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The purpose of this study is to establish the relationship between CSR, managerial discretion, competences, learning and efficiency and perceived corporate financial performance in order to establish the legitimacy and value of CSR, taking managers' perspectives in Uganda.

The study used quantitative, correlation and regression analyses and collected primary data through a structured questionnaire on a sample of 100 firms.

The results indicate that managerial discretion and competences, learning and efficiency are significant predictors of perceived corporate financial performance, but CSR is not. However, the results show serendipitously that managerial discretion's predictive potential of perceived corporate performance is moderated by CSR.

The study focuses on corporate social responsibility, a concept not very well appreciated and only understood as philanthropic and not really viewed as a means for improved financial performance in Uganda.

Our study implies that while upholding the ideals of CSR, companies in Uganda need to enhance managerial discretion in their contracting process and develop competences, learning and efficiency in order to impact positively on performance.

This study contributes to the dearth of CSR literature on the African experience by examining the perceptions of managers on CSR's predictive potential of corporate financial performance in Uganda.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of corporate hypocrisy and consumer skepticism on perceived corporate reputation. In addition, the effect of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) in mediating the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and consumer skepticism toward perceived corporate reputation.

An experimental design was employed to test the effects of corporate hypocrisy and consumer skepticism on consumers’ perception of a firm’s corporate reputation, as well as the role of perceived CSR as a causal mechanism. Analysis involved structural equation modeling (AMOS) to test hypotheses. A convenience sample (n=837) was recruited from the USA and Australia to allow for any national biases or brand familiarity effects and to ensure the results were robust and generalizable.

Corporate hypocrisy and consumers’ skepticism significantly influences perceived CSR and corporate reputation. Furthermore, a consumer’s level of perceived CSR acts as a causal mechanism, mediating the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and skepticism on perceived corporate reputation.

The importance of being transparent and honest toward consumers. When companies are inconsistent in their CSR activities, it increases consumers’ skepticism toward the brand. Nonetheless, CSR has a positive influence on the consumers’ perception of corporate reputation and this, in turn, will positively influences consumers’ support for the firm.

The first empirical evidence that companies producing vices (such as beer) generate lower expectations in the minds of the consumers, meaning there is less impact on brand reputation when consumers feel the CSR does not fit with the brand image.

This paper aims to examine the influence of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) on purchase intention in the short-term and corporate reputation in the long-term while taking into consideration of the mediating role of brand image and customer satisfaction.

The research sample comprising 482 participants was selected at random. Hierarchical multiple regression and the PROCESS Macro for SPSS were used to test the proposed hypotheses.

Perceived CSR was found to have significant direct and mediated effects of purchase intention and corporate reputation through brand image and customer satisfaction. The proposed causal chain is pivotal for understanding how CSR perceptions influence, as well as shape purchase intention and perceived reputation.

There are three major implications. First, it is important for consumers to be able to perceive CSR initiatives, to consider them as a strategic investment. Second, firms must develop strategies that promote CSR as being positive for society and the environment, as well as for the firm. Third, perceived CSR is an important predictor in the causal chain of relationships that promote brand image and customer satisfaction, which contributes to reputation and purchase intention. One of the major limitations of this study, although COVID-19 is an ongoing global pandemic in this study, is that cross-sectional data were collected within a single economy. Hence, a longitudinal study with samples from other economies in the region may be conducted to compare and generalize the findings.

At a time when corporate objectives are predominantly designed to satisfy stakeholder interests and to increase return on investment, there is mounting social pressure on shifting managerial mindsets to address issues such as poverty, health and well-being, education for all, social equality, unhealthy consumption, hedonic advertisements, global peace and environmental concerns. Marketing has been criticized for its narrow focus on fulfilling the social needs of a particular target market while ignoring society at large, and this study argues that, through responsible marketing, firms can improve their reputation and at the same time can promote sustainable living.

Direct and mediated relationships that have previously been studied separately are considered together in a serially mediated unified model. This approach provides a better understanding of how perceived CSR can transform purchase intention and reputation.

This study aims to evaluate the impact of perceived cause- related marketing (perceived-CRM) on the repurchase intention (CRIN). Besides, brand image (BIMA) and customer satisfaction (CSAT) connect this relationship as mediating variables. Especially, the role of perceived corporate social responsibility (perceived-CSR) contributed to this nexus between perceived-CRM and BIMA, perceived-CRM and CSAT in emerging economies.

The paper follows a quantitative approach. Based on a comprehensive literature review on perceived-CSR, perceived-CRM , BIMA, CSAT and repurchase intention, the authors evaluate the impact of those constructs on repurchase intention in an emerging market. The study sample was composed of 395 responses covering customers of consumer goods. The study uses the Smart PLS-SEM version 3.3.2 to analyze the data.

