Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management

Korea Data Strategy Society (한국데이터전략학회)
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Effect of the CSR Fit on the Perceived Product Performance and the Moderating Effect of the CSR Information Source and Consumer's Expertise

CSR 활동의 적합성이 소비자 제품 성능 평가에 미치는 영향: CSR 정보 원천과 소비자 전문성의 조절 효과를 중심으로

  • Han, Xiao (Beijing Data 100 Market Research Company) ;
  • Nam, Inwoo (Department of Business Administration, Chung-Ang University)
  • Received : 2018.09.27
  • Accepted : 2018.12.10
  • Published : 2018.12.31
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Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities are important tool in corporate management strategies. However, the way that companies conduct CSR activities might bring different effect on consumers. The purpose of this study is to verify the effect of CSR fit (similarity between the firm's CSR activities and the firm's core products or technologies) on the consumers' evaluation on product performance. In addition to the main effects of CSR fit on perceived product performance, and we also examined how this effect changes when CSR information source and consumer expertise are involved as control variables. Study 1 of this research was conducted with US consumers and study 2 was with Chinese consumers. Experimental results show that consumers' perceive product performance is better when the fit between CSR activities and firm's core products or technologies is low than the fit is high. When CSR information sources are neutral sources, consumers perceive product performance to be better when the fit between the firm's CSR activities and the firm's core products or technologies is low than the fit is high. However when CSR information was delivered by company's source like nadvertisement, such difference disappears. This study also show that the higher the customer's expertise, the better the product performance was perceived for high-fit CSR activities. On the other hand, the lower the consumer's expertise, the better perceived product performance was perceived for low-fit CSR activities.

Keywords

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Research Model

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Tooth Whitening Experiment

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Perceived Product Quality Based on CSR Fit and Information Sources

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Facial Whitening Product

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Perceived Product Performance with Customer’s Expertise and CSR fit

Sample Demographics in the Experiment 1

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Groups for the Experiment 1

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Scenario for Experiment 1

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Experiment 1 Result

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Sample Demographics in the Experiment 2

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Results for the Experiment 2

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Floodlight Analysis

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