How the perceived level of fit between the CSR initiative and the brand influences attitude towards the brand : a comparison between prestige-oriented brands and function-oriented brands

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MSc. in Business Administration – Marketing Track

Master thesis

“How the perceived level of fit between the CSR initiative and

the brand influences attitude towards the brand: A comparison

between prestige-oriented brands and function-oriented

brands”

Student: Xenia Bairaktari

Student Number: 10541675

Date: August 31

st

, 2015

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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

This document is written by the student Xenia

Bairaktari

who

declares

to

take

full

responsibility

for

the contents

of

this

document.

I declare that the text and the work presented

in this document is original and that no

sources other than those mentioned in the text

and its references have been used in creating

it.

The Faculty of Economics and Business is

responsible solely for the supervision of

completion of the work, not for the contents.

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Abstract

More and more brands are embracing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives in order to be more socially or environmentally conscious. Some consumers find these efforts sincere actions for the general good, and some others think they are just attempts to increase profit and to improve the company image. These different responses triggered by CSR activities have driven scholars to investigate various factors that can influence consumers’ attitude towards the brand that embraces CSR initiatives.

This study focuses on the moderating effect of fit between the CSR initiative and the brand on attitude towards the brand and introduces the effect of brand concept as a moderator on the effect of fit. At first this study confirms that the adoption of CSR initiatives has a positive effect on attitude towards the brand and that fit moderates the relationship between them. In addition, it also proves that there is a difference between the effect of fit on attitude towards prestige-oriented brands and that on function-oriented brands. Fit has a stronger effect on attitude towards prestige-oriented brands than on attitude towards function-prestige-oriented brands. Therefore, brand concept indeed moderates the effect of fit on attitude towards the brand. The variable of skepticism towards the motives of the brands that embrace CSR initiatives was also introduced in order to explain the results of the relationships analyzed. Even though it was expected that skepticism would mediate the relationship between fit and attitude towards the brand, no significant relationship was found between those variables to prove it. All the relationships were tested with the use of an experiment conducted in 230 people in the form of an online questionnaire. Four equally likeable and familiar brands were used in the questionnaire; Mitsubishi and Zara were used as

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oriented brands and Lexus and Gucci were used as prestige-oriented brands. All the brands were paired with equally important and relevant CSR initiatives.

1.Introduction

We are living into an “ethics era” (McGoldrick & Freestone, 2008). According to Sherwin (1983, p.186), ethics “is generally referred to as the set of moral principles or values that guide behavior” but “it also has a more fundamental meaning. Ethics is the discipline that considers the justifications people offer for the principles and values they hold”. There are three kinds of approaches of ethicality that differ in terms of the set of moral principles used as a basis for judgment (Cavanaugh et al., 1981). According to ulitarian- based approaches, behavior is judged regarding to how it influences the requirements of people. According to justice-based approaches, behavior is judged in terms of whether it allows a right distribution of benefits and obligations. Finally, there are rights-based approaches in which behavior is judged based on how it influences the entitlements of the individuals. In any case, there is subjectivity about the perceptions towards ethical behavior. An action may be regarded as ethical by one person following one approach and unethical by another person following the same or the other approach.

The need to conform to this current issue of ethicality has led many companies to embrace corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Even though ethics and CSR have different definitions, they are strongly related to each other. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is defined broadly as a company’s “status and activities with respect to its perceived societal or, at least, stakeholder obligations” (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2004). More than 80% of the websites of the Fortune 500 companies address CSR issues. CSR does not only have an ethical/ideological perspective but

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also an economic one. One stakeholder group that is interested to a company’s CSR initiatives is its consumers. Therefore, the willingness to gain more profits from them leads companies to focus on to how to take advantage of CSR initiatives (Sen& Bhattacharya, 2004).

Ethics is an issue that has been investigated in almost all business domains except for branding (Fan,2005) . The brand is the link between the company and the consumer and its image is the first to be influenced in good or bad situations. Brands like Shell and Nike have encountered tarnished brand image and reduced sales due to ethical problems (Crane, 2001). Ethics in branding is an issue demanding some serious attention as it linked with corporate reputation therefore it would be very interesting to explore different aspects of it. There are conflicting studies investigating whether consumers actually care about branding ethics or not (Fan, 2005). Consequently, it is very difficult to give a specific definition of ethical branding mainly because it depends on consumers’ beliefs and evaluations, which are subjective and multifactorial.

