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While past studies have shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences brand equity, loyalty and brand attitudes, research about CSR effects on the responsible and active dimensions of brand personality remains limited. This study aims to address this gap and examine how brands with different personality strength benefit from CSR communication, providing novel insights about CSR’s branding payoffs to firms.

Three experiments were conducted. Study 1 tested if CSR communication influenced responsible and active brand personality dimensions compared to non-CSR communication. Study 2 examined how varying CSR spending allocations affect personality perceptions of weak and strong brands. Studies 1 and 2 measured responsible and active brand personalities before and after exposure to experimental manipulations, assessing immediate changes in brand personality. Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 using fictitious brands whose initial brand personalities were manipulated as either weak or strong.

CSR communication has the potential to influence brands’ responsible and active personalities compared to non-CSR communication. However, changes in brand personalities were contingent on CSR manipulations (smaller vs larger CSR spending) and initial brand strength. Brands that lacked strongly responsible and strong active personalities experienced an improvement in these perceptions after exposure to any CSR spending message. However, brands with strong responsible or strong active personalities experienced brand erosion after exposure to smaller CSR spending message or no improvement when the CSR message was aligned with the responsible and active conduct (e.g. mentioned larger CSR spending).

This study is the first to examine how CSR affects brand personality. By combining signalling and attitude change/congruity principle theories, it provides novel theoretical contributions to explain when CSR can improve, erode or exert no effect on the responsible and active brand personalities, providing insights for effective brand management.

This study aims to examine the underlying antecedents and psychological mechanisms through which brand's communication of sustainable business practices in social media influences consumers' responsible consumption behaviour and brand relationship outcomes.

Data were collected using two surveys, from a sample of WhatsApp users (N = 632), and a sample of Facebook users (N = 471), and were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling.

The results suggest that systematic and heuristic processing of message cues about sustainable business practices communicated by the brand through online social networks influence consumers' perceptions of brand warmth and competence. These perceptions, in turn, direct consumers' responsible consumption behaviours and strengthen brand relationships. The impact of these cues is moderated by consumers' perception of the brand's motives for engaging in sustainable business practices.

The study insights can help brand managers to enhance consumers' brand-related perceptions, responsible consumption and consumer-brand relationships.

This paper seeks to explore whether corporate heritage as a component in planned communications can be important to foster a responsible corporate brand image among consumers.

A research model with three hypotheses was created and tested through linear multiple regression analysis, including 199 brands. The dependent variable, responsible brand image, was obtained from a Swedish consumer survey (n=8,015). The independent variables were measured through content analyses of the brands' webpages.

The findings support that presence of corporate heritage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication is positively related to responsible brand image with consumers. It is notable that the results indicate that corporate heritage identity on its own does not influence positive consumer perception on responsibility, unless it is linked to CSR communication.

Previous research has indicated the significance of cultural context on what constitutes effective CSR communication. As this study is limited to a Swedish consumer sample, the authors therefore recommend further research including a wider national context in order to validate the findings.

The study and findings can inspire and inform companies how corporate heritage can be utilised in brand communications to facilitate CSR credibility among consumers.

By introducing history and heritage as a perspective on CSR communication and responsible brand image, the paper adds to the growing literature on corporate heritage identity and branding. The findings also add to the CSR communication literature calling for more knowledge on elements that build effective CSR communication.

There is a rise in interest on the topic of consumer-brand relationships (CBRs) among practitioners and academics. Consumers are said to build relationships with brands that have a personality congruent with their own. The purpose of this paper is to investigate two types of brand personality traits, namely, responsible brands and active brands to predict prominent CBR constructs, including brand awareness, brand trust, and brand loyalty.

This study was based on an electronic survey of 339 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

The results show that brand personality positively affects the three CBR constructs. Specifically, the focus is shifted to the two major personality dimensions, responsible and active, respectively. The results indicate that an active brand is a stronger predictor of brand awareness compared to a responsible brand. However, a responsible brand is a stronger predictor of brand trust as well as brand loyalty compared to an active brand. Surprisingly, the results display that active brands lower brand trust and brand loyalty.

