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Growing environmental issues worldwide need the engagement of all stakeholders to compliance with the decisions of global leaders made at COP21 and COP26. In this regard, the present study looks at the influence of retailer social responsibility and consumer environmental responsibility by reinforcing consumer’s green consumption behaviors. Similarly, the proposed study incorporates the mediating role of customer trust and environmental concern to understand whether retailer corporate social responsibility and consumer environmental responsibility strengthen green consumption behavior.

Multiple hypotheses have been developed in light of the theoretical analysis of the available literature. The information was gathered through a survey method. A web-based portal was used to administer the survey, and 340 useable responses were processed by SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 for experiential analysis. First, the validity and reliability were evaluated. The authors then tested potential relationships using structural equation modeling.

Survey data analyzed using the SEM approach reveal that consumer environmental responsibility and retailer CSR does not drive green consumption behavior directly. However, green concern and consumer trust mediates the relation of consumer environmental responsibility and retailer CSR towards green consumption behavior. Another mediating path was also tested through environmental responsibility and green concern among retailer's CSR and green consumption behavior. The outcomes of this path are also significant.

The study holds promising implications for green consumption behaviors. The following can be achieved by implementing more sustainable supply chain strategies, such as lowering carbon footprint, purchasing eco-friendly goods and supporting environmental causes through retailers and consumers as well.

This study investigated the joint contribution of retailer CSR and environmental responsibility to green consumption for the first time. The work strengthens the body of knowledge in the field of managerial decision-making and creates new directions for scholarly investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to study how individuals assess responsibility during an uncontrollable event requiring collective action, using crises affecting service workers as contexts. Specifically, the authors examine what parties consumers hold responsible for ensuring service worker welfare following an uncontrollable event and determine what factors make customers more open to accepting responsibility for ensuring worker welfare themselves.

The authors surveyed a nationally representative sample of US consumers regarding their attitudes toward protecting service workers during COVID-19 and used regression analysis to identify factors that predict attributions of responsibility to customers. The authors also conducted an experiment (using a new crisis context) to determine whether certain key factors impact customer perceptions of their own responsibility for helping employees during an uncontrollable event.

The survey results show US consumers hold firms most responsible for worker welfare, followed by customers and, finally, government. When examining factors that drive attributions of responsibility for customers, perceptions of how sincere firms are in their efforts to help employees predict higher responsibility attributions, and experimental results confirm that higher perceived firm sincerity increases consumers’ own sense of responsibility toward workers.

This research identifies factors that affect consumer support for efforts to help service employees and collective action problems more generally.

This research highlights an under-studied crisis context – uncontrollable events that require collective action – and shows how consumers make assessments about their own responsibility (in addition to the responsibility of the service firm) in these contexts.

This study aims to investigate specific green-brand affect in terms of commitment and connection through the morality–mortality determinants of consumer social responsibility and the assumptions of terror management theory in the proposed three-layered framework. Religiosity serves as a moderator within the framework.

Data are collected in Taipei, Taiwan, while quota sampling is applied, and 420 valid questionnaires are collected. The partial least squares technique is applied for data analysis.

With the contingent role of religiosity, consumer social responsibility influences socially conscious consumption, which in turn drives the commitment and connection of green-brand affect. The death anxiety and self-esteem outlined in terror management theory influence materialism, which then drives green-brand commitment; however, contrary to expectations, they do not drive green-brand connection.

By considering green brands beyond their cognitive aspects and into their affective counterparts, morality–mortality drivers of green-brand commitment and green-grand connection are explored to provide unique contributions so as to better understand socially responsible consumption.

The appraisal of corporate reputation based on third-party corporate social responsibility (CSR) indices appears to have been institutionalized. The endorsement of such an approach by sustainability custodians and influencers undermines the uptake of the morality and legitimacy of CSR. This study takes a social realist perspective, which suggests that social phenomena such as CSR and corporate reputation are shaped by social structures and power relations. This study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between CSR and corporate reputation and understand ways in which the constructs are influenced by cognitive factors.

This study surveyed 411 respondents across five shopping malls and analyzed the data using path analysis of the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. The mall-intercept survey sought to critically assess expectations of CSR vis-à-vis evaluation of corporate reputation. Based on a case study of three Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies, CSR expectations were measured along the philanthropic, economic, ethical and legal dimensions, while evaluation of corporate reputation was based on product quality, financial performance and social responsibility. SEM path analysis was used to extrapolate the predictive outcomes of CSR on corporate reputation.

