• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.5-11
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• 2015

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of social status perception and interest in social issues on the authenticity perceived by consumers of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of premium brands. Research design, data, and methodology - Behavioral experiments were performed to observe the impact of consumers' social status perception and interest in social issues on their perceived authenticity of CSR motivation related to premium brands and consumer behavior. Results - We found that the possibility of social mobility and the degree of individuals' interest in the environment and CSR enable them to reconsider the authenticity of CSR motivation, thereby having positive effects on purchase intention, willingness to recommend the product, and brand value. This research also showed that proactive customers who seek to move up the social ladder have a stronger interest in social issues such as the environment or CSR. Conclusions - Our research suggests that when conducting a consumer segmentation analysis for the launch of CSR products (products released for CSR), a positive mind-set toward social mobility serves as an effective criterion.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1-16
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• 2023

Purpose: Previous studies show that perceived CSR motives have a significant impact on company evaluations. However, consumer responses to CSR motives vary depending on CSR motives. From this perspective, this study investigates the impact of CSR motives on consumers' responses in the context of food and beverage franchise companies using a scenario. Research design, data, and methodology: For achieving the purposes of the study, an example of a domestic food and beverage franchise company actively carrying out CSR activities was presented. Data was collected from 304 respondents aged 20 or older who were aware of CSR activities. The respondents answered the questionnaire after reading the scenario. The data was analyzed with SPSS 28.0 and SmartPLS 4.0 program. Result: Values-driven motive and strategic motive influence authenticity, while stakeholder-driven motive and egoistic motive did not influence authenticity. Values-driven motive influences on attitude, while stakeholder-driven motive, strategic motive and egoistic motive didn't. Lastly, authenticity influences attitude. Conclusions: Companies need to be aware that consumers may infer different motives for their CSR activities, and pay close attention to consumers' perceived motives from the planning stage of CSR activities. In particular, companies should focus on the values-driven motive and the strategic motive when planning CSR activities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.1515-1526
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• 2010

Consumer expectations for ethical businesses have become increasingly high in recent years; the fashion industry is working to implement greater corporate social responsibility (CSR). This study establishes the effects of the evaluation for participation in fashion brand CSR on perceived purchase values. In particular, the process for the evaluation for participation that affect the perceived purchase value through consumer-brand identifications (personal/social) was verified and how the consumer regulatory focuses would influence this process was identified. For this study, an on-line survey was conducted that included a series of filtering questions that measured the level of social concern of respondents. Valid data from 505 female consumers were analyzed for the structure equation modeling. The empirical results suggested that the evaluation for participation in fashion brand CSR positively affected the two dimensions of consumer-brand identification; personal identification and social identification. In addition, consumer-brand identification played a role as a mediating variable in the path to influence the perceived purchase values of CSR brands. Lastly, there were differences in reactions to CSR activities by consumer groups with different regulatory focuses. The effect of the evaluation for participation in fashion brand CSR was shown to be higher for consumers with promotion focuses than on consumers with prevention focuses. The results of this study will help fashion companies understand the importance of the consumer participation in CSR by having consumers participate in ethical consumption.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.219-230
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• 2024

Previous literature supports the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by demonstrating its effects on various aspects of firm performance. However, the extent to which CSR contributes to social well-being, its original objective, has rarely been examined. The current research investigates the impact of customers' perceived CSR of service firms on customer happiness. Two studies confirm our proposition that perceived CSR increases customer happiness by enhancing perceptions of warmth and competence associated with the service company. Furthermore, we examine how the type of service moderates this effect. Specifically, we find that the indirect effects of CSR on customer happiness through perceptions of warmth and competence are stronger for credence services than for experience services. This research makes theoretical contributions to the literature on CSR, happiness, and service, and offers practical implications for marketing tactics, including fostering long-term customer relationships and monitoring the effectiveness of CSR activities and corporate budget allocations.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.219-245
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• 2017

