responsible for CSR and corporate sustainability (CS) as opposed to the growing concerns about strategies corporations use in engaging stakeholders to sustain healthy corporate partnerships and create value – especially the processes that take place during engagement and decision-making including cognitive offloading.

Stakeholder engagement requires practical approaches that enable corporations and individuals charged with decision-making responsibilities to understand, respond and fulfill their CSRs. To achieve CSRs, corporations and managers responsible for relevant decision-making would need to involve stakeholders in social performance planning, as social reporting/auditing has long been advocating for preventing managerial biasness, groupthink and increased information dissemination via detailed reporting practices toward more collaborative stakeholder relationships. Thus, it is crucial for corporations to implement enhanced stakeholder and managerial decision-making strategies such as integrative approaches to achieve balance in the trio elements of sustainability as well as the growing use of paradox perspective to understand the nature of the tensions being sought to balance and, in the process, provide opportunity for a better evaluation of complex sustainability issues for innovative approach to resolving them. While cognitive decision-making is at play, in practice, managers tasked with making decisions must ensure the most effective stakeholder engagement strategies that are transparent and inclusive are used.

The main contribution of this study is its argument regarding the tools corporations use in engaging key stakeholders and the cognitive reasoning of the individuals responsible for CSR and CS. The study further contributes to interpreting the integrative approach to achieving balance in the trio elements of sustainability as well as the growing use of paradox perspective to understand the nature of the tensions being sought to balance and, in the process, provide an opportunity for a better evaluation of complex sustainability issues for an innovative approach to resolving them.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how hospitality companies can best explain controversial corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to consumers who may not agree with the CSR activity. This research explores message framing through emotional and cognitive appeals to influence consumer perceptions of the Gideon Bible in USA hotel rooms. The study uses the theory of deontic justice to measure the impacts of messaging on consumer perceptions of the morality of the Gideon Bible as suicide prevention in hotels and its relation to controversial CSR initiatives.

The study uses an experimental study design via a self-administered survey to analyze participants’ perceptions of the placement of the Gideon Bible in hotel rooms and participants’ attitudes toward CSR initiatives based on deontic justice and religion using different message framing conditions.

Results show that religion was a major determinant of attitude towards the Gideon Bible, but the sentiment analysis also revealed that negative perceptions can be mitigated through message framing via emotional and cognitive appeals. Additionally, the cognitive appeal did impact CSR perceptions, as did identifying as Christian. Moral outrage emerged as a significant moderator for the relationships between message framing, attitudes toward the Gideon Bible and CSR.

This study provides an extension of deontic justice research to examine justice traits in accepting controversial CSR.

The primary goal of this research is to examine how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects customer engagement (CE) and how corporate reputation (CR) serves as a mediator of this relationship.

The data for this paper were gathered from the customers who were actively engaging with the banks. A total of 445 questionnaires were circulated among the respondents, 397 were selected after removing the faulty ones, which estimates around 90% of the total questionnaire distributed. Customers were asked to record their perceptions regarding CSR, CR and CE. The data were collected from both the regions of Jammu and Kashmir simultaneously.

The findings reinforced the hypothesized associations, indicating that CR successfully and positively mediates the association between CSR and CE.

The outcomes of this study will assist top managers in the organization in understanding the significant impact of CSR and CR, as well as how they both positively impact the CE.

This research introduces a fresh dimension by exploring the influence of cognitive biases in shaping the relationship between CSR efforts, reputation-building and customer engagement. Through this innovative approach, the study establishes a more intricate and comprehensive link between theories, shedding light on the underlying mechanisms that drive these dynamics within the realm of corporate behavior and consumer perceptions.

This study offers an empirical framework for how hotel employees CSR perceptions affect their job satisfaction by incorporating the parallel mediating roles of organizational identification and psychological contract fulfillment. In addition, it examines the moderator effects of employees' CSR-induced attributions on the constructed mediated model, providing a powerful lens through which to evaluate when and how employees' CSR perceptions influence organizational identification and psychological contract fulfillment.

The study use PLS-SEM techniques to analyze a sample of 520 employees from 49 luxury hotels with 4–5 stars in Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam.

The results show that CSR positively influences job satisfaction through the mediating role of psychological contract fulfillment and organizational identification. Besides, attachment styles also play moderator role in the relationship between CSR and psychological contract fulfillment/organizational identification.