Generally, brands that adopt CSR tactics gain positive attitudes to the minds of consumers. This does not come as a surprise considering that CSR image has a positive influence on brand attractiveness and adds to the prestige of a brand (Bigné et al, 2012).However, there is often suspiciousness about the real intentions of the firm (Elving, 2013). Often, these tactics are used not to actually support good causes but to expand public relationships and to take advantage of the positive reactions of consumers in order to succeed profitability. As a result CSR may trigger different feelings from consumers depending on how they perceive them. There are many conditions that influence the consumers’ attitude towards the brand and the purchase intention when taking CSR initiatives. Some of these are awareness, accuracy,

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congruence, identification and proactiveness of the initiative (Van de Ven,2008). In addition, the firm’s reputation (Elving, 2013) and the attachment of the consumers towards it (Schmalz & Orth, 2012), influence consumers’ behavior.

Brand concepts are also an important moderator of CSR outcomes (Torelli et al, 2012). According to Park et al (1991 p.186), brand concepts are defined as “unique, abstract meanings (e.g high status) that typically originate from a particular configuration of product features (e.g high price, expensive-looking design etc.) and a firm’s effort to create meanings from these arrangements”. They are divided into two broad categories, based on which this study is constructed. A function-oriented brand concept focuses on the unique aspects that are related to product performance, whereas a prestige- oriented brand concept is framed by luxury and focuses on consumers’ expression of self-concepts or images.

Perhaps one of the most important factors influencing consumers’ perceptions about the brand embracing CSR is fit. In a social marketing context “fit” is defined as “the perceived link between a cause and the firm’s product line, brand image, position and/or target market” (Becker-Olsen et al, 2006). In a cause-related marketing research, congruence is considered as a “fit”. A high firm/cause fit exists when those two are congruent. This congruity may be derived from mission, products, markets, technologies, attributes, brand concept or any other key association (Lee et al, 2012). Fit is very important because it influences the thoughts people give to a relationship (e.g increased elaboration about the firm and the initiative when there are inconsistencies with prior expectations) and the specific types of thoughts generated (e.g. low fit provokes negative thoughts) (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006).

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The effect of fit on consumers’ attitude does not seem to be the same in all circumstances. Pracejus and Olsen (2004), Achabou and Dekhili (2013) and Torelli et al (2012) in their studies proved that a high fit between the CSR initiative and the brand leads to more positive consumers’ evaluations about the brand compared to a low fit. The all used prestige-oriented brands to conduct their experiments and surveys. However, Nan and Heo (2007), Lafferty (2007) and Elving (2013) supported that the effect of high fit has no significant difference with the effect of low fit on consumers’ responses towards the brand that embraces CSR initiatives. They used function-oriented brands to conduct their experiments.

It is clearly noticeable that function-oriented brands seem to evoke different consumer responses than prestige oriented brands. This study will therefore introduce brand concepts as a key moderator that influences the relationship between fit and consumers’ attitude towards the brand that embraces CSR initiatives.

1.1 Research question and sub-questions

Based on the existing literature, the lack of investigation in certain aspects of fit and the contradictory findings about the impact of fit on the consumers’ attitude, the research question that this study will try to answer is the following:

“How does the perceived level of fit between the CSR initiative and the brand influence consumers’ attitude towards the brand? A comparison between prestige- oriented and function-oriented brands”

The more specific sub- questions that need to be answered in order to answer the main research question are the following:

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 In which ways does CSR influence consumers’ reactions towards the brand?

 What is fit and how does it influence consumers’ attitude towards the brand?

 What are brand concepts and how do they moderate the effect of fit on attitude towards the brand?

 What is the differential effect of fit on consumers’ attitude towards prestige-oriented and function-prestige-oriented brands?

1.2 Contribution

This study will provide deeper insights into ethical branding and in particular into the effects of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives on attitude towards the brand. The results of this research will be very useful for marketing leaders. By revealing the attitude towards the brand, it will be easier to predict purchase intentions, since these two concepts are strongly related to each other (Spears & Singh, 2004). By unveiling the consumers’ reactions to CSR, brands can develop appropriate strategies. This is very important because product differentiation is gradually decreasing and brand competition is increasing and CSR initiatives are an innovative way of enforcing customer relationships which is not easy to imitate. Firms also need to go further than the investigation of brand purchase behavior as a result of CSR to understand other behaviors such as word-of-mouth and resilience to negative company information (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2004). The results of this study will also help at the creation of concrete plans for the adoption of CSR activities. By having appropriate CSR activities a firm can create long-term continuous relationships with consumers and therefore add to long-term profitability and value creation (Lee et al, 2012).