This study is intended to empirically investigate how Korean consumers evaluate foreign CSRs conducted by Korean firms. Specifically, the study investigates the effects of domestic vs. foreign CSR targets & domestic vs. global NGO affiliations by employing a two-way 2-by-2 factorial design. Field experiments were carried out with adult consumers in Seoul aged over 25. Our findings, first, suggest that Korean consumers perceive domestic CSRs more positively than foreign CSRs. But Korean consumers were found to respond more positively to foreign CSRs when the focal firm was perceived as a global firm. As regards to NGO affiliations, the study found that consumers were partially favorable towards domestic NGOs. However, interestingly, foreign CSRs with domestic NGOs were perceived more favorably than foreign CSRs with foreign NGOs.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.75-83
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• 2017

Purpose - This study aims to find ways to have CSR efforts lead to a purchase decision. For this purpose, this research examines the influence of the perceived CSR proximity on the purchase intention and studies the moderating role of psychological distance. Research design, data, and methodology - A total of 185 undergraduate students from a university in Korea were recruited and were randomly assigned to the conditions of a 2 (CSR proximity: close vs. far) × 2 (temporal distance: near vs. distant) × 2 (information type: concrete vs. abstract) between-subjects design. ANOVA was conducted to test the hypotheses. Results - When consumers construe a purchase decision at a high level via the far psychological distance, a firm's CSR efforts are considered important for the purchase decision. Conversely, when consumers construe a purchase decision at a low level via the near psychological distance, a firm's CSR efforts are not considered for the purchase decision. Conclusions - This research demonstrates that people have a greater intention to purchase products from a firm whose CSR proximity is perceived as being close rather than far. Furthermore, this study shows that the psychological distance moderates the effect of CSR proximity on the purchase intention.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.181-197
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• 2016

With regard to CSR, Proactive CSR has been less researched in small and medium enterprises(SMEs). This study examines empirically the association between SME's organizational capabilities, proactive CSR and performance as well as a moderating role of perceived uncertainty between capabilities and proactive CSR. Using quantitative data collected from sample of 485 SMEs in Korea, we find that all specified capabilities are positively associated with adoption of proactive CSR by SMEs and that proactive CSR is, in turn, associated with an improvement in firm performance. In addition, we also find a mediating role of proactive CSR on the association between capabilities and performance as well as a moderating role of perceived uncertainty between capabilities and performance. The study is likely to contribute to SME's CSR strategy.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.5-16
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• 2009

