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This study aims to investigate consumer perception of community and employee oriented CSR program, and examine how retailers' CSR activities lead to social (i.e. legitimization) and financial support. Further, by taking the social context into account, this research examine the moderating effect of consumer engagement in community social capital on the relationship between perceived retailers' CSR action and retailer legitimization.

Pre-test was conducted with 144 students to validate the measurement model. A total of 220 responses from US consumers were used for the main-test, and multiple group analysis in structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed in order to test the structural model.

The result indicates that when retailers are perceived as adhering to social norms through their CSR actions, they gain legitimacy and support from the consumers within the community. Further, consumer social capital moderates the relationship between perceived CSR and retailer legitimacy.

Findings of this research can provide retail marketers with practical implication in developing their CSR strategy catering to the community members. Understanding consumers with higher level of social capital investment will increase the capability and effectiveness of the retailers' CSR activities.

This research offers theoretical contributions to the current research stream of CSR studies by testing the moderating effect of consumers' engagement in the social environment on consumers' legitimization and support toward retailers that perform CSR activities. This study also provides new perspective on assessing the outcome of retailers' CSR actions by focusing on both social and financial dimensions.

This study aims to apply attribution theory to examine how internal stakeholders’ attributions affect the perceived company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives on employees’ pro-environmental behavioral intention through a mediated perceived CSR authenticity.

A questionnaire-based survey was used because of the standardized questions and ease of acquisition of the target data with the assistance of a Web-based tool.

The perceived company’s other-centered CSR motives are positively associated with the perceived authenticity of the CSR engagement. The small company had a significantly stronger relationship than the large company. The perceived company’s self-centered CSR motives are not associated with the perceived authenticity of the CSR engagement. The perceived authenticity of CSR engagement is positively related to its own pro-environmental behavioral intention.

A larger sample size across different industries can improve the result. When the authors examine the effect of company size, multi-group sizes can be used instead of two groups. The above scenario usually works in normal businesses. How about the “dirty” business situation? Examples of dirty businesses are tobacco, gambling, alcohol and mining companies. During their business operations, they destroy our environment or create harmful effects on our health. Thus, dirty businesses engaging in CSR practices at the same time seems contradicting.

The management should ensure that employees perceive the company’s CSR initiatives as other-centered rather than self-centered. Company size matters in terms of delivering other-centered CSR messages. Specifically, employees who work in a small company (i.e. less than 100 employees) are more favorable to other-centered CSR messages.

This study extends the CSR literature by examining how internal stakeholders’ attributions (i.e. employees’ attribution) of the perceived company’s CSR initiatives influence employees’ pro-environmental behavior through a mediated perceived CSR authenticity.

The micro-level research investigating employees' attitudinal, behavioral and psychological reactions to corporate social responsibility (CSR) has recently been expanded within CSR literature. Based on two interrelated social psychological theories, such as the theory of social information processing and the theory of social learning, this study examines the impact of perceived CSR–community (PCSRc; a micro-CSR area) on societal behavior (SB; a micro-level social work) at the employee level of analysis.

This study recruited 440 bank employees of Bangladesh through a survey method and ran structural equation modeling to test the proposed measurement model and structural relationships in AMOS.

The study's outcomes report that PCSRc is positively related to SB and CSR engagement (CSRe). CSRe is also positively related to SB, and CSRe mediates the association of PCSRc and SB. CSR positivity (CSRp) moderates the direct relationship between PCSRc and CSRe and the indirect connection between PCSRc and SB via CSRe such that these relationships are significant when CSRp is high as compared to low.

This study focuses on highly educated employees' perception of micro-CSR initiative on micro-level social behavior in a newly emerging market context such as Bangladesh only.

This study's outcomes guide policymakers to adopt CSR policy and its implementation strategies, accordingly, to employees' attitudinal, behavioral and psychological reactions to CSR.

This research can be used to steer the behavior of employees within society. It will eventually also have a positive influence on the perception of society toward the organization.

This study's originality is to find CSRe as a new intervening mechanism and CSRp as a new boundary condition of organizational CSR and employees' behavioral outcomes in the micro-CSR literature. The first study investigates the connections of three micro-constructs together, such as a micro (individual)-level analysis, a micro-CSR area and a micro-level social work setting.

