The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Customer Donations to Corporate-Supported Nonprofits

TLDR

Corporate social responsibility positively influences consumer attitudes toward a corporation, both directly and through enhanced customer–corporation identification. The authors report the results of four studies designed to replicate and extend these findings. Studies 2–4 employed experimental designs to show that customer–corporation identification mediates the CSR–donation link and that the nonprofit domain moderates this effect. Study 1 demonstrates that CSR boosts purchases and donations via identification, while Studies 2–3 reveal that a weaker CSR history can actually increase donations to corporate‑supported nonprofits because of a perceived opportunity to do good.

Abstract

Both theory and recent research evidence suggest that a corporation's socially responsible behavior can positively affect consumers’ attitudes toward the corporation. The effect occurs both directly and indirectly through the behavior's effect on customer–corporation identification. The authors report the results of four studies designed to replicate and extend these findings. Using a field survey design, Study 1 provides evidence that perceived corporate social responsibility affects not only customer purchase behavior through customer–corporate identification but also customer donations to corporate-supported nonprofit organizations. Using experimental designs, Studies 2 and 3 replicate and extend the Study 1 findings by providing additional evidence for the mediating role of customer–corporate identification on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and customer donations. However, the combined results of Studies 2 and 3 also show that because of a “perceived opportunity to do good” by supporting a company that is changing its ways, consumers are more likely to donate to a corporate-supported nonprofit when the corporation has a weaker historical record of socially responsible behavior. Finally, Study 4 tests the relationship between the nonprofit domain and the domain of the corporation's socially responsible behavior as a boundary condition for this effect.