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Drawing on interdisciplinary insights from stakeholder theory, relationship management and organizational justice, the purpose of this paper is to examine corporate social responsibility (CSR) from an internal and relational perspective. Specifically, it examines the effects of CSR in overall as well as the discretionary, ethical, legal and economic CSR dimensions on organization–employee relationships, respectively. The moderating role of employees’ perceived CSR-culture fit on these effects was also explored.

An online survey was conducted with 303 participants from the USA who were full-time employees at for-profit organizations.

Results indicate that CSR performance in overall positively influences organization–employee relationships, and such effect is amplified as employees’ perceived CSR-culture fit increases. Discretionary and ethical CSR positively influence organization–employee relationships, but perceived CSR-culture fit only amplifies the influence from ethical CSR. For legal and economic CSR, the effects on organization–employee relationships are only significant when perceived CSR-culture fit is high.

This study extends the body of knowledge of CSR and internal relationship management. However, the limitations regarding the factors from culture, business sectors and organizational setting should be addressed in future studies through both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the effects from four different CSR dimensions on organization–employee relationships as well as how such effects were moderated by employees’ perceived CSR-culture fit. Integrating interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks, this study offers insights for corporate communications and public relations professionals on how to effectively build and cultivate relationships with employees through different dimensions of CSR.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employees’ affective commitment through the mediating role of perceived corporate culture.

Data were collected by means of self-administered survey. A total of 379 complete responses were obtained from tourism and hospitality organizations in China. The proposed relationships were tested using structural equation modeling in four nested models.

Results show that CSR to employees and CSR to customers are fully mediated by employee development, harmony and customer orientation of the corporate culture, while CSR to stakeholders is partially mediated.

The findings also suggest that the literature should reconsider how CSR initiatives could pinpoint a specific dimension in developing loyal employees. This study also shows that employees are social actors who seek a corporate culture that best suits their self-interest; hence, they are more committed to an organization particularly in respect to employee development and social harmony.

This study adds to the literature by showing that not all CSR efforts would directly lead to employee commitment. It shows that the CSR-to-employee and CSR-to-customer dimensions play the most salient roles in nurturing a corporate culture that is perceived to focus on employee development, harmony, customers and innovation.

This study aims to evaluate the significance of the corporate website favorability notion and examines its factors in developing competitive advantage in the context of retail and service settings in the UK and Russia.

Based on the attribution, social identity and signaling theories, this study adopted the qualitative exploratory approach by conducting 14 interviews with retail experts and eight focus groups with retail users in the UK and Russia, combined with experts in website design, communication and marketing.

The study findings indicated that it is crucial to build and maintain a favorable corporate website that reveals the corporate identity as part of the overall company strategy. The study suggests that navigation, visual, information, usability, customization, security, availability, website credibility, customer service, perceived corporate social responsibility and perceived corporate culture are the factors of corporate website favorability that contribute to the company’s competitive advantage. The findings show that consumers from Russia as well as from the UK found the significance of a favorable corporate website (i.e. corporate website favorability), as well as the factors affecting corporate website favorability. However, consumers in the UK are more critical and demanding in the level of expectation of the website overall and put more weight than consumers from Russia on the perceived corporate social responsibility, perceived corporate culture, customer service and website credibility.

Corporate website favorability should be adopted by the companies, as part of the overall corporate identity management. Furthermore, it is advised to take into consideration the variations in the level of importance of the factors of corporate website favorability in different countries. The findings of this study suggest that this investigation will make a considerable managerial contribution to the understanding of a company’s decision-makers, communication professionals and website specialists about the building of a favorable corporate website in line with corporate identity strategy of the company.

There has been little systematic study of the effect of corporate websites on consumer evaluations of the websites; also, there is a lack of research with regard to the factors that contribute to the development of a favorable corporate website (i.e. corporate website favorability). This is the first study of its kind to find the effect of corporate website favorability in Russia, representing a non-western country, and the UK, representing a western country. Therefore, it contributes to the corporate visual identity literature by presenting the corporate website favorability construct and demonstrating the factors that influence corporate website favorability.