Reputation for product quality and social responsibility is underpinned by the fulfillment of ethical CSR expectations, while philanthropic gestures enhance the evaluation of financial performance. Legal CSR significantly influences the reputation for social responsibility and product quality. Fulfillment of economic CSR expectations influences the reputation for product quality. However, no relationship was established between economic performance and social responsibility. Involvement in economic, philanthropic and particularly, legal CSR, are not indicative of the reputation for financial performance. Conversely, companies’ involvement in economic CSR does not suggest a higher propensity for social responsibility.

The predictive outcomes of CSR expectations on corporate reputation can reveal situated understanding of actual perceptions of corporate behavior.

Ethical business conduct is synonymously associated with social responsibility while espoused corporate philanthropy signals strong financial performance. The awareness of consumers’ cognitive evaluation of corporate reputation can offer a pathway to corporate communication professionals, policy makers and agencies to rethink and reposition CSR efforts.

Insensitivity to taken-for-granted cultural prescriptions and reliance on market-based reputational rankings undermine mutually beneficial stakeholder relationships and the social license to operate.

This study brings to the fore, cognitively dominated indicators of consumers’ perceptions of the reputation for CSR, to foster nuanced and halo-removed approaches to social responsibility. The authors show for the first time how companies’ skewed focus on corporate philanthropic giving paradoxically signals a capitalistic notion of social responsibility and unethical business conduct. This study offers a halo-removed orientation to the appraisal of CSR and corporate reputation.

The purpose of this study is to explore Generation Z (Gen Z) consumers’ sustainable consumption behaviors at a university campus by examining various antecedent and moderating influencers of their sustainable consumption behaviors.

A quantitative research methodology is used in this study. A structured questionnaire was administered (n = 279) to young college students (Gen Z consumers in the context of this study) enrolled at a large state university in the USA. The structural equation model was used to test the hypothesized relationships in the conceptualized model.

Study findings show that social responsibility (feelings, engagement and expectations) and external incentives (material and social) positively influence Gen Z consumers’ sustainability interests, which in turn influences their sustainable consumption behaviors (actions). Collectivist cultural values did not appear to have any statistically significant effect on Gen Z consumers’ sustainable consumption interests. Moreover, learned helplessness, perceived barriers and the awareness of the consequences of sustainability consumption actions did not have any significant moderating effect on Gen Z consumers’ sustainable consumption behavior.

The questionnaire was only sent to students majoring in business degrees, which may limit the generalizability of this study to broader Gen Z consumer populations. Expanding this study to include non-business students may be valuable as a next step. Replicating this study in different cultural environments of international countries could enhance the relationships identified in this study.

Consumer social responsibility education along with material and social incentives will encourage Gen Z consumers’ participation in sustainable behaviors at college campuses.

This research provides valuable insights into understanding the importance of consumer social responsibility and external incentives in influencing Gen Z consumers’ sustainable consumption intentions and behaviors. Accordingly, consumer social responsibility education and incentive programs need to be developed to encourage the participation of Gen Z consumers in sustainable consumption.

During emergencies and times of widespread social fear, such as wars and epidemics, society witnesses many instances of consumer misbehaviour (e.g. panic buying). Therefore, this study aims to understand what drives consumers to enact socially irresponsible while shopping during emergencies.

This study employs a quantitative approach with 400 responses from consumers who shopped during the pandemic.

Results show a positive relationship between consumers' awareness of the negative social consequences of shopping misbehaviour and their ascription of responsibility, which is positively moderated by death-by-emergency-related anxiety. Ascription of responsibility, in turn, has a positive impact on socially responsible behaviour.

This research is the first to examine new applications of norm activation theory in retailing. Furthermore, this research is the first to extend the theory by examining psychological factors that may regulate socially irresponsible behaviour. The research demonstrates the significant role of anxiety and attachment in facilitating the impact of awareness of negative consequences and aspirations of responsibility in the retailing during emergencies.

Personal values, ascribed responsibility and green self-identity (GSI) have been analyzed separately for a long time, but a more in-depth investigation is required on the relationships between these variables and their combined effects on consumers' visiting intention toward green hotels. Thus, this study aims to draw on Schwartz's (1992) personal values framework and ascribed responsibility. It expands the Schwartz personal values framework by incorporating GSI as a moderator to understanding consumers' visiting intention toward green hotels.

Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was used to analyze 387 responses collected through a self-administered structured questionnaire from hotel consumers in Pakistan.

