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This paper explores how companies can improve consumer attitudes towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages and companies by designing the content of the message, which should provide specific information and improve social topic awareness among consumers. The paper also explores the mediating role of message authenticity between the CSR message content and consumer attitudes towards the information and the company.

302 participants evaluated the website of a fictitious company that included information about its CSR activities. The authors collected data through a questionnaire of Likert-type and dichotomous scales and contrasted the hypotheses with a causal model, analysing the relationships among variables through structural equation modelling (SEM) with the software EQS 6.1.

The findings suggest that information specificity and social topic awareness improve consumer perceptions of message authenticity. The findings also show that message authenticity improves consumer trust and attitudes towards the information and the company. Attitude towards the information, message authenticity and social topic awareness show the largest impacts on trust and attitude towards the company, while information specificity also has a positive although smaller effect.

Integrating information specificity and social topic awareness within the conceptual model presented in this paper, based on the heuristic-systematic model (HSM) and attribution theory, allows researchers and practitioners to close the gap between companies' CSR activities and consumers' perceptions, attitudes and behaviours.

This study used the design process (analysis, development, and evaluation) to understand and refine the process, dimensions, and outcomes of a multi-year, whole-institution approach to social justice education for preservice teachers (PSTs) at one institution. The authors used shared governance to establish a cross-disciplinary faculty-student learning community and provided interdisciplinary social justice learning opportunities to PSTs across multiple years. These were delivered using high-impact practices such as community-engaged learning and ePortfolios.

The authors used formative data to examine and refine this study's program design. The authors assessed engagement within and across the components of the whole-institution approach and the impact on, and change in, social justice learning and orientation for PSTs.

Findings showed deepened engagement within and across the components of the whole-institution approach, however, committee representation, opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, and coordinated field experiences are areas that can be strengthened. All PSTs demonstrated an understanding of the connections between annual social justice foci and teaching practices, and some documented growth in social justice awareness over time. The authors found more clarity is needed around archiving and keeping social justice event reflections in the ePortfolio each year.

This study adds to the existing literature by using the design process to refine the development of a whole-institution social justice education program for PSTs.

This study aims to investigate the cognitive factors and e-social interactions that influence the green purchase intention of Vietnamese consumers.

This study conducted the survey with 453 samples of young consumers in Vietnam, using the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach to evaluate the measurement quality to deal with research objectives.

The findings of this study demonstrate that cognitive factors positively impact green purchase intentions in Vietnam. Moreover, the analysis revealed that the attitude variable played a mediating role in this model, whereas the social norms factor did not.

This study presents several valuable findings on the green purchase intentions of young Vietnamese consumers. Therefore, the results can potentially advance and strengthen green purchasing theories in the Vietnamese market. Moreover, the recommendations indicate that cognitive factors and e-social interactions are crucial in shaping green purchasing intentions among Vietnamese consumers. Thus, it is suggested that the firms in the Vietnamese market focus on green marketing based on leveraging these factors.

This work provides a valuable contribution to the knowledge related to cognitive and e-social interactions among young Vietnamese consumers. It demonstrates the significant impact of these elements on green purchase intentions through e-commerce.

This study aims to analyze consumer motivations to share information about corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities through electronic word of mouth. It examines the roles of self-enhancement, identity signaling and social bonding as antecedents of consumers’ CSR engagement on social media.

A quantitative approach is used with a single-factor between-subjects experimental design in which the presence vs absence of CSR information on a company website is manipulated. The hypotheses are tested through structural equation modeling.

Results show that after viewing the company’s CSR message on its website, consumers who generated more CSR associations were more motivated to engage with the CSR information to satisfy fundamental personality traits (need for self-enhancement) and social relationship motivations (social bonding), which increased their intention to share the information.

This study is restricted to CSR information on websites. Further research should consider what happens if such information is shared on social media, as consumers are more likely to spread CSR messages when they are shared by other public social network sites.

The study highlights the relevance of including CSR information on websites and offers insights into the importance of considering consumers in disseminating CSR information. Consumers share information when they have personal motivation for doing so.

This study put the focus on the role of consumers in the diffusion of corporate information.

The results show the importance of personal motivations such as self-enhancement and social bonding in sharing CSR information on social media.

El estudio analiza las motivaciones que tiene el consumidor para compartir información sobre acciones de responsabilidad social corporativa (RSC) a través de boca oído electrónico (eWOM). En particular, las motivaciones de mejora del auto-concepto, necesidad de mostrar una identidad deseada y la vinculación social.