Even though the effect of fit on consumers’ attitude towards the brand has been adequately investigated from many aspects, there is lack of research regarding certain

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variables that influence the effect of fit, therefore introducing brand concept as a moderator adds value to this spectrum of the literature.

2.Literature review

2.1.Ethicality

Interest on ethical issues on business and consumption is rapidly growing. This phenomenon leads companies to concern about their ethical image and reputation. Ethics, according to Sherwin (1983), refers to a set of moral norms, principles or values that guide people’s behavior. However these principles are not easily definable as “it is often difficult to distinguish between ethics and legality; ethical values vary between individuals and organizations, and between different cultures, and they are changing all the time” (Fan, 2005 p.342).

The brand is the link between the company and the consumer and its image is the first to be influenced positive or negatively in most situations. Fan (2005), during his study for ethical branding and corporate reputation points out that there are conflicting studies investigating whether consumers actually care about branding ethics or not. One USA survey finds that consumers are considering the ethical behavior of the brand and are willing to pay premium prices for its products. A UK study underlines the fact that, even though consumers are more sophisticated today comparing to the past, they are not necessarily in favor of ethical companies. Finally, contrary to the previous, another US study supports that there is a decline in the sophistication of consumers, meaning that they tend to reward unethical behavior and punish ethical behavior. This last study comes in complete contrast with what Creyer (1997) supports in his study. He claims that ethicality is an important consideration during

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the purchase decision, and that consumers tend to punish unethical behavior by willingness to pay lower prices for the product.

The conflicting studies prove that measuring and researching ethicality is not an easy task. In general, different ethical corporate behaviors can result in different consumers’ responses (Creyer, 1997). In that sense, it is important to measure the consumer perceived ethicality (CPE) in order to predict their purchase intentions.

There are six domains of CPE that can influence ethical perceptions of a brand: consumers, employees, environment, local community and economy, and finally, business community and overseas community. In order to increase CPE, the expectations of consumers need to be fulfilled. Usually they expect the company to behave according to the social norms, to balance the business needs and the interests of others and to engage into altruistic behavior. However, consumers’ personal interests can moderate the impact on CPE meaning that, if they are satisfied, they can even become indifferent to unethical corporate behavior (Brunk & Blümelhuber, 2011).

The expectations of consumers play an important role to determine their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. They can be formed through direct experience, external information that is provided to them by the media and word-of-mouth or they can be inferential. That means that consumers have both the capability and the opportunities to form expectations about ethical behavior (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2004).

2.2.Corporate Social Responsibility

This current tendency of consumers to take into account ethical issues before making their purchase decisions leads companies to incorporate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives in their marketing activities. CSR is defined broadly

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as the company’s “status and activities with respect to its perceived societal or, at least, stakeholder obligations” (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2004).

Van de Ven (2008) states that the more a company benefits from its social initiatives the more it will be able to integrate CSR on a strategic decision-making level. Without this strategic integration the socially responsible activities will be uncoordinated and, thus, will neither have any important social impact nor strengthen the firm’s competitiveness long-term.

It is very useful to discover consumers’ reactions in order to develop CSR strategies. When thinking about CSR initiatives from a consumer perspective, firms should think not only about external outcomes such as purchase and loyalty but also internal ones such as consumers’ attitudes, awareness and attributions about why companies use CSR activities. Due to the decrease of product differentiation and the increase of competition, CSR initiatives are an effective way of enforcing customer relationships. Consequently, firms should go beyond brand purchase behavior as a result of CSR to understand other behaviors, such as word-of-mouth and resistance to negative company information. CSR is very important not only from a normative but also from a business perspective (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2004).

The internal outcomes of CSR activities are related to the enhancement of well being of the consumers which is translating to company-specific benefits. Another internal outcome is the awareness of the cause when it is advertised by the company that supports it. Finally, when a company uses sponsorships or supports a nonprofit, it is expected that the consumers’ attitudes towards the cause or the non-profit will be enhanced. The external outcomes of engaging CSR activities concern the company. Firstly, CSR leads to increasing purchase intention when some conditions are

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satisfied. Secondly, it can result loyalty from a segment of customers which is a result of customer-company identification. Last but not least, companies that engage CSR are more likely to be rewarded by resilience of customers to negative information (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2004).

CSR actions are summarized in Socrates: The Corporate Social Ratings Monitor, a database that rates more than 600 companies according to their CSR records (Kinder et al, 1999). This database categorizes the CSR initiatives into six domains: community support, diversity, employee support, environment and products. CSR can also be illustrated in the form of cause-related marketing (CRM). CRM “refers to a social initiative in which organizations donate to a chosen cause in response to every consumer purchase domain” (Vanhamme et al, 2012, p.259). It is supported that CSR initiatives enhance consumers’ evaluations of the company, but this relationship can be moderated by the consumers’ support of the CSR domain (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001).

