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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 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 examine how stakeholders perceive the motives behind fast food companies’ public health-related corporate social responsibility (CSR) and general social issue-related CSR initiatives, and their responses toward CSR in terms of supportive communication intent, investment intent, and purchase intent. The authors further examine the impact of perceived CSR motives on intent and whether a healthier chain image has an effect on stakeholder responses.

An online experiment was conducted. This study employed a randomized 2 (CSR type: health-related CSR vs generic social issue-related CSR)×2 (chain image: healthier chain vs general fast-food chain) full factorial design using general stakeholder samples.

For an ordinary fast food restaurant, generic social issue-related CSR programs elicited significantly more positive perceptions of CSR motives, supportive communication intent and investment intent, than public-health related CSR. When a company has a healthier image, stakeholders do not distinguish between CSR types. Stakeholders perceive both CSR types as stemming from mutually beneficial motives and show neutral to slightly positive reactions to both CSR. A positively perceived CSR motive plays a determinant role in anticipating communication, investment, and purchase intents.

This is the first study that examines stakeholder perception of motives behind and responses toward fast food chains’ health-related vs generic social issue-related CSR initiatives, in light of corporate image. The study findings help public relations practitioners, public health professionals, parent groups, and legislators understand stakeholders’ reactions toward CSR initiatives in the fast food industry and help them monitor practices for improvements.

Corporate communication practices are becoming ever more important for business service clients, as they signal quality and hence are related to client-perceived value. The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate reputation and client-perceived value, and to assess the moderating role of strategic orientation in business service relationships.

The conceptual framework based on the corporate communication framework, signaling theory and relationship marketing theory has been tested on a survey sample of 228 client firms, using covariance-based SEM and additional procedures for assessment of mediation and moderated mediation.

This paper reveals that communication practices concerning CSR positively and significantly influence client-perceived value. The authors show that reputation fully mediates the effect of CSR on client-perceived value. Finally, the effect of CSR on value is stronger if the client firm has a short-term strategic orientation, while long-term strategic orientation boosts the effect of corporate reputation on customer-perceived value.

Further research on the topic may involve developing links between other elements of the corporate communication framework and client-perceived value.

The originality of the paper lies in better understanding the effects of CSR and corporate reputation on client-perceived value. The authors provide empirical evidence of the mediating role of reputation between the CSR (seen as “actions”) and client-perceived value.

This investigation set out to uncover whether CSR appeals – socially and/or environmentally oriented efforts promoted as part of a corporation’s advertising campaign – present a fruitful strategy for pharmaceutical manufacturers. This study investigates whether consumers in the two countries are similar with regards to (1) attitudes toward CSR engagement (2) perception of the social engagement of a company (3) perceived product/cause fit and (4) evaluation of CSR versus non-CSR appeals in OTC pharma ads. A field study was conducted (483 subjects; non-student sample) to explore how a standardized promotional message with or without a CSR appeal is perceived in a cross-cultural setting. Results indicate that consumers’ response (with regard to attitudes toward CSR, perceived social engagement by a company, perceived product-cause fit, as well as ad evaluation) all varied by country. Consumer responses were only tested with regard to a fictitious product as well as for one product category. Overall results suggest that CSR messages resonated more with some consumers than with others and, thus, may need to be tailored by market. Apart from a very small number of investigations, neither consumer evaluations of over-the-counter (OTC) drug ads in general, nor responses to CSR ad appeals in particular, have been explored. Thus, this investigation’s primary goal is to explore responses toward CSR messages in non-prescription drug ads in the United States and Brazil.