The Impact Of Marketized Corporate Social Responsibility Communication On Consumer Behavior

As corporate social responsibility(CSR)has become a widely concerned topic in business research,consumer responses to CSR communication have also received widespread attention.From the perspective of consumer behavior,CSR's goal is to gain market performance,i.e.,consumer purchase and support.From the lens of stakeholder,CSR efforts should meet two primary objectives:(1)to satisfy the company's development and(2)to promote the progress of social welfare.The companies achieve these two objectives depends on whether consumers identify and support the CSR effort.If consumers support CSR,the company will increase product sales and make more profits,achieving a “win-win” situation for both the company and society.However,CSR may become a cost for the company if consumers do not support it.Thus,“how to make consumers support CSR and pay for it” is a critical marketing research topic.This paper considers two marketized CSR strategies-cause-related marketing and celebrity philanthropy,and analyzes the many factors that influence consumers' perceptions and behaviors toward these two CSR activities from the perspectives of corporate traits,execution-related factors,and consumer-related traits.The main contents of this paper include the following five aspects:Chapter 3 reviewed the previous literature in the domain of cause-related marketing.In its three decades of development,many cause-related marketing constructs have been tested from different perspectives and in varied contexts.However,there has not yet been an integrated empirical study.Reviewing 162 studies from 117 articles,this paper constructed a framework of meta-analysis,identifying 20 constructs and 857 relationships.Among these,13 are antecedents that can be grouped into three components: consumer-related traits,execution-related traits,and corporate traits,while three mediators and four consequences are used to measure the effectiveness of cause-related marketing.The results showed that consumer-related traits,executionrelated traits,and corporate traits all influence cause-related marketing's effectiveness to varying degrees.Furthermore,this paper analyzed the effects of six moderators and found that cause-related marketing would be more effective when the brand is familiar,the product is utilitarian,the donation magnitude is large,the cause is less familiar,and humanitarian cause.However,cultural orientation has no significant effect on the effectiveness of cause-related marketing.Chapter 4 examined the execution-style of cause-related ads,leading to an essential question: Which element(cause vs.product)should be prominent in ads to persuade the consumers better.The paper focused on the two execution styles of ads either emphasize the cause or the product.Verifying that prominence disparity on consumer responses depends on the evoked empathy,which would be influenced by cause type,cause source,and brand image from corporate traits and execution-related traits.Through four experimental studies,this paper suggested that a cause-focused(product-oriented)ad increases consumer responses via empathy for an environmental/animal cause(humanitarian cause),a natural disaster(human-made tragedy),and when the brand image is warm(competence).All four studies provide insights into the underlying process of these moderating effects.Chapter 5 examined the effect of prominence disparity of CRM ad type from the perspective of consumer-related traits.This paper compared ads that emphasized the cause to those that emphasized the product and found that the effect of prominence disparity on consumer responses depended on effort investment in goal attainment and social value orientation.Through two experimental studies,a cause-focused(vs.product-oriented)ad increases purchase intention through the mediating role of empathy.Moreover,prosocial consumers' responses depended on their effort allocation.In contrast,proself consumers tended to respond more positively to a cause-focused ad when they invested more effort in supporting a cause.For another marketized CSR strategy-celebrity philanthropy,Chapter 6conducted a case study to explore consumers' perception and response to celebrity philanthropy by using grounded theory to code and analyze 443 online user reviews,and we constructed the theoretical framework of “consumer-celebrity philanthropy response mechanism”.Then,we developed our research hypotheses and empirical model to explore the effect of celebrity philanthropy on celebrity image,and used two experiments to test the hypotheses.Pilot study uses a between-subjects design and shows that celebrity's private donation positively influences celebrity image.Experimental study explores how the antecedents of celebrity philanthropy influence celebrity image through the mediating role of consumer-celebrity identification.The results indicate that the in-kind donation and sudden disaster(plus cash and ongoing tragedy)match effectively enhances celebrity image,and a celebrity's prosocial reputation moderates these relationships.To make their philanthropic behaviors produce more positive outcomes,celebrities should select the right donation method by ensuring that it matches with the social cause.Chapter 7 further explored the role of celebrity philanthropy in endorsement ads.As celebrity philanthropy has become a widely discussed topic,some companies have begun to disclose celebrity philanthropy in celebrity endorsement ads to attract consumers.However,should the company disclose celebrity charity information in celebrity endorsement ads? There is no clear conclusion from the academic and practical communities.This paper examined the effect of celebrity charity disclosure in ad on the success of celebrity endorsement through two experimental studies.Pilot study found that disclosing celebrity charity information in endorsement ads increased consumers' willingness to pay compared to not disclose it.Experimental study found that disclosing celebrity charity information in ads gained more positive perceptions of celebrity social responsibility and celebrity image,promoting consumers' purchase intention.However,more disclosure of charity information is not better: Compared to general disclosure,ads that focused on celebrity charity information resulted in less purchase intention.This suggests that the “vampire” effect of celebrity endorsement exists in the context of celebrity charity disclosure.This paper's contribution lies in the in-depth study of CSR strategies from the perspective of consumer behavior.Consumers are the ultimate “buyers” of products and CSR activities,and their attitudes and behaviors are crucial to the effectiveness of CSR implementation.The effectiveness of two marketized CSR strategies is analyzed.Many factors influencing CSR strategies' market performance are investigated from the perspectives of corporate traits,execution-related factors,and consumer-related traits;this paper also analyzed two types of cause-related ads to explore consumer response towards cause-related marketing communication;finally,this paper used information framing and disclosure to examine the impact of celebrity philanthropy on consumer response.The results of this paper provide several contributions and implications for the research and implementation of these two marketized CSR strategies.