2.3.Conditions influencing consumers’ attitude towards CSR

Sen and Bhattacharya (2004) support that there is great heterogeneity across consumers in their reactions towards CSR initiatives, meaning that something that fits one consumer segment may not fit another. The impact of CSR initiatives on outcomes “internal” to the consumer (awareness, attitudes, attributions) in stronger than the impact of those “external” to the consumer (purchase behavior, word-of-mouth).

There are many conditions that influence the consumers’ attitude towards the company and the purchase intention when taking CSR initiatives. Companies must communicate these initiatives to the consumers in an appropriate manner in order to

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raise awareness. Bragging about them is not a proper strategy; however missing information about them will have detrimental effects on the investments in CSR. They should be respectful to their CSR initiative without referring to the benefits the corporation will gain from its use, otherwise the motivation of the company will be perceived as profit-oriented. Accuracy is also required in order to ensure the truthfulness and credibility of the communication. Beyond that, it is indispensable that congruence exists between the five identities of the corporation: actual identity, communicated identity, conceived identity, ideal identity and desired identity (Van de Ven, 2008).

As far as the communication is concerned, it is best to communicate CSR initiatives to consumers that have a strong identification with the good cause. Of course that positive effect can be mediated if the product is of mediocre quality (Elving, 2013).

Another important condition is the CSR initiatives being proactive instead of reactive. In the case of reactive initiatives, consumers become suspicious towards the intentions of the company, as they perceive them as profit-motivated. Since the aim to make profit contrasts with the good cause the company wants to support, it is obvious that this will provoke skepticism about the motives of the company. Consequently, skepticism has a negative effect on consumer attitude toward the company and on purchase intention (Elving, 2013).

Attachment, being defined by Bowlby (1977) as a fundamental human need leading to an emotion-laden, target-specific relationship between a person and a target, is a factor that can contribute to the positive attitude towards the company/ brand that adopts CSR initiatives. Consumers that are attached to a firm are less probable to judge a behavior as unethical. In addition, when given moderately negative

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information, strongly attached consumers will judge a firm’s behavior as less unethical compared to those that are less strongly attached (Schmalz & Orth, 2012). Attachment can also be defined as a phenomenon called “customer-company identification”. It is driven by the peoples’ need for self-definition and leads to identification, meaning that consumers will engage favorable behaviors towards the company. This is aligned with the social identity theory which supports that people are more likely to identify with an organization when they perceive its identity as enduring, distinctive and capable of increasing their self-esteem (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2004).

Another important factor that mediates consumers’ attitude towards the company is reputation. Many studies confirm the fact that the stronger the reputation of the company the more positive the attitude towards CSR activities. Comparing to a low reputation, high reputation will lead to less skepticism in the minds of consumers about CSR initiatives According to a McKinsey global survey, executives believe that CSR contributes to long-term shareholder value and builds strong reputation (Elving, 2013).

2.4 Consumers perceptions about CSR

Ethicality nowadays is more on top of mind of the consumers before evaluating a brand and making their purchase decisions. According to Elving (2013), consumers have more positive feeling about companies that are involved in CSR than those that are not. CSR can result to a positive attitude towards a company as well as on purchase intentions. Marketplace polls prove that there is a positive relationship between a company’s CSR initiatives and consumers’ reactions towards the company and its products (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2004). According to a recent Mc Kinsey global

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survey 76% of executives support that CSR adds to long-term share-holder value and 55% of them agree that sustainability helps establishing a strong reputation. The survey proves that poor social responsibility image can harm financial performance (Torelli et al, 2012). Nan and Heo (2007), also state that cause- related marketing activities positively influence consumers’ willingness to purchase a company’s product. In cause-related marketing, the affect transfer process exists. Consumers’ positive attitudes toward the nonprofit organization can be transferred to the sponsoring brand. By donating money a company can be perceived as altruistic, thus creating more favorable responses from consumers.

Taking into consideration the literature review, we hypothesize the following:

Hypothesis 1: The presence of CSR initiative results to a more positive attitude

towards the brand than when the CSR initiative is absent.