This finding informs brand managers that projecting active brand personality leads to higher awareness. However, projecting more responsible brand leads to greater trust and loyalty. The study highlights that having one personality may not be sufficient to develop an enduring CBR, but a brand personality must “evolve” and progress as the relationship develops over time. Such dynamic brand personality may provide a more long-lasting brand strategy and a greater source of competitive advantage.

The present study contributes to the marketing literature in three different ways. First, this study adds to the body of knowledge on the relationship between brand personality and CBR constructs using the new measure of BPS. Second, this study assesses the individual level of the new BPS, particularly responsibility and activity, on the three CBR constructs, and in doing so, the study responds to previous studies’ calls to assess the individual capacity of the brand personality dimensions to get consumer preference or loyalty. Third, the study displays which ones of the two dimensions in the new BPS (i.e. responsible and active) may be better predictors to the three CBR constructs.

There is general agreement that global brands should ensure that they incorporate social responsibility. To do this properly, organisations must understand what it means to be socially responsible and how they can leverage their actions. The paper proposes consideration of three distinct areas: the range of social responsibility issues, what the organisations actually do and how to leverage those corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions. This paper seeks to conceptually develop these three areas of complexity – Issue, Organisational and Communication – as it is only after organisations understand these three areas that they can effectively leverage socially responsible activities in their brands.

This research undertakes a review and synthesis of the academic, practitioner and industry literature examining CSR and the brand, addressing the three areas of complexity – issue, organisational and communication.

The research finds that within these three areas of complexity there are a number of sub‐issues that must be addressed if CSR is to be strategically integrated into a global brand. This includes sub‐issues associated with social issue complexity (identification, heterogeneity, measurement, and interpretation); organizational complexity (overall corporate brand, multiple products and brands, functional activities, and supply chain); and communication complexity (intensity of action/positioning, communicating action, types of programs utilised, and integration issues.) It thus provides an agenda for future research.

There is limited academic literature examining how global organisations incorporate CSR activities into their brand and the research proposes the issues that need to be considered when integrating CSR into branding strategy. Future research needs to be undertaken to explore the internal processes that global firms use to develop their CSR positioning strategies and some research propositions for future research are proposed. Additionally further exploration of each of the issues (and sub‐issues) identified in this paper is warranted, and some suggestions are made for this.

The results of this study show that developing a CSR leveraged brand in a consistent way that is salient to all stakeholders is no simple task for global organisations. By considering the three areas of complexity developed here organisations will be able to better understand and align their activities in line with CSR related issues. Being global means that organisations will likely need to ensure they address the highest set of global expectations, as any lower level may be criticised as being less than appropriate.

The paper develops the sub‐issues of issue, organisational and communication complexity associated with global brands' CSR activities. This strategic perspective goes beyond focusing on the tactical activities undertaken or the philosophical issue of whether CSR should be undertaken. The work therefore allows global organisations to look at CSR more strategically as a branding issue.

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) effort on consumer preference in the case of brands with different CSR histories in the clothing and footwear sector.

This study uses the conjoint analysis method and analyzes a sample of 381 French consumers. Two sports brands were tested in this experiment: Nike and Patagonia.

The results show that despite the sensitivity of the respondents to the social and environmental conditions involved in the manufacture of the shoes they purchase, they mainly preferred Nike – regardless of its shorter CSR history and significant criticism for social issues in its value chain. Customer recognition of a greater CSR effort by Patagonia does not seem to change this preference.

One fictional product was tested, and the two selected brands have different levels of recognition by French consumers. To strengthen the external validity of the results, it would be interesting to repeat the study using other, real products and other brands with a similar offer on the market and level of consumer awareness.

The findings suggest that the ethical dimension of the product should not be put forward as the main selling point, but rather as an added value for the product.

Although there has been an increasing number of studies of consumer behavior toward ethical attributes in recent years, none to date have compared this behavior for products of ethical brands with different CSR histories.

To discuss the importance of understanding corporate social responsibility (CSR) by analysing the issues that comprise CSR. Without this understanding it will not be possible for organisations to develop responsible brands.

The paper draws on the existing business and marketing literature to define four aspects of issue complexity. It also draws on a range of real and hypothetical examples affecting local and global organisations to explain the four components.

Developing CSR requires intensive corporate commitment and failure to deliver on stakeholder expectations will result in reputational damage. It is essential to understand CSR issue complexity and to consider carefully CSR‐linked brand positioning. Basically, the implementation of CSR activities requires something substantial and communicable in the first place.