As part of discussing future research in the era of change for Globalization 4.0, this chapter examines the traditional academic CSR literature to determine a gap in current research. An academic literature search revealed limited literature on actual CSR activities, and more specifically, Social Initiatives (SIs). It is important to expand on this area of research as it relates to an evolution of the original CSR definition by Carroll (1979, 1999). The literature review also revealed limited use of Social Identity Theory in CSR studies: a theory which provides an excellent context to give ‘purpose’ and meaning to a more socially oriented form of CSR. It also provides a base to understand human ‘identification’ and ‘identity’ with CSR activities, in a new era of change. Recent research reveals the importance of understanding what employees and global citizens as stakeholders want, need, identify, and engage with. Following a literature review, this chapter introduces a new ‘Social Initiatives Framework,’ designed to incorporate the many terms and alternative themes associated with CSR. The chapter concludes with extracts from an example paper for this area of research, and provides a model to examine changing stakeholder perspectives in global settings. The findings behind the development of the model is discussed, revealing substantial opportunities for future research. The chapter highlights the development of CSR SIs to study the sustainable development goals, while also supporting social enterprises to solve wicked challenges and create shared value (CSV) for both the host community and the company within the setting where the organization resides.

This chapter addresses the need to evaluate the outcomes of extractive companies in the mining industry’s behaviours in terms of CSR expectations of the host communities as perceived by the indigenous peoples themselves. Employing Dangote Cement Company Plc as a case study, questionnaires were conducted using a Likert-type scale on the immediate host communities of the company. Chi-squared, Kolmogorov–Smirnov normality test and t-test distribution were employed for the study. The result is that the impact of CSR of the company on the host communities, as perceived by the indigenous peoples, is abysmally low on economic, environmental, philanthropy and legal perspectives. The implications are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze fans’ perceptions of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of a professional football club, specifically whether or not perceived CSR performances are then likely to influence patronage intentions of the fans in relation to the football club.

The paper uses the example of a professional football club in China as a case study for data analysis. Based on a sample of 451 home team fans, analysis was conducted through calculation of descriptive statistics, and exploratory factor analysis. Regression analysis was conducted to determine the impact of perceived CSR performance on fans’ patronage intentions.

The results revealed that factor 3 (“CSR to customer and employee”) and factor 4 (“Community development and youth education”) were significantly predictive of all the three patronage intention variables, i.e. repeat purchase, word-of-mouth and merchandise consumption. In addition, factor 2 (“charity”) would also affect merchandise consumption intention, but have no effect on any other dimensions.

A scale measuring perceived CSR performance in professional football clubs by the fans in the Chinese context has been developed. In addition, the authors have identified that the two main CSR factors that would influence fans’ patronage intentions are: “CSR to the customer and employee” and “community development and youth education.” Thus, if football clubs are to use CSR strategically to leverage spend, then it is these two areas that they should focus on, explicitly in relation to CSR activities. This paper adds value to an area that is currently under-researched in respect of CSR activities in Chinese professional football.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the casual role of consumers’ perceptions of brands’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) motives (self-serving vs society-serving) in influencing consumer–brand relationships. Further, the authors explore the roles of brand initiated CSR activities (e.g. CSR co-creation), social media characteristics (e.g. media richness) and consumer’s community identification in shaping the effect of perceived CSR motive on consumer–brand relationship.

A 2 (CSR motives: self-oriented vs society-oriented) × 2 (CSR co-creation: yes vs no) × 2 (media richness: high vs low) between-subjects experimental design is employed.

The results elucidate that when consumers perceive that CSR is for self-serving (vs society-serving) motive, allowing consumers to co-create CSR in a high media-rich virtual platform enhances consumer–brand relationship quality. In addition, the results also support that the interactions of perceived CSR motives, co-creation and media richness enhance consumer–brand relationship through the mediation of community identification.

The current study draws implications for effective CSR co-creation through rich social media platforms, so as to enhance consumer–brand relationship quality via creating community identification.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: how companies perceive corporate social responsibility (CSR) and public relations (PR); how companies perceive the interconnection between these functions; and what factors contributing to their perceptions.