Se utiliza un diseño experimental entre sujetos donde se manipuló la presencia vs ausencia de información sobre la RSC de la empresa. Las hipótesis se contrastaron mediante un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales.

Los resultados muestran que los consumidores con más asociaciones de RSC comparten más la información de RSC motivados por satisfacer la mejora del auto-concepto y vinculación social.

El estudio destaca la importancia de generar contenido de RSC en el sitio web de la empresa, y la importancia de los consumidores en la difusión de información de dicha información.

El estudio está restringido a la presencia de información de RSC en el sitio web de la empresa. Sería interesante evaluar lo que sucede si dicha información se comparte en redes sociales, en la medida en que los consumidores tienen mayor tendencia a compartir la información procedente de redes sociales.

Los resultados muestran la importancia de las motivaciones personales como la mejora del auto-concepto y la vinculación social a la hora compartir información de RSC en las redes sociales.

本研究分析了消费者通过电子口碑分享企业社会责任（CSR）活动信息的动机。它研究了自我提升、身份信号和社会联系作为消费者在社交媒体上参与企业社会责任的前因的作用。

采用单因素主体间实验设计的定量方法, 对公司网站上企业社会责任信息的存在与否进行操纵。假设通过使用R软件包lavaan的结构方程模型进行检验。

结果显示, 在观看公司网站上的企业社会责任信息后, 产生更多企业社会责任联想的消费者更有动力参与到企业社会责任信息中, 以满足基本的人格特征（自我提升的需要）和社会关系动机（社会纽带）, 这增加了他们分享信息的意向。

该研究强调了将企业社会责任信息纳入网站的相关性, 并对在传播企业社会责任信息时考虑消费者的重要性提出了见解。消费者在有个人动机的情况下会分享信息。

本研究仅限于网站上的企业社会责任信息。进一步的研究应该考虑到社交媒体, 因为当消费者在其他公共社交网站上分享企业社会责任信息时, 他们更有可能进行传播。

研究结果表明, 在社交媒体上分享企业社会责任信息时, 自我提升和社会联系等个人动机的重要性。

The current market conditions are driving firms to plan, design and implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies that are true to the firms' real sense, i.e. authentic. Authenticity is an important aspect of micro-foundations of CSR in shaping the way social responsibility initiatives would impact the stakeholders including the customers, partners, current members of the organization and shareholders. This calls for a need to synthesize past research on CSR authenticity in order to propose directions for future research.

The current study synthesizes relevant literature on CSR authenticity using systematic literature review (SLR) approach. In total, 34 research works were identified and examined to seek insights on CSR authenticity.

Findings of the study identified various miro-, meso- and macro-level determinants of CSR authenticity and different set of outcomes having implications on business and society. The study also proposes a comprehensive definition of CSR authenticity which was somewhat missing in existing literature.

The study provides strong theoretical and managerial implications. Particularly, the study provides directions for future research on the topic.

In this paper, a review of literature on CSR authenticity is currently missing.

The current study aims to propose and empirically investigate a conceptual model of the most relevant antecedents and consequences of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) attribution, thus providing a practical and concise model as well as examining brand attachment as a mediator explaining the relationship between CSR attribution and its consequences.

A between-subjects experimental design was employed. The study included two experimental conditions; intrinsic and extrinsic CSR attribution and a control condition. An online self-administered survey was utilised for data collection. The sample was a convenience sample of 336 university students. Both one-way between-groups ANOVA and Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) were utilised for hypotheses testing.

The most significant antecedents of CSR attribution in order of importance are the firm's approach to CSR communication, past corporate social performance, CSR type and the firm's call for customers' participation in its CSR. CSR attribution exerted a significant direct positive impact on brand attachment and trust. Three significant indirect consequences of CSR attribution were PWOM intention, purchase intention and brand loyalty intention. Whereas trust played a significant mediating role between CSR attribution and its three indirect consequences, brand attachment exerted significant mediation only between CSR attribution and brand loyalty intention. Brand attachment might mediate the relationship between CSR attribution and purchase intention. However, brand attachment failed to play a mediating role between CSR attribution and PWOM intention.

Several studies marginally investigated CSR attribution. Despite the vital role of CSR attribution in how consumers receive firms' CSR engagement, the availability of CSR attribution-centric studies is limited. By introducing a model of the most relevant antecedents and consequences of CSR attribution, this study aids in understanding the psychological mechanism underlying consumers' CSR attribution and provides valuable implications.

