Negative consequences of doing good: The effects of inferred motives underlying corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities have been used to address consumers' social concerns, create positive corporate image, and develop enduring relationships with consumers and other stakeholders. Despite increasing interest in the effects of CSR on consumers' attitudes toward the company, it is not clear when and how CSR activities actually influence the consumer evaluations towards companies. Based on psychological theories of suspicion and attribution, this dissertation investigates circumstances under which a company's efforts to improve or change its image through CSR activities may not achieve the desired effects on consumers' evaluations. More importantly, this dissertation suggests that engaging in a CSR activity can bring negative consequences on consumers' company evaluations, causing a “backfire effect”. This can occur if the company's true motives are perceived as only a self-promotional tool to improve its image rather than an effort undertaken to enhance consumers' interests. The present research identifies conditions under which consumers become suspicious about a company's ulterior motives, and explains how inferred motives and attributional thoughts influence consumers' evaluation processes. This dissertation also extends findings in prior literature in social psychology by providing a process-based explanation for backfire effects in consumer judgment. Furthermore, it contributes to the CSR literature by identifying factors that moderate cognitive processes underlying evaluations of CSR activity.