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities have been shown to be potential factors that can improve corporate image and increase the ability of corporations to compete. However, most previous studies related to CSR activities investigated how these activities influence product and corporate evaluation, as well as corporate image. In addition, some researchers treated consumers' perceptions of corporate motives as moderator variables in evaluating the relationship between corporate social responsibilities and consumer response. However, motive-based theories have some weaknesses. Corporate social responsibility activities cause two motives(egoistic vs. altruistic) for consumers, but recently, Vlachos et al. (2008) argued that these motives should be segmented. Thus, it is possible to transform the original theory into a modified theory model (persuasion knowledge model, PKM). Vlachos et al. (2008) segmented corporate social responsibility motives into four types and compared the effects of these motives on customer loyalty. Prior studies have proved that CSR activities with positive motives have positive influences on customer loyalty. However, the psychological reasons underlying this finding have not been determined empirically. Thus, the objectives of this research are twofold. First, we attempt to determine why most customers favor companies that they feel have positive motives for their corporate social responsibility activities. Second, we attempt to measure the effects of consumers' reciprocity when society benefits from corporate social responsibility activities. The following research hypotheses are constructed. H1: Values-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities have a positive influence on the perceived reciprocity. H2: Stakeholder-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities have a negative influence on the perceived reciprocity. H3: Egoistic-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities have a negative influence on perceived reciprocity. H4: Strategic-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities have a negative influence on perceived reciprocity. H5: Perceived reciprocity for corporate social responsibility activities has a positive influence on consumer loyalty. A single company is selected as a research subject to understand how the motives behind corporate social responsibility influence consumers' perceived reciprocity and customer loyalty. A total sample of 200 respondents was selected for a pilot test. In addition, to ensure a consistent response, we ensured that the respondents were older than 20 years of age. The surveys of 172 respondents (males-82, females-90) were analyzed after 28 invalid questionnaires were excluded. Based on our cutoff criteria, the model fit the data reasonably well. Values-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities had a positive effect on perceived reciprocity (t = 6.75, p < .001), supporting H1. Morales (2005) also found that consumers appreciate a company's social responsibility efforts and the benefits provided by these efforts to society. Stakeholder-driven motives for corporate social responsibility activities did not affect perceived reciprocity (t = -.049, p > .05). Thus, H2 was rejected. Egoistic-driven motives (t = .3.11, p < .05) and strategic-driven (t = -4.65, p < .05) motives had a negative influence on perceived reciprocity, supporting H3 and H4, respectively. Furthermore, perceived reciprocity had a positive influence on consumer loyalty (t = 4.24, p < .05), supporting H5. Thus, compared with the general public, undergraduate students appear to be more influenced by egoistic-driven motives. We draw the following conclusions from our research findings. First, value-driven attributions have a positive influence on perceived reciprocity. However, stakeholder-driven attributions have no significant effects on perceived reciprocity. Moreover, both egoistic-driven attributions and strategic-driven attributions have a negative influence on perceived reciprocity. Second, when corporate social responsibility activities align with consumers' reciprocity, the efforts directed towards social responsibility activities have a positive influence on customer loyalty. In this study, we examine whether the type of motivation affects consumer responses to CSR, and in particular, we evaluate how CSR motives can influence a key internal factor (perceived reciprocity) and behavioral consumer outcome (customer loyalty). We demonstrate that perceived reciprocity plays a mediating role in the relationship between CSR motivation and customer loyalty. Our study extends the research on consumer CSR-inferred motivations, positing them as a direct indicator of consumer responses. Furthermore, we convincingly identify perceived reciprocity as a sub-process mediating the effect of CSR attributions on customer loyalty. Future research investigating the ultimate behavior and financial impact of CSR should consider that the impacts of CSR also stem from perceived reciprocity. The results of this study also have important managerial implications. First, the central role that reciprocity plays indicates that managers should routinely measure how much their socially responsible actions create perceived reciprocity. Second, understanding how consumers' perceptions of CSR corporate motives relate to perceived reciprocity and customer loyalty can help managers to monitor and enhance these consumer outcomes through marketing initiatives and management of CSR-induced attribution processes. The results of this study will help corporations to understand the relative importance of the four different motivations types in influencing perceived reciprocity.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1-32
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• 2008