The findings revealed that ascribed responsibility and self-transcendence values were significant factors in predicting consumers' intention toward green hotels. Moreover, GSI significantly moderated between self-conservation values, self-transcendence values and attitude. However, the association between self-conservation values and attitude was found insignificant.

This study can assist hotel management in planning and implementing efficient hotel marketing strategies. Hospitality marketers should heed attention to self-transcendence values, ascribed responsibility and stress on using these aspects to sustain green hotels' adoption.

The study contributes to the literature on the antecedents of consumers' visiting intention toward green hotels by expanding the Schwartz personal values framework by adding ascribed responsibility. Further, the authors incorporated GSI as a moderator to understand consumers' visiting intentions toward green hotels in Pakistan.

Urging people to avoid stockpiling was a common declaration made by governments during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, yet empty supermarket shelves and supply shortages of basic products were observed worldwide. This study aims to (a) identify the factors that activate consumer personal norms towards socially responsible behaviours, specifically resisting stockpiling, and (b) examine how fear moderates the link between personal norms and consumer engagement in stockpiling during public crises.

The study recruited a sample of US consumers who were responsible for household grocery shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 593 individuals participated in the study, and the collected data were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The results show that awareness of the negative consequences of stockpiling and a sense of personal responsibility for those consequences activate personal norms towards responsible shopping during public crises. However, perceived fear has the opposite effect, encouraging stockpiling. In addition, fear weakens the negative relationship between personal norms and stockpiling.

This study extends the norm activation model and indicates that personal norms may not always promote responsible behaviours when fear is high. It is unique in that it sheds light on non-mainstream responsible consumption behaviours (e.g. resisting stockpiling), and the interaction between consumption and social responsibility.

The purpose of this study is to use the theory of planned behavior and a moderated mediation model to bridge the gap between attitude, intention and behavior in the context of green consumption. The study will focus on how environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives play a positive moderating role in the mediation effect of green purchase intention on the relationship between attitude toward green products and environmentally friendly purchasing behavior.

A representative sample of 583 consumers was gathered from five major cities in Vietnam using a mall-intercept survey method. The moderated mediation model and the formulated hypotheses were tested using the PROCESS macro.

The results of our study reveal that green purchase intention is not only positively and directly associated with environmentally friendly purchase behavior but also significantly mediated the green purchase attitude–behavior link. Environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives were found to positively moderate the direct effect of attitude toward green products on green purchase intention. More importantly, our study also yielded that the mediation effect of green purchase intention on the relationship between attitude toward green products and environmentally friendly purchase behavior is positively moderated by environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives. As such, the indirect impact of environmentally friendly purchase attitude on green purchase behavior through green purchase intention was stronger when the level of environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives was higher.

The results of this study have practical implications and offer valuable recommendations for marketing practitioners, administrators and policymakers. These recommendations can help promote corporate social responsibility practices among firms, encourage environmentally friendly consumption among consumers and contribute to the overall sustainable development of the country.

This study has made significant contributions to the existing literature on pro-environmental behavior by addressing the gap between attitude, intention and behavior in sustainable consumption. Furthermore, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to use a moderated mediation model to shed light on the moderating effect of environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives on the direct and mediated relationships among attitude, intention and behavior in the context of green consumption.

This study aims to examine the customer’s perception of corporate social responsibility within the automotive market in Tehran, Iran, and whether it leads to a purchasing behavior directly or indirectly through support intention.

A total of 235 customers of luxury and mid-range-priced automobiles were surveyed and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling method.

Regarding luxury car owners, the authors concluded that both economical and ethical perceptions are indirectly related to purchasing behavior. Concerning mid-range-priced car buyers, both philanthropic and economical perceptions have a direct relationship with purchasing behavior, while the legal perception has an indirect relationship with purchasing behavior. The results show that Iranian car manufacturers and foreign car dealerships for both luxury and mid-range customers should focus on their economical responsibilities. The results show that luxury car manufacturers and dealerships should act ethically. With the importance of the philanthropic dimension for customers of mid-range cars, car dealerships dealing with mid-range-priced cars should focus more on their philanthropic activities. This study can help companies find better solutions to adjust their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies to the consumers’ beliefs, gain a competitive advantage in the market and fill the knowledge gap regarding Iranian consumers.

Although some research has been conducted on consumer perception and response regarding CSR in both developed and developing countries, no studies on consumer perception toward CSR have been carried out in Iran.