Research On The Influence Of Corporate Social Responsibility On The Brand Equity From The Consumer Perspective

After the debate on the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility from1970s to1980s, the public has universally acknowledged the rationality of this notion in both theory and practice fields. After the mid1980s this notion came into China, when the values of profit-only were questioned as the Chinese economy soared and enterprises’ unjust, untuned and unsustainable behavior were doubted. After2008in particular, a large number of problems concerning legitimacy and ethics of enterprises’s business came to the pubic’s attention, and the occurrence of some natural disasters also sparked discussions about whether enterpreses should undertake social responsibility. This focus is an advance of social culture and an important exploration for enterprises’ sustainable development and social happiness.In recent years, much research on the contents, methods and benefits of CSR has been done with many achievements. But so far, the research about benefis of CSR has been mainly on some straightforward and short-acting ones such as economic benefits, brand reputation and consumers’ short-acting behavior, instead of on brand equity, which is the key and long-acting variable to the enterprise development.This research studies the effect mechanism of corporate social responsibility campaigns on its brand equity from the consumers’ perspective. A frame of "corporate social responsibility campaign----corporate social responsibility perception-----brand equity" is proposed and tested in both empirical and case analysis methods, from which conclusions are drawn:Among the corporate social responsibilities, the economic responsibility, the legal responsibility, the environmental responsibility, the customer orientation responsibility, the public welfare responsibility and employment placement responsibility have a positive relation with the visibility of the perception of corporate social responsibility. The economic responsibility, the legal responsibility, the environmental responsibility, the customer orientation responsibility, the public welfare responsibility, the business ethics responsibility and the social stability and development responsibility have a significant effect on the rationality of perception variabls of corporate social responsibility. The legal responsibility, the environmental responsibility, the customer orientation responsibility, the people-oriented responsibility, the public welfare responsibility, the business ethics responsibility, the social stability and development responsibility have a significant effect on the timeliness of the perception of corporate social responsibility. The economic responsibility, the customer oriention responsibility, the people-oriented responsibility, the public welfare responsibility, the social stability and development responsibility have a significant effect on the moderation of the perception variables of corporate social responsibility.All of the four dimensions of visibility, rationality, timeliness and moderation in corporate social responsibility perception have a significant and positive effect on brand loyalty. All of the four variables of visibility, rationality, timeliness and moderation in corporate social responsibility perception have a significant and positive effect on brand awareness. The consumers’evaluation on the quality of brand perception have an obvious relation with the moderation of corporate social responsibility perception, but the visibility, rationality and timeliness of corporate social responsibility perception do not have a significant effect on the perception quality. All of these four variables pass the test, which demonstrates their significant and positive effect on brand association. The visibility and rationality of corporate social responsibility perception have a significant and positive effect on the exclusive brand equity; the timeliness and moderation do not.As a moderating variable, the communication over corporate social responsibility has a significant regulating effect on the corporate social responsibility perception.According to the conclusions above, some suggestions about business management are given, which analyze the main contents and key points in launching corporate social responsibility campaigns, present that the key point and important evaluation in the corporate social responsibility work is that consumers perceive the corporate social responsibility, emphasize that communicaiton over corporate social responsibility is the main factor for the consumers to perceive corporate social responsibility, and finally indicate that enterprises can achieve brand equity appreciation by increasing consumers’ perception of corporate social responsibility.The innovation points of this research lie in:Firstly, extend the benefits of corporate social responsibility campaigns to brand equity and demonstrate that corporate social responsibility means much to brand equity in both empirical and case analysis methods. Secondly, implement the results of corporate social responsibility campaigns on the consumer evaluation. This research argues that consumer perception is the key to the corporate social responsility campaigns as well as the main bridge for consumers linking corporate social responsibility campaigns and brand equity. Only by making consumers perceiving corporate social responsibility campaigns deeply can their inclination for the brand increase, hence do the brand equity appreciation from the consumers’ perspective. Thirdly, this research also finds out the important regulating effect of communication over corporate social responsibility between corporate social responsibility campaigns and consumers perception. Based on Theory of Information Asymmetry and observations, we find that the results of communication have a great effect on consumers’ perception evaluation on corporate social responsibility campaigns. Therefore, this research takes communication as an important regulating variable and testifies its value empirically, which offers a guideline to enterprises’ relevant work.