The findings revealed significant contributions to the extant CRM literature in some ways. This study's outcomes contribute to extending the existing literature on CRM and CSR. Specifically, the extension focuses on the mediating and moderating effects of BIMA, CSAT and perceived-CSR, respectively, in the relationship between perceived-CRM and CRIN. Moreover, the novelty of this study lies in providing a new approach to the influence of perceived-CRM on CRIN, with the mediating of BIMA, CSAT and moderating effects perceived-CSR integrated into a conceptual model.

From a management perspective, the contribution of this study plays a very important role in strategic planning to enhance competitive advantage and improve business performance on a sustainable basis. This sustainability is founded on an insight into how changes in contextual factors affect the perception and consumer behavior of millennials in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market, especially in a context of Covid-19 global crisis. It is important to emphasize that genuineness and transparency in all activities and communications are a prerequisite in today's sensitive context. The application of acquired insight into practice will help businesses operating in the consumer sector improve brand reputation and CSAT. As a result, this leads to enhanced competitive advantage of the business in the market, improved market performance and ultimately to an improvement in the overall performance of the enterprise.

This is the first study that explores the moderating role of perceived CSR on the nexus between perceived-CRM with brand image (BIMA) and CSAT to the best of our knowledge. Besides, the study also discovers the mediating role of BIMA and CSAT between perceived-CRM and repurchase-intention in an emerging economy. Findings in this study provided additional evidence to the increasingly important roles of perceived-CRM and perceived-CSR in creating win-win relationships with customers, aiming to solve specific social causes jointly. Further, the perceived-CRM and perceived-CSR mechanisms help businesses enhance their intangible assets and competitive advantages through enhanced BIMA and stronger CRIN. In the current context, the business environment is changing rapidly due to many factors that lead to increased competition at a global level. Therefore, improving competitive advantage is a mandatory condition for businesses to survive and develop sustainably.

This paper aims to investigate whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts that are oriented toward shared value creation generate any perceptual advantages in terms of consumer product attributes evaluations compared with other types of CSR. The study also uncovers consumers’ pathways that channel the impacts of corporate associations on corporate and product evaluations and purchase intention.

This study uses a between-subjects experimental design. In all, 274 undergraduate students from a North American university participated in the 2 (low versus high corporate ability levels) × 4 (CSR types) study. The data were analyzed using the methodologies of path analysis and multiple group analysis in the context of structural equation modeling procedure.

The findings show that in the context of shared-value CSR, CSR image (i.e. consumer judgments on the moral aspect of the company) can spill over to product attributes evaluations, including perceptions of “product innovativeness” and “product social responsibility,” which, in turn, translate to purchase willingness. Meanwhile, perceived corporate trustworthiness mediates the effects of CSR image and corporate ability (CA) image on the overall corporate evaluation, which subsequently influences consumer product evaluation and purchase intention.

The research provides direct evidence showing that companies have the potential to improve their corporate brand and, in turn, their product evaluations by putting a stronger emphasis on the social responsibility components of their image and placing this at the core of their strategic agenda. Importantly, a contribution to the literature by identifying differential effects of CA image versus CSR image on consumer perception of product innovativeness within different CSR categories is made. The limitations of the research are discussed, which include the usage of a fictitious company and brand and a convenience sample.

The study offers guidance to managers in regard to their choice of different CSR practices to fulfill their company’s product-related strategic goals.

The present study takes a critical stance to show that previous experimental work investigating the impact of CSR image on product evaluations relied predominantly on bipolar manipulations of CSR practices (bad versus good) rather than bringing many shades of CSR into consideration. By incorporating a wide array of CSR formats, especially value-creating CSR, current research generates potential implications based on differential effects of various CSR focuses, which have not been captured by previous studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility (PCSR) and perceived organizational corruption (POC) in a developing country context. The research suggests mediating roles of perceived ethical leadership (PEL) and job satisfaction (JS) in the PCSR–POC relationship.

Data were collected through survey questionnaires. The sample consisted of 434 employees working in private and public organizations in Kosovo. Regression analysis was conducted by using a serial mediation model.

Applying a social learning framework, this study provides evidence that employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are positively related to perceived ethical leadership and job satisfaction and negatively related to perceived organizational corruption. Furthermore, results confirm that the relationship between CSR perception and organizational corruption perception is mediated by ethical leadership perception and job satisfaction.

Armed with the findings, organizations can adopt CSR practices to positively influence employee behaviors and attitudes. From these results, it is possible to better comprehend the role of CSR in dealing with relevant aspects such as corruption at the organizational level, especially in developing and emerging markets.

The findings of this research indicate that employees in socially responsible organizations perceive less organizational corruption. Adopting a more ethical and responsible management approach might represent a promising solution to fight the corruption phenomenon inside and even outside organizations. These results should serve as reflection for both managers and public authorities.

