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This study aims to explore how consumers judge corporate social responsibility (CSR) authenticity. Kelley’s covariation attribution theory (Kelley, 1973) was deployed to explain information consumers use that leads to either a substantive or symbolic attribution.

In total, 101 consumers were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions and responded to an online survey: an organization whose CSR practices were unique (low consensus), across their business (low distinctiveness) and over time (high consistency), practiced CSR like competitors (high consensus), in few areas if their business (high distinctiveness) and just initiated their CSR activities (low consistency) or no relevant CSR information (control). The dependent variables were consumer’s substantive attribution, symbolic attribution and the extent that consumers’ reported that consensus, distinctiveness and consistency were important in judging CSR authenticity in general. ANOVA and Scheffe post hoc tests were conducted as appropriate.

Consumers in the first experimental condition ascribed greater substantive attribution than consumers in the control group and marginality more than the second experimental condition. On the other hand, these same consumers also ascribed greater symbolic attribution than did the control group. After consumers were shown an organization whose CSR activities were unique, practiced across their business and for a long time reported that distinctiveness and consistency were more important in judging authenticity in general.

The survey respondents constituted a convenience sample; however, they were randomly assigned to conditions. This randomization enabled an experimental design capable of making causal statements. The Linkedin platform is mainly used by white-collar individuals and does not incorporate the entire spectrum of airline passengers from other industries, and therefore, may limit generalizability to other industrial sector populations. The sample age was somewhat young and may not be representative of older individuals and young teenagers. Like all online surveys, individuals without internet access did not have an opportunity to participate. Future research should deploy larger sample sizes and greater demographic diversity (e.g. age, country and income).

Executives must lead and engage stakeholders in their organizations’ CSR initiatives. Managers must implement efficiently, using CSR audits that assess the extent that unique initiatives are implemented throughout the business and over time. The findings also suggest that marketing should then effectively communicate CSR in consensus, distinctiveness and consistency terms.

Multiple stakeholders urge organizations to be socially responsible. Consumers incorporate social responsibility into buying and investment decisions, and therefore, expect to demand CSR transparency and authenticity. Unfortunately, little is known about how consumers assess CSR authenticity, which is the aim of this research.

This is among the first studies that generalize Kelley’s covariation attribution theory from the micro-level of individual perception and social psychology to the macro organizational level and the first to empirically test the theory at the macro organizational level. This study used an experimental design to test attribution theory as a theoretic explanation of how consumers judge CSR authenticity and the first study to explore whether exposure to CSR information influences the extent that such information is believed to be important in judging authenticity.

The purpose of this study is to investigate differences in consumer reactions to high- versus low-equity brands in terms of consumer attitude toward the brand, involvement with the brand, company credibility and consumer purchase intentions.

Experimental procedure is conducted to test three hypotheses using 317 consumer participants. The experiment is carried out comparing a high-equity personal computer (PC) brand and a low-equity PC brand involved in product-harm crisis.

The results indicate that, in the case of product-harm crisis, negative consumer perceptions regardless of brand equity level; less negative perceptions for a high-equity brand than for a low-equity brand; and smaller loss in consumer perceptions for a high-equity brand than for a low-equity brand.

The findings highlight the importance of brand equity in crisis management explained by covariation theory of attributions.

Although product-harm crisis is inevitable for many firms, continuous investment in brand equity can mitigate the negative consequences.

Product-harm crisis can pose serious consequences for firms on both financial and intangible dimensions. Given the occurrence of numerous product-harm crises involving both reputable and less known brands, it is important to consider potential influences of brand equity on consumer reactions to such crisis.

Product harm crises are becoming increasingly common, and recent examples include Toyota and Vioxx. This chapter examines country differences that impact consumer blame attributions for an ambiguous product harm crisis, and proposes a framework for a crisis response strategy. The first step involves assessing the level of uncertainty avoidance and crisis severity which serve as an indicator of the urgency felt by consumers to assess blame. The second step involves examining consumer beliefs and information processing biases to determine who consumers will most likely blame in order to resolve the uncertainty. Based on information gathered from these steps, a crisis response strategy is suggested for global brand managers.

This study aims to examine the effect of the perceived sponsor ubiquity on sponsor favorability via perceived sponsor sincerity and the moderating effect of perceived sponsor–property fit.

Two studies via a questionnaire survey of spectators attending a Japanese professional basketball game were conducted, and Hayes’ PROCESS macro was used for data analyses. Study 1 (n = 134) assessed how perceived sponsor ubiquity affected sponsor favorability via perceived sponsor sincerity. Study 2 (n = 206) examined a moderated mediation model incorporating a perceived sponsor–property fit.

In Studies 1 and 2, spectators perceiving a higher degree of sponsor ubiquity reported a lower degree of sponsor sincerity compared with those perceiving a lower degree of sponsor ubiquity and less favorability toward sponsors. In Study 2, the less positive effect of highly perceived ubiquity was weakened when spectators perceived a higher degree of sponsor–property fit.

