EFFECTS OF CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS OF THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CSR ACTIVITIES ON CORPORATE BRAND EQUITY

Abstract

Introduction Recently, Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) is becoming very important issue in the corporate growth and marketing strategy. In this study, based on Carroll (1979, 1991)’s conception of CSR study, we categorized the CSR types into the five underlying dimensions – i.e. economic, legal, ethical, benevolent, and environmental responsibilities. We tried to investigate the effects of consumer’s perception of the five different types of CSR on the corporate brand equity. More specifically, we used the corporate image, consumer-company identification, and the level of trust which have been used as important variables in the previous brand value studies as the underlying mediating variables of the research model. Theoretical Background and Research Model Based on the conceptual background and our research questions, 11 research hypothese regarding the consumer perceptions of the five different types of CSR, corporate image, consumer-company identification, trust, consumer loyalty, and corporate evaluation were developed. We also tried to include the moderating effects of CSR congruence and consumer’s CSR orientation between the CSR types and mediating variables of the final research model. Results and Conclusions To test the research hypotheses and our research model, we conducted questionnaire survey and collected 552 consumer data for the final analysis. Through the confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and validity of the study constructs were verified. By using the structural equation model, research hypotheses were tested and most research hypotheses were statistically significant and accepted. The final research model also showed the statistical significance with the goodness-of-fit indices. The managerial implications of the study results for the corporate marketing managers and the limitations of the study were also discussed.