The discoveries elucidated within this research endeavor proffer actionable discernments to be earnestly contemplated by professionals entrenched in the hotel industry, earnestly aspiring to ameliorate the contentment of their workforce and, concomitantly, augment the overarching efficacy of their organizational operations.

This study provides human resource departments with insights and suggestions for maximizing the efficacy of CSR implementation in the hotel industry.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices frequently result in increased costs for Chinese international contractors (CICs), where profitability is the primary objective; therefore, internal corporate drivers and external pressures play a crucial role in encouraging them to engage in sustainable CSR practices. This study systematically examines the dynamic impact of internal and external stakeholders on the CSR practices of CICs.

This study adopted a structural equation model (SEM) to identify and validate a correlation between stakeholders and CSR practices. Standardized causal coefficients estimated in SEM were used to construct a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) model to illustrate the effect of stakeholders on CSR practices with linkage direction and weights. Predictive, diagnostic, and hybrid analyses were performed to dynamically model the variation in stakeholders on the evolution of CSR practices.

The empirical results demonstrate that (1) employee participation in CSR has the greatest impact on CSR practices, followed by CSR strategies, partner and customer expectations, and finally government regulations. (2) In the early stage of CSR fulfillment, CSR strategies have the greatest influence on CSR practices; in the later stage of CSR fulfillment, employee participation in CSR has the greatest influence on CSR practices. (3) In the long run, the most effective and economical integrated interventions are those that address employee participation in CSR, partner expectations and customer expectations, and intervention in CSR strategies is needed if the level of CSR practice needs to be improved in the short term.

This study contributes to the research on the influence mechanisms of CSR practices of CICs and systematically analyzes their dynamic influence on CSR practices of CICs from the perspective of stakeholders.

The purpose of this study is to examine how formal and informal institutions play a role in the Iranian context in shaping corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and practices.

Using a multiple case-study approach combining comparative and cross-sectional methods with semi-structured interviews, primary data was collected from eight corporations that actively participated in CSR activities in Iran. A microanalysis approach was used to examine the meanings and dynamics in the data. Through thematic analysis and pattern-matching techniques, the authors separately examined the roles of formal and informal institutions. Cross-case analysis was used to highlight the cases’ similarities and differences.

This study demonstrates that both formal and informal institutional structures exist in Iran and that both types influence CSR. This study also shows that informal institutions (such as personal values, culture, religion, traditions, charity and philanthropy) play a more explicit role than formal institutions (such as legal regulations and laws) in shaping CSR adoption policies and practices. The results indicate that, among institutions linked to CSR, formal and informal institutions are complementary and potentiate each other in Iran. Nevertheless, compared to formal ones, informal institutions play a more prominent role in shaping CSR policies and practices.

The authors recognize that, although the eight corporations are large, and although they interviewed their key personnel, they do not claim that these findings are generalizable, owing to the qualitative nature of the study and the small number of selected corporations.

This study makes relevant theoretical and empirical contributions. First, it contributes to the growing body of CSR literature that highlights the necessity of linking informal and formal institutions. Although the CSR literature lacks research on informal institutions in developing economies, researchers have yet to push forward and explore how the CSR adoption process works in developing economies that have influential informal institutions.

This study aims to explain why low social conduct in corporate social responsibility (SC-CSR), especially employee exploitation, has a stronger negative impact on consumer reactions for service firms than for manufacturing firms.

Five experiments compared consumer reactions to service and manufacturing firms with low SC-CSR. Study 1 used a choice-based conjoint design to examine the relative importance of various shared attributes when consumers chose services versus goods. Study 2 revealed that low SC-CSR led to more pronounced negative consumers reactions toward service firms. Studies 3A and 3B explained this difference through a serial mediation analysis. Study 4 ruled out an alternative explanation regarding the differentiated effects.

The results reveal that consumer reactions to employee exploitation in service firms are more negative compared to manufacturing firms. This is because consumers’ sense of presence (i.e. feeling of being there) is stronger in a service setting, leading to more intense empathetic emotions toward service employees.