The findings provided sponsors with insights into effectively communicating perceived ubiquity and perceived sponsor–property fit. Hence, sponsors must be careful about their ubiquitous sponsorships, as their engagement in each property can be perceived as less distinctive among consumers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to highlight the mediating mechanism of perceived insincerity between perceived ubiquity and favorability toward sponsors. Furthermore, evidence that fit acted as a moderator on perceived ubiquity–outcome relationships extended previous studies mainly treating fit as a direct antecedent of sponsor response.

This research seeks to fill a gap in the service and retailing marketplace experience literature as well as retailing practice by extending Attribution and Expectancy Disconfirmation Theories to the large and growing market of consumers with vision disabilities. It reveals how accessibility-related service failures with a retailer's website can lead to anti-firm reactions from blind and low vision consumers, including social media sharing, negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) and avoidance of the retailer's other sales channels even if they are accessible.

Blind respondents were recruited from national blindness organizations to participate in this study using a within-subjects design to test reactions to accessibility-related propositions in two different scenarios involving varying degrees of effort.

In both high- and low-effort conditions, an accessibility-related service failure leads to the anti-firm consequences of NWOM, social media sharing and avoidance of the retailer's sales channels. Additionally, blind and low vision consumers who also feel inaccessible websites are discriminatory develop stronger anti-firm attitudes toward the offending retailers. Further, we aver that the retailer's entire website including all its features, not just the homepage, should be made accessible to the growing market of vision-impaired consumers and thereby obtain substantial competitive advantages.

This research pertains to the service failure and recovery nomological network. It extends the existing paradigm to include accessibility-related service failures experienced by consumers with disabilities into the specialized category of discrimination-based service failures in instances where service recovery is not easily achieved. Empirical investigations of these experiences have been rare, despite the frequency with which they occur.

This paper aims to provide strategies for individuals with limited work capacity (LWC) to build workplace friendships and foster inclusion, which can benefit their mental health.

The paper integrates key theories such as social exchange theory and the similarity-attraction paradigm to analyze the dynamics of relationships. Practical tips grounded in the existing literature are outlined.

Effective communication, building trust, showing mutual respect and discovering common interests can facilitate friendship development for employees with LWC. Supportive organizational policies and culture are also critical.

By building workplace bonds and inclusion, individuals with LWC may experience greater social support, more engagement and better mental well-being. This also helps to diminish stigma and marginalization.

This viewpoint provides practical guidance specifically designed for individuals with Limited Work Capacity (LWC) to overcome workplace obstacles and build social relationships. It addresses an existing gap in the interpersonal facets of disability inclusion.

Consumers’ product evaluations are often influenced by information contained in their memories. Prior to product evaluations, consumers are often exposed to data that permits them to judge the covariation relationships among different product attributes. However, these attribute covariance perceptions may lead to biased product evaluations. Using an experimental design, this study examines the accuracy of consumers’ product attribute covariance beliefs as a function of their product experience and the relevancy of product information to which they are exposed prior to evaluating product performances. The results indicate that even limited product information affects consumers’ beliefs about product performances on attributes for which no information is available. In other words, specific product information may serve as a cue or indicator for other product characteristics via attribute covariance inferences. The accuracy of these inferences appears to be, at least partly, the function of the consumers’ product experience. Consumers with high levels of product experience are more effective at encoding and retrieving product attribute performance information. Implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

Massive shifts in the recruitment landscape, the continually changing nature of work and workers, and extraordinary technological progress have combined to enable unparalleled advances in how current and prospective employees receive and process information about organizations. Once the domain of internal organizational public relations and human resources (HR) teams, most employment branding has moved beyond organizations’ control. This chapter provides a conceptual framework pertaining to third party employment branding, defined as communications, claims, or status-based classifications generated by parties outside of direct company control that shape, enhance, and differentiate organizations’ images as favorable or unfavorable employers. Specifically, the authors first theorize about the underlying mechanisms by which third party employment branding might signal prospective and current employees. Second, the authors develop a framework whereby we comprehensively review third party employment branding sources, thus identifying the different ways that third party employment branding might manifest. Third, using prototypical examples, the authors link the various signaling mechanisms to the various third party employment branding sources identified. Finally, the authors propose an ambitious future research agenda that considers not only the positive aspects of third party employment branding but also potential “dark sides.” Thus, the authors view this chapter as contributing to the broader employment branding literature, which should enhance scholarly endeavors to study it and practitioner efforts to leverage it.

The study examined the relationship between human resource (HR) signals and intent to stay (ITS) in an attributional framework. It also investigated the mediating role of psychological contract fulfillment in the relationship between the strength of HR signal and ITS.

The data were collected from 460 managers in the manufacturing sector from eastern India using a structured questionnaire. The study adopted a mediated structural equation model to test the model fit and hypotheses.

The study confirmed the relationship between the strength of the H R signal and the ITS, and the mediating role of psychological contract fulfillment between the strengths of HR signals and ITS. The study indicates a positive role of the psychological contract fulfillment in strengthening the effect of HR signals on ITS.

The study adds to the body of knowledge by confirming a signaling role of HR practices within the firm having the attributional ability. It also indicates the role of psychological contract fulfillment in employee retention.