This paper aims to explore the determinants of perceived internal service complexity in internal service encounters. In this context, the nature of internal service complexity is considered, to identify its promoting and limiting factors, as well as its non-linear effects on internal service quality.

To acquire information on factors influencing internal service complexity, a broad literature review was conducted. Furthermore, to validate and verify these results, structural equation modeling’ was used in the context of a quantitative study with 705 internal customers.

The results revealed four promoting and seven limiting complexity determinants at organizational, interdepartmental and internal supplier-related levels. Moreover, the findings showed that an optimal, moderate level of internal service complexity maximizes internal service quality.

As the findings are restricted to this study, further research should be conducted with regard to different types of companies and internal customers. Furthermore, future research should take variability over time into account. Executing a longitudinal approach to internal service complexity might therefore be appropriate.

Managers should note that exclusively reducing internal service complexity is insufficient; rather, a hybrid strategy of lowering and controlling is indispensable for an optimization. Based on the identified complexity determinants, a three-step guidance to optimize internal service is proposed.

Despite examining the construct complexity, previous research has neither analyzed internal service complexity nor studied its determinants. This paper provides an empirical model that analyzes inhibiting and promoting factors of internal service complexity as well as its non-linear effects on internal service quality.

Previous research demonstrates the link between corporate culture and organizational commitment. Given the potential differences in espoused corporate culture and its perception by employees, the purpose of this paper is to find an answer to the following question: how does employees' perception of company values affect their own commitment to that organization?

The authors conducted a survey to 216 business leaders, using three types of questionnaires to collect data: values, HR practices and commitment. They designed ad hoc the questionnaires on values and HR practices, and the last one follows Allen and Meyer's model. Hypotheses were tested by using correlations, regression analysis, structural equation modeling and comparisons of averages.

The results confirm the authors' hypothesis: a better adjustment between the perceived and the stated values has a positive relation with commitment. Particularly, people‐oriented values and ethical behavior are the ones that best predict affective commitment. The study verifies, also, that appropriate human resources practices greatly affect the perception of values.

The greater importance of affective dimension in organizational commitment, reinforced by ethical and people‐oriented values, makes clear the need for companies to pay real attention to this set of values beyond the simple formulation in the corporate culture. Therefore, companies should ensure there is congruence between human resources practices and values statements.

There are many previous research studies analyzing the link between corporate culture and commitment. This paper focuses on the existing gap between the espoused and the perceived values, finding that a better adjustment has a positive relation with organizational commitment.

This paper investigates what organisations perceive as the essential components of corporate identity concept and their contents. It proposes an operational definition of corporate identity on the basis of the practitioners' views.

The information was gathered through 32 in‐depth interviews with managers from different organisations (mainly multinational companies) and an analysis of corporate literature and web sites. The initial analysis is based on a multidisciplinary categorisation developed by the first author, which facilitated the systematic analysis of a wide range of components (e.g. corporate communication, corporate design, corporate culture etc.) associated with corporate identity.

The study shows that there is a considerable divergence in opinions concerning the fundamental components of corporate identity among practitioners. Most interviewees heavily associated identity with the areas of corporate design, communication, behaviour and strategy whereas there was no unanimous agreement as to whether or not corporate culture was a product or determinant of corporate identity.

Developing sub‐items and their measures for each dimension presented in the proposed definition and examining the possible relationships between them might be the further step. Also additional empirical research which considers consequences of corporate identity management in relation to company performance indicators could enhance overall understanding of the concept.

Senior company management can use the categorisation discussed in this paper as a starting point for development of corporate identity management strategies.

Recategorisation of Melewar's corporate identity dimensions, which help define corporate identity concept in measurable terms.

This paper seeks to consider the interaction between corporate brands and organisational cultures within less successful UK financial services organisations to provide guidance about better managing corporate brands.

A total of 41 in‐depth interviews were conducted within less successful UK financial services organisations from a grounded theory standpoint.