This research contributes to the CSR literature by challenging the conventional notion that sweatshops are more problematic for manufacturing firms. By contrast, the results indicate a stronger negative effect on service firms. It contributes to the services marketing literature by conceptualizing a novel cognitive mechanism. Traditionally, consumers’ negative reactions are driven by anger. However, the authors show that empathetic feelings toward mistreated employees play a predominant role. While it is imperative for all firms to ensure fair treatment of their employees, the findings underscore the heightened significance of this aspect for service firms, given their susceptibility to more pronounced negative effects.

This study explores how businesses can effectively market functional and emotional benefits through virtual corporate social responsibility co-creation (VCSRC) initiatives. The aim is to enhance customer engagement through these initiatives.

The initial phase of this study involved recruiting 185 Chinese university students as participants. These individuals were randomly distributed into four distinct experimental groups, each designed to investigate the influence of varied marketing appeals and common in-group identity (CIGI) on consumer engagement willingness. This phase also sought to elucidate the mediating role of CSR associations in these dynamics. Following this, the second study engaged 570 individuals, recruited through “Credamo,” for a group-based experiment. This subsequent phase was intended to validate the findings of the preliminary study and explore the varying intensities of interaction between different marketing appeals and CIGI, with a particular focus on the dichotomy of independent and interdependent self-construals.

The study delineates a detailed relationship between consumers' willingness to participate in VCSRC, marketing appeals, and common in-group identity, revealing that strong common in-group identity correlates with a preference for functional appeals, while a weaker in-group identity inclines towards emotional appeals. Notably, interdependent self-construal significantly influences consumer responses, intensifying the interaction between in-group identity and marketing appeal and thereby influencing participation willingness. Moreover, CSR associations emerge as key mediators in this interaction, underscoring their role in enhancing the effectiveness of VCSRC strategies. These insights provide a new understanding of the crucial impact of consumer identity traits on marketing strategy efficacy.

This research stands as a trailblazing endeavor in evaluating the effects of varied advertising appeals under the VCSR paradigm. It probes into the foundational mechanisms, leveraging insights from interaction alignment theory and persuasion theory to elucidate the processes involved.

Drawing on signaling and social identity theories, the main objective of this paper is to suggest and validate a research framework to investigate the association of corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions with organizational attractiveness by uncovering the underlying mechanism of organizational trust.

By conducting regression analysis, the study hypotheses were tested with the data collected from a snowball convenient sample of 318 potential job seekers.

The study results revealed that prospective applicants' perceptions about a company's CSR undertakings are significantly associated with their trust in and attraction to the company. Noticeably, organizational trust partially mediated the direct relationship between CSR perceptions and organizational attractiveness.

Based on the study results, some specific theoretical advancements and helpful insights have been highlighted for human resources (HR) practitioners in today's competing organizations. The paper ends by outlining key research drawbacks and directions for possible work in the future.

Despite the plausible underlying role of organizational trust in the link between CSR and organizational attraction, empirical studies of this theoretical phenomenon are still lacking in the context of pre-hire recruitment literature. This may be the first study that identifies organizational trust as a salient psychological factor through which job seekers' CSR perceptions become more instrumental in influencing their attraction to a firm.

Hypocrisy often observed in the social responsibility practices of commercial enterprises is more likely to occur in social enterprises. However, this issue has received little research attention. This study explores, from a consumer perspective, the formation of perceived hypocrisy and its impact on the cognitive legitimacy of social enterprises.

This research conducted two experiments, and data were collected from 515 subjects in China to test the proposed hypotheses.

Behavioral inconsistency in social enterprises leads to consumers' perceived hypocrisy. The higher the perceived hypocrisy towards social enterprises, the weaker their cognitive legitimacy of social enterprises. At a lower level of inconsistency, the perceived hypocrisy of social enterprises was lower than that of commercial enterprises. Egoistic attribution to prosocial behavior moderated the negative effect of perceived hypocrisy on cognitive legitimacy. The stronger the egoistic attribution, the greater is the negative effect of perceived hypocrisy on the cognitive legitimacy of social enterprises.

Social entrepreneurs should be acutely aware of the harmful effects of hypocrisy on social enterprises. Social enterprises should not exaggerate their propaganda or be consistent with their words and actions.

This study innovatively analyzes the damage to the cognitive legitimacy of social enterprises caused by the hypocrisy that tends to occur in commercial enterprises and argues from the consumer viewpoint. These findings enrich the perspective on exploring social enterprise legitimacy.