With regard to CSR, previous studies have investigated different employee outcomes but never considered the potential impact on corruption at the organizational level. Furthermore, this study extends the literature by conceptualizing perceived ethical leadership and job satisfaction as mediators between perceived CSR and organizational corruption perception, in a developing country context where the concept of CSR is still less investigated.

This paper aims to reflect the argument that the impetus to engage in socially responsible actions is ultimately reinforced by the perceived belief that doing so will be beneficial to the corporation in the long run.

The paper uses a narrative‐inductive approach to make important contributions to the corporate social responsibility‐organizational effectiveness literature. Data were collected through a semi‐structured interview, and analyzed using qualitative analysis strategies.

The study reports a profound perceived usefulness of ethics and social responsibility for business in the insurance industry in Nigeria. Furthermore, the study presents evidence that indicates that consciousness about the role of ethics and social responsibility in organizational effectiveness in this context is low, but, nevertheless suggests a positive posture towards the constructs. This positive posture seems to have been driven by the negative image of the industry and the need to remedy the situation. It suggests that this can be achieved through a show of genuine concern for the needs of the consumers, and the need to reinforce their trust and confidence in insurance as a loss mitigating mechanism.

While shareholders' value maximization was shown as one of the considerations for ethical and social responsible behavior compromise, findings from the study also suggest that stakeholders' value maximization would be an effective consideration for the industry to improve the present low market penetration. The paper draws out the need to amend short‐term goals for long‐term goals by sacrificing short‐term profits for long‐term profits and survival.

Although the strategic importance of ethics and social responsibility has been investigated using the deductive approach in other industries, this work provides an alternative to this existing bulk of positivist investigations by using an inductive approach with subjects drawn from the insurance industry. The study also seems to the authors' knowledge, the first to investigate the strategic importance of this construct in a developing and apathetic market such as Nigeria.

The recent rise of economic nationalism intensifies consumers' patriotic attitudes toward goods or services and thus encourages enterprises to build patriotic brand images. Nevertheless, few studies have discussed how a patriotic brand image is developed. The purpose of this study aims to fill the gap by examining whether and how a positive corporate image helps a domestic brand establish a patriotic brand image and in turn enhances consumers' purchase intentions in relation to domestic brand products.

A research model identifying the antecedents of patriotic brand image (the components of corporate image) is proposed and empirically tested using structural equations with a questionnaire investigating Taiwanese college students' attitudes toward Taiwanese smartphone brands. Three competing models are also proposed and tested to confirm the appropriateness of the research model.

In addition to the widely recognized impact of perceived quality on purchase intentions, patriotic brand image is found to be effective in enhancing local consumers' intentions to purchase domestic brand products. To shape a patriotic brand image, perceived quality, perceived corporate ability and perceived corporate integrity are the direct approaches, while perceived corporate social responsibility works through perceived corporate integrity, and perceived employer brand enhances only perceived corporate social responsibility.

Potential sampling (college students) and subject (smartphones) biases may limit the generalizability of the presented findings

While patriotic appeals have long been used in marketing communication, they are also likely to precipitate negative brand associations (e.g. nationalism), offending consumers in other countries. By contrast, the development of a positive corporate image serves as an implicit and neutral approach to building a patriotic brand image and can help domestic brands attract local consumers with less harm to foreign markets.

This study is one of notably few studies discussing patriotic brand image and its impacts on purchase intentions. This study also identifies the antecedents of patriotic brand image and how each of them affects patriotic brand image. The findings can help guide domestic brands in building a patriotic brand image.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a multidimensional corporate social responsibility (CSR) crisis typology from the consumers’ perspective and to provide an agenda for future research.

Basic content-related dimensions for characterizing CSR crises from the consumers’ perspective are derived from a review of relevant static crisis typologies. Different types of consumer responses to negative CSR information are derived from various theoretical approaches. Dynamic process models of corporate crises are reviewed to assign various types of consumer responses to different crisis phases. Linking both static and dynamic approaches leads to a comprehensive consumer-oriented typology of CSR crises that is illustrated with examples.

A CSR crises typology is developed based on three consumer-related dimensions: the extent to which the company is attributed blame by consumers; the amount of perceived damage potential; and the perceived CSR relevance of the crisis situation. The combination of these dimensions results in eight different crisis types. For each of these crisis types, different forms of consumer responses are assigned that prevail in the so-called potential, latent and manifest crisis phase.

Future research could address the empirical review of the crisis typology presented, its refinement by considering various consumer and stakeholder segmentation approaches and the advanced dynamic analysis of CSR crises by including stakeholder characteristics that impact the diffusion of CSR-related negative publicity.

The results of this paper support early crisis detection and effective crisis management by identifying relevant target variables for crisis communication.

The typology developed enables a broad spectrum of CSR crises to be classified, including those that have been neglected in previous systematization approaches, such as CSR-related tensions, general sustainability crises and product-harm crises. Due to its theoretical foundation, this paper also contributes to a clearer demarcation of existing CSR crisis constructs.