Brown and Dacin (1997) have investigated the relationship between corporate associations and product evaluations. Their study focused on the effects of associations with a company's corporate ability (CA) and its corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumers' product evaluations. Their study has found that both of CA and CSR influenced product evaluation but CA association has a stronger effect than CSR associations. Brown and Dacin (1997) have, however, claimed that there are few researches on how corporate association impacts product responses. Accordingly, some of researchers have found the variables to moderate or to mediate the relationship between the corporate association and the product responses. In particular, there has been existed a few of studies that tested the influence of the reputation on the product-relevant perceived risk, but the effects of two types of the corporate association on the product-relevant perceived risk were not identified so far. The primary goal of this article is to identify and empirically examine some variables to moderate the effects of CA association and CSR association on the perceived risk of the product. In this articles, we take the concept of the corporate associations that Brown and Dacin (1997) had proposed. CA association is those association related to the company's expertise in producing and delivering its outputs and CSR association reflected the organization's status and activities with respect to its perceived societal obligations. Also, this study defines the risk, which is the uncertainty or loss of the product and corporate that consumers have taken in a particular purchase decision or after having purchased. The risk is classified into product-relevant performance risk and financial risk. Performance risk is the possibility or the consequence of a product not functioning at some expected level and financial risk is the monetary loss one perceives to be incurring if a product does not function at some expected level. In relation to consumer's knowledge, expert consumers have much of the experiences or knowledge of the product in consumer position and novice consumers does not. The model tested in this article are shown in Figure 1. The model indicates that both of CA association and CSR association influence on performance risk and financial risk. In addition, the effects of CA and CSR are moderated by product category knowledge (product knowledge) and product category involvement (product involvement). In this study, the relationships between the corporate association and product-relevant perceived risk are hypothesized as the following form. For example, Hypothesis 1a($H_{1a}$) is represented that CA association has a positive influence on the performance risk of consumer. Also, the hypotheses that identified some variables to moderate the effects of two types of corporate association on the perceived risk of the product are laid down. One of the hypotheses of the interaction effect is Hypothesis 3a($H_{3a}$), it is described that consumer's knowledges of the product moderates the negative relationship between CA association and product-relevant performance risk. A field experiment was conducted in order to examine our model. The company tested was not real but imagined to meet the internal validity. Water purifiers were used for our study. Four scenarios have been developed and described as the imaginary company: Type A with both of superior CA and CSR, Type B with superior CSR and inferior CA, Type C with superior CA and inferior CSR, and Type D with both inferior of CA and CSR. The respondents of this study were classified into four groups. One type of four scenarios (Type A, B, C, or D) in its questionnaire was given to the respondent who filled out questions. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire to the respondents, chosen in convenience. A total of 300 respondents filled out the questionnaire but 207 were used for further analysis. Table 1 indicates that the scales in this study are reliable because the range of coefficients of Cronbach's $\alpha$ are from 0.85 to 0.92. The composite reliability is in the range of 0,85 to 0,92 and average variance extracted is in 0.72-0.98 range that is higher than the base level of 0.6. As shown in Table 2, the values for CFI, NNFI, root-mean-square error approximation (RMSEA), and standardized root-mean-square residual (SRMR) are acceptably close to the standards suggested by Hu and Bentler (1999):.95 for CFI and NNFI,.06 for RMSEA, and.08 for SRMR. We also tested discriminant validity provided by Fornell and Larcker (1981). As shown in Table 2, we found strong evidence for discriminant validity between each possible pair of latent constructs in all samples. Given that these batteries of overall goodness-of-fit indices were accurate and that the model was developed on theoretical bases, and given the high level of consistency across samples, this enables us to proceed the previously defined scales. We used the moderated hierarchical regression analysis to test the influence of the corporate association(CA and CSR associations) on product-relevant perceived risk(performance and financial risks) and to identify the variables moderating the relationship between the corporate association and product-relevant performance risk. In this study, dependent variables are performance and financial risk. CA and CSR associations are described the independent variables. The moderating variables are product category knowledge and product category involvement. The results are, as expected, found that CA association has statistically a significant influence on the perceived risk of the product, but CSR association does not. Product category knowledge and involvement moderate the relationship between the CA association and the perceived risk of the product. However, the effect of CSR association on the perceived risk of the product is not moderated by the consumers' knowledge and involvement. For this result, it is necessary for a corporate to inform its customers CA association more than CSR association so that they could be felt to be the reduction of the perceived risk. The important theoretical contribution of this research is the meanings that two types of corporate association that Brown and Dacin(1997), and Brown(1998) have proposed replicated the difference of the effects on product evaluation. According to Hunter(2001), it was an important affair to accomplish the validity of a particular study and we had to take about ten studies to deduce a strict study. Next, there is the contribution of the this study to find that the effects of corporate association on the perceived risk of the product are varied by the moderator variables. In particular, the moderating effect of knowledge on the relationship between corporate association and product-relevant perceived risk has not been tested in Korea. In the managerial implications of this research, we suggest the necessity to stress the ability that corporate manufactures the product well(CA association) than the accomplishment of corporate's social obligation(CSR association). This study suffers from various limitations that imply future research directions. The moderating effects of product category knowledge and involvement on the relationship between corporate association and perceived risk need to be replicated. Next, future research could explore whether the mediated effects of the perceived risk has the relationship between corporate association and consumer's product purchase. In addition, to ensure the external validity of the study will be needed to use realistic company, not artificial.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.274-287
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• 2019

Most corporations engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. Consumers are aware of CSR activities in different domains and use the perception and evaluation in purchase decision making. This study reveals how the relationship between consumer perception about a fashion corporation's CSR activities and product evaluation (such as perceived expertise and attractiveness) affects behavioral intention. This study discussed implications for store designs depending on whether it is actively engaging in CSR communication. Two virtual fashion store images of modern or eco design were used as stimuli. The study was conducted from July to August, 2018 based on women in their 20s and 30s. We collected 154 eco designs and 157 modern design responses. The findings of the study show that consumer perceptions of CSR activities affected perceived expertise and attractiveness. Further, perceived expertise and attracti-veness led to purchase intention and time spent in the store. The store design variation had no differences in mean values of consumer perception; however, evaluation and purchase intention indicated that a varied store design emphasized different corporation capabilities.