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Importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in marketing domain is increasing immensely. The effect of CSR perception on the purchase intention differs on the basis of mediators and contexts. The objective of this study is to examine the consumer behaviour of young consumers. For this, impact of CSR perception on purchase intention, satisfaction and price fairness of Generation Z is studied.

Preliminary data analysis is run to check normality, skewness and common method bias. PLS-SEM is deployed to examine the relationships amongst the research variables. Sequential mediation through PLS bootstrapping helped in exploring new and exciting research results which are supported with literature.

The CSR perception of Generation Z does not have a direct effect on their purchase intention. Interestingly, satisfaction and price fairness fully mediate the relationship between CSR perception and purchase intentions separately, i.e. CSR perception of Generation Z influences purchase intention only through satisfaction and price fairness. Furthermore, satisfaction and price fairness are also found to sequentially mediate the relationship between CSR perception and purchase intentions.

The research will aid not only the fast-food industry but the industries that are looking to focus on what Generation Z consumers expect in emerging markets including India. Understanding consumer expectations out of CSR initiatives will help them to incorporate social considerations into their marketing strategies and increase their profitability. Generation Z is regarded as the most challenging consumer demographic to market due to their proclivity for conducting extensive research and comparison shopping before making a purchase decision. As a result, the companies that want to use CSR as a strategy may find it advantageous to investigate how marketing of their CSR initiatives will lead to competitive edge and influence purchase decisions of this generational cohort.

This study adds to the academic literature by developing and evaluating a research model for consumer responses of a very important generation cohort to CSR in an emerging economy setting. CSR activities alone may not be enough to improve purchase intention of Generation Z adults. Sequential mediation for Generation Z adults' relationship between CSR and price fairness flows through satisfaction and finally to purchase intention is interesting because it clearly establishes a link amongst belief, attitude and actions of the target audience under study in a meaningful way within the framework given by cognitive consistency theory.