The current paper aims to explore how brand coolness can mediate the relationship between tactical green marketing orientation (GMO) and willingness to pay (WTP), by exploring the differences between two global brands with opposite green marketing perceptions.

Based on the stimuli-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, the relation between tactical GMO, brand coolness and consumer's WTP is examined through a survey with 272 participants, who gave their perceptions about two different brands regarding their green orientations: British Petroleum (BP) and L'Oréal. The variable set was adapted and validated through focus group sessions.

Brand coolness is found to mediate the impact GMO on WTP and, for both brands, green marketing does affect the extent to which brands are perceived as cool by consumers. More importantly, evidence shows that only in the case of the “green brand” (e.g. L'Oréal), the impact on WTP is significant, which offers new implications regarding the outcomes of companies' pro-environmental policies.

This study is the first to investigate the outcomes of GMO over consumer's intentions (WTP) and the role of brand perceptions (coolness). The effects are compared between two global brands, with significantly different perceptions on their environmental sustainability.

This study aims to crystallize the research landscape of corporate social responsibility (CSR) authenticity by systematically analyzing CSR scholarships published in peer-reviewed journals from 2007 to 2021.

Quantitative content analysis was used to systematically analyze 52 peer-reviewed articles on CSR authenticity. In particular, this study coded the conceptualizations and operationalizations of CSR authenticity, research contexts, applied theoretical frameworks and constructs associated with authenticity in the CSR scholarships.

This study’s analysis revealed that CSR authenticity is a multifaceted and multidimensional concept researched in various contexts. Yet, it still lacks clear and consistent conceptualization and theorization. Methodologically, qualitative and quantitative methods have equally contributed to the investigation of CSR authenticity. However, scale development and validation still need to improve.

The sample of this research is limited by the searching method and language restriction. This research contributes to CSR scholarships by describing the growing landscape of CSR authenticity research, identifying key research gaps and offering suggestions for future research.

Practitioners can use the findings as references to develop more authentic CSR activities.

This study is an early attempt to examine the research on CSR authenticity, which has been inconclusive and disorganized, despite the rapid growth of publications in recent years.

The purpose of this study is to provide a nuanced understanding of the marketing placebo effect (MPE) of products with reduced sugar labeling and how it forms certain perceptual underpins (perceived healthiness (PH) and perceived tastiness (PT)), with the potential effect of product category and social class in consideration.

The proposed model is tested using a sample of 822 participants by employing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Hypothetical relationships among MPE, PH, PT, purchase intention (PI) and social class are examined for both hedonic and utilitarian products.

The results highlight the positive role of MPE in leveraging consumer PI through the parallel mediation of PH and PT. The positive effect of MPE on PH and PT was more pronounced for the utilitarian product. In addition, social class negatively moderated the relationship between PH and PI only in the case of the utilitarian product.

This paper contributed to the MPE literature in the food industry by challenging the conventional intuition of “Unhealthy = Tasty” and highlighting the potential of perceived food healthiness to positively influence perceived food tastiness under the effect of MPE. An upper social class would attenuate the positive effect of perceived food healthiness on PI.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of product-related description abstractness/concreteness on perceived trustworthiness and the role of consumer product expertise and shopping-stage mindset in the persuasiveness of abstract vs concrete product descriptions.

Two online experiments were conducted: Study 1 (description abstractness – manipulated between-subject; consumer product expertise, perceived trustworthiness, purchase intent – measured), Study 2 (consumer shopping-stage mindset – manipulated between-subject; description abstractness – manipulated within-subject; consumer product expertise, perceived trustworthiness, abstract/concrete description preference – measured).

The negative effect of the abstractness (abstract descriptions vs the ones supplemented with relevant product details) on description trustworthiness was evidenced in Study 1. Trustworthiness was positively related to purchase intent, especially for high product expertise. Study 2 replicated the effect of product description abstractness on its trustworthiness in terms of two other forms of abstractness (abstract descriptions vs the ones supplemented with irrelevant product details and product benefits vs attributes). The goal-oriented (vs comparative) mindset had a positive effect on the benefit (vs attribute) description preference, especially for high product expertise.

For marketers, the results suggest the positive consequences of presenting concrete information on product attributes and the conditions enhancing the effectiveness of presenting product benefits.

The paper integrates the existing views on consumer response to abstract vs concrete information (lexical abstractness/concreteness, means-end chain theory) and links them to consumer product expertise and shopping-stage mindset.