Given the link between culture and employee behaviour and the criticality of employee behaviour in services brands, organisational culture was perceived by managers and staff as being key to brand success. However, amongst the corporate brands studied, the cultures were not brand‐supportive and a misalignment was noted between culture and brand. The study found that the organisational cultures were confusing and inconsistent, were undergoing a process of change, were focused on quantitative performance targets, were averse to innovation and in one case were unnecessarily “tough”.

The results highlight the need for managers to be attentive to the consistency and congruence between values in the organisational culture and corporate brand, to ensure that cultural change is managed appropriately, to adopt a holistic approach to brand management and to empower employees. A model is posited of the cultural pitfalls to avoid when managing corporate brands.

The value of the paper is that it can help financial services brands achieve their potential by allowing them to manage the interaction between culture and brand so as to optimise brand performance by avoiding the pitfalls encountered within less successful brands.

This study aims to ascertain the impact of customer perception of CSR activities (philanthropic, environmental and ethical) conducted on various consumer and corporate related dimensions including; customer loyalty, consumer attachment, corporate performance and repurchase intention. The study also adds value by taking customer perception of CSR as a mediator between green image and performance.

Structural equation modelling is used after using different (valid and reliable) instruments to measure latent constructs. The study has a sample size of 250 “CSR Consumers”, who had some knowledge and awareness of CSR and green image being advertised and or labelled by the company (such as printing “Recycled” or other eco-friendly images/labels on shopping bag, fliers, outlets, etc.) and are consumers/customers of such firms. The respondent’s awareness was measured by randomly asking them to recall organizations that might have eco-friendly policies.

The key findings of the study are that perceived fit of culture along with CSR capability radically influences CSR perception within consumer minds and so, subsequently, customer attachment and overall performance of the corporation. The outcomes bestow significant ramifications for marketing and advertising philosophy combined with practice.

Stakeholders exist in the form of consumers other than employees. So consumer satisfaction must be imparted its fair share of importance. Managers must make sure that initiatives for societal benefit are well accepted and well recognized by consumers in a positive array of light. Corporations enthusiastically involved in initiating CSR activities and forecast a positive income. The study guides managers into not falling in this misconception and by recognizing that the fact is that the company managers must only expect higher performance levels once their CSR is in synchronization with the firm’s culture.

A number of studies have been conducted about CSR practices in the Indian context for example (Khan and Atkinson, 1987; Krishna, 1992; Arora and Puranik, 2004; Sood and Arora, 2006; Mishra and Suar, 2010); however, there is dearth of research in its neighbouring country Pakistan about CSR practices and consumer perceptions. Therefore, this research aims to fill this gap by examining CSR practices in Pakistan which has similar historical and colonial roots with India. In doing so, this study ascertains the impact of CSR activities conducted on various consumer and corporate related dimensions that incorporate customer loyalty, consumer attachment and corporate performance.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the mechanism of how Machiavellian corporate culture (MCC) affects employees’ counterproductive work behaviours.

Through a three-phase grounded study on the data of a single case amounting to over 170,000 words, this qualitative study explores why employees exhibit counterproductive work behaviours.

The results indicated that the implications of the MCC of family businesses in China include the following three dimensions: low trust, control orientation, and status orientation. In this corporate cultural context, employees exhibit counterproductive work behaviours because they perceive low organisational justice, psychological contract violation, and low trust. Among them, psychological contract violation serves as a triggering mechanism due to the organisational context and trust is crucial to employee counterproductive work behaviour.

In this study, the results are derived merely from the observation of and generalisation about one case; more therefore, empirical studies are required.

Numerous family business owners in China exhibit a high level of Machiavellian personality traits, and this personality tends to determine the implications of corporate culture. In order to establish a diverse culture, a heterogeneous top manager team must be developed and a new organisational culture must be established from top down.

This study extends the research scopes of employee personality and behaviours as well as leaders’ personality traits and employee emotions, and proposes a theoretical framework of leaders’ personality-culture-employee behaviours as a contribution to studies on organisational behaviour, theories of corporate social responsibility, and development of corporate culture.