THE IMPACT OF CONSUMER REACTIONS TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ON COMPANY EVALUATION AND PURCHASE INTENTION FOR NEW PRODUCTS

• Main Authors: Chang-Hao Yang, 楊昌澔
• Other Authors: Nan-Hong Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2002
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/75643972007957498245

碩士 === 大同大學 === 事業經營研究所 === 90 === Recent research suggests that there is a positive relationship between a company’s actions of corporate social responsibility and consumer’s attitudes toward that company and its product. However, it is not known when, how, and for whom specific CSR initiatives work. Marketer’s need for an understanding of the precise focus, causes, and company- and consumer-specific moderators of such CSR effects is underscored by the equivocal link between a company’s CSR actions and aggregate measures of its financial performance. In other words, given the potential diversity in the consumer’s responses to the myriad CSR initiatives examined in prior research, it is crucial for marketers hoping to reap strategic benefits from CSR to understand how and why their various customer segments are likely to respond to specific CSR actions. This research tries to understand how and why consumers react to CSR by focusing on the key moderator of consumers’ CSR responses and the mechanisms underlying these responses. The result will implicate both company-specific (i.e., the product quality) and individual-specific (i.e., CSR support) factors as key moderators of consumers’ responses to CSR initiatives. By using 2-way MANCOVA (Multivariate ANalysis Of COVAriance), the result shows that a company’s CSR initiatives will enhance consumers’ evaluations of that company; the relationship between a company’s CSR initiatives and consumers’ evaluations of that company will be moderated by the consumers’ support of the CSR domain. The CSR-induced changes in company evaluations will be greater for consumers who are more supportive of the CSR domain. And the effect of a company’s CSR initiatives on consumers’ purchase intention will be moderated by the consumers’ CSR support. The effect of CSR on the product evaluations of high-CSR support consumers will parallel its effect on their company evaluations. However, a company’s CSR initiatives will lower low-CSR support consumers’ evaluations of that company’s products.