An interpretive qualitative study was employed, where semi-structured interviews with 34 members of PR and CSR departments and three top executives of three big mining (state-owned, private Indonesian, and multinational) companies in Indonesia were carried out. Archival data (e.g. newsletters, websites, and annual reports) were also utilized.

CSR and PR are perceived to be community relationship functions to gain and maintain organizational legitimacy from the communities and shareholders. Three factors shaping these functions: the social and political changes in Indonesia; the communities’ collective culture; and the nature of mining industry.

The current study focused on how companies interpret and enact their interpretations of their organizational environment. This study suggests further research into how the community and other stakeholders interpret the company’s activities and environment. This study also suggests further study on another type of industry.

The present study provides another approach to understanding how CSR and PR are constructed and enacted in an organization as well as to understanding the company’s justification in enacting particular CSR and PR functions. This study maintains the need to consider local values while keeping the global standard.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of perceived overall justice and the moderating effect of self- and other-centered motives in the relationship between organizational corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational attractiveness using a sample of job applicants.

The hypotheses were tested using a 2-by-2 experimental design and a sample of 376 South Korean University students.

The results showed that organizational CSR positively influenced job applicants’ perceived overall justice. Moreover, it was found that perceived overall justice mediated the influence of CSR on organizational attractiveness. However, contrary to the hypotheses, the indirect effect of CSR on organizational attractiveness through perceived overall justice was significant only for job applicants who attributed self-centered motives to CSR.

As it was found that job applicants who attributed other-centered motives to organizational CSR had high levels of perceived overall justice regarding organizations, independent of the actual level of engagement in CSR, it is crucial that organizations show sincerity in executing CSR. In addition, small- and medium-sized organizations may not have sufficient resources for CSR, but it is especially crucial for them to focus on CSR activities that are aligned with their business, implement CSR programs consistently, and focus on CSR itself rather than on advertising in order to facilitate, among job applicants, the attribution of other-centered motives to their CSR.

From the perspective of overall justice and attributed motives, this study intensively explores the internal mechanism by which organizational engagement in CSR influences organizational attractiveness among job applicants. In practical terms, this study shows that it is important for organizations to consistently invest in CSR with authenticity, even when CSR activities are insubstantial and doing so may be attributed to self-centered motives. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

This research aims to understand consumer responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) during an unprecedented public health crisis. Specifically, two studies were conducted to investigate how companies’ different CSR initiatives in the early stage of COVID-19 would influence consumers’ advocacy intention according to their focus (i.e. targets of institutional CSR). The first study examined the moderating role of individuals’ CSR expectancy on the effects of companies’ CSR initiatives on consumers’ brand advocacy intention. The second study further extends the findings of Study 1 by examining the mediating role of perceived brand motive.

Two between-subject online experiments were conducted to explore the impact of three types of institutional CSR initiatives (i.e. community, employee and consumer-centered CSRs) on brand advocacy. Study 1 (N = 380) examined the moderating role of CSR expectancy in influencing consumer responses to institutional CSR initiatives. Study 2 (N = 384) explored the underlying mechanism through examining the mediating role of a company’s value-driven motivation in the process.

Study 1 indicated that institutional CSR, regardless of type, was more effective in generating a more significant brand advocacy intention than a promotional message, measured as a baseline. The impact of different kinds of institutional CSR on consumers’ brand advocacy intentions was significantly moderated by their CSR-related expectations. Specifically, individuals with moderate to high CSR expectancy showed higher brand advocacy intentions in both consumer- and employee-centered CSR initiatives than the promotional message. In comparison, those with low CSR expectancy only showed higher brand advocacy intentions in the community-centered CSR initiative. In addition, as individuals’ CSR expectations rose, the mediation effect of the perceived value-driven motivation became stronger.

The current study includes guiding principles to help companies effectively respond to COVID-19 as corporate citizens by demonstrating the importance of individuals’ CSR expectancy across three CSR initiatives. This study used real-life examples of how leading companies were stepping up CSR efforts and suggested an approach that aligns CSR behaviors with the urgent and fundamental human needs of COVID-19.

In line with the CSR goal of maximizing benefits for stakeholders, this study’s findings signal that situational changes determine CSR expectations and that companies must be highly susceptible to the changes in consumers’ expectations of CSR and their appraisal process of CSR motives to maximize its CSR value.