The work is conceptual in nature and additional research needs to be undertaken to better understand how organisations define the CSR issues that they will integrate into activities and how the management of these issues can be undertaken to ensure system‐wide implementation.

The work suggests that by understanding the four components of issues complexity organisations will be in a better position to integrate CSR‐related branding. Without understanding these issues, organisations may potentially unintentionally exaggerate claims or set themselves up to be criticised that they are unfairly exploiting consumers' interest in CSR issues.

Previous research has documented the value of CSR, but to date there have been only limited attempts to systematically examine how managers could know whether they have considered the issue completely and realistically.

To help brands persuasively communicate their environmentally responsible initiatives, this study aims to involve two experiments, examining the impact of brand schema, information transparency and skepticism toward climate change for brands both familiar and unfamiliar to US consumers.

Two online experiments were designed recruiting a total of 510 participants. The design incorporates both message and treatment variance to increase internal and external validity of the study. Data collected were analyzed using PROCESS, a regression-based conditional path analysis technique.

The results indicated that for both familiar and unfamiliar brands, increased congruity of consumers' schemas to information presented in brands' pro-environmental messages led consumers to evaluate the messages as more persuasive, have more positive opinions about brands' environmentally responsible initiatives as well as behavioral intentions toward the brand. Also, presence of high information transparency on environmental responsibility-related messages influenced consumers' schemas positively, and in turn, their evaluations were more favorable. However, consumers’ climate change skepticism seemed to influence unfamiliar, not familiar brands.

The study provides both theoretical and managerial implications. The findings are important for established apparel brands that suffer from negative reputations, but are willing to revitalize their images, and for new ventures who want to establish their image as environmentally responsible.

Past research on cause-related marketing (CRM) suggests that these socially beneficial initiatives can be implemented as co-branding strategies. Little is known, however, about the role of brand prominence, in terms of visual conspicuousness of the two brands that are partner-involved (for-profit and non-profit brands). This study aims to advance a model of moderated mediation that explains how and under what circumstances brand prominence disparity enhances consumers’ attitudes toward CRM co-branded products and increases purchase intention

The authors test a model of moderated mediation in two studies. Study 1 shows that the effectiveness of brand prominence disparity is explained by the mediating role of attitude toward a CRM co-branded product. Study 2 demonstrates that this mediation is moderated by the positioning of the for-profit brand partner (luxury vs non-luxury positioning).

Results show that brand prominence disparity has a role in defining consumers’ purchase intention toward a CRM co-branded product through mediation of attitude. Moreover, positioning of the for-profit brand partner moderates the cognitive processes activated by the visual brand prominence. In luxury positioning, a loud visual prominence of the for-profit brand significantly improves consumers’ attitudes and intentions to buy the CRM co-branded product.

The study extends our understanding of how visual brand presence can promote the effectiveness of co-branded CRM initiatives, and it offers practical guidelines for marketers wishing to partner with social causes, while promoting products with luxury or non-luxury features.

This study explores enablers that firms could use to motivate consumers toward responsible consumption behavior. Completing the loop of responsible consumption – linking firms and consumers –helps firms to attain responsible consumption targets as part of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The study uses netnography as the qualitative research methodology.

The important enablers of responsible consumption behavior are choice editing, design intervention, addressing consumers' environmental identity, brand assurance, promoting innovation mindset and consumer empowerment – at the level of consumers and at the crosslevel of interaction between firms and consumers. Such enablers can help the firms in nudging their consumers toward responsible consumption.

Using the lens of the expectancy–value theory of achievement motivation, this study extends the theoretical domain of responsible consumption.

The enablers of responsible consumption behaviors found here serve as a useful guide for the strategies to attain the SDGs.

The SDG goal 12 of responsible consumption is the focus of this study. The entire fabric of responsible consumption is woven around anthropocentric views, and hence the findings of this study have clear social implications.

This is a first study to explore how firms can facilitate consumers to consume responsibly, to attain the SDGs. This is also one of the first studies on responsible consumption, using netnography as the research methodology. Additionally, it also extends the applicability of the expectancy–value theory of achievement motivation to the context of responsible consumption behavior.