2.5 Brand concepts

Not all brands have equal possibility to succeed in CSR. To identify which brands benefit more from the use of CSR initiatives it is important to investigate different brand concepts. According to Park et al (1991), brand concepts are unique, abstract meanings associated with brands. Some brands may be associated with the abstract concept of self enhancement whereas others with the abstract concept of conservation. A function-oriented brand concept focuses on the unique aspects that are related to product performance, whereas a prestige- oriented brand concept is framed by luxury and focuses on consumers’ expression of self-concepts or images.

There are ethical concerns across all markets but there is limited research regarding consumption across broader product categories. One area that benefits from the rise of ethical consumption is fare trade, where sales are gradually increasing. However the

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majority of fair trade sales are from the food sector and generally from low-value commodity products. The Ethical Consumerism Report (Bank C.O, 2011) specifies all of its growth ethical product categories in commodity markets. It is noticeable that one category that is ethically questionable are luxuries. Examples that prove this attitude towards luxuries are the case of conflict diamonds that fund military campaigns and water contamination caused by the gold mining industry. Some luxury brands were also found unethical such as Garnier that was accused for racial discrimination, LVMW, the owners of Louis Vuitton and TAG Heuer that were de-listed from the supply chain requirements and Prada for the exploitation of illegal immigrant workforces.

Generally, the decision-making process in purchasing is considerably different in luxury products and commodity products because consumers are looking for different kinds of benefits when buying each product category. The most important value for luxury goods is psychological. Thus, as far as luxury is concerned, the decision-making process is influenced by conspicuousness, uniqueness, quality, and personal perceptions including hedonism and self-pleasure (Davies & Ahonkai, 2012).

Brand concepts are an important moderator of CSR outcomes because they influence how consumers respond to CSR activities (Torelli et al, 2012). It is considered that luxury brands that are associated with a self-enhancement concept are more prone to the negative consequences of CSR actions, because the motivations that are automatically elicited by consumers are conflicted with those of the CSR. Thus, self- enhancement brands that adopt CSR practices should not communicate CSR information to avoid possible processing of bad influence. As previously mentioned, a function-oriented brand concept focuses on product performance, whereas a prestige- oriented brand concept is linked to luxury and focuses on the expression of

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concepts or images (Park et al, 1991). There is a weak association between luxury and sustainable development because the second evokes altruism, sobriety, moderation and ethics (Achabou & Dekhili, 2013).

2.6 Fit

Fit is a condition that has been discussed extensively by scholars when researching about consumers’ attitudes towards CSR. In a social marketing context “fit” is defined as “the perceived link between a cause and the firm’s product line, brand image, position and/or target market” (Varadarajan & Menon, 1988). One example of high fit between the CSR initiative and the brand is the Footlocker’s support of refurbishing public school playground basketball backboards. An example of low fit is Nissan Corporation’s support of education (Barone et al, 2007).

It is a common marketing strategy to associate a product with an object that has positive attributes. In event sponsorship a product is linked to an event that is likeable by the public. In CRM a product is connected with a non-profit organization for which people have positive perceptions. Similarly, celebrity endorsement concerns products with a well regarded public figure. Therefore, it is obvious that for such marketing strategies the “fit” between the product and the object with which it is associated is an important issue (Nan & Heo, 2007).

In a cause brand alliances (CBA) context, perceived fit is described as the degree of similarity and compatibility that consumers believe that exists between the social cause and the brand. Cause- brand fit enables the improvement of the associative learning process and provokes more positive consumer responses (Bigné et al, 2012).

Lee et al (2012) mention two other dimensions of fit, which are not customer-focused but customer-focused. The first is the perceived fit between consumers’ lifestyles and

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CSR activities and the second is the perceived fit between consumers’ values and CSR activities. They came up with some interesting conclusions. When consumers think that their lifestyle fits with the company’s CSR activities, they perceive those activities as genuine and they respond more favorably. Also, when they believe that their values are congruent with the CSR activities, they perceive those activities as positive and favorable. Consequently, the positive responses of consumers towards CSR activities lead to increased consumer-company identification and consumer loyalty.

Fit between the product and the object that it is associated with is a critical issue (Aaker &Keller, 1990). Most scholars support that a high fit between a CSR initiative and a brand leads to more positive consumers’ evaluations about the brand comparing to a low fit. A good fit will facilitate communication, as it makes the actions of the firm seem more appropriate to the consumers. Low fit alignments with the CSR initiative will lead to negative evaluations of the firm by consumers. They are expected to increase skepticism toward the motivation of the firm and its credibility, and also to reduce the likelihood of purchase intention. Findings prove that skepticism is not provoked by profit-motivated firms, but by incongruence between stated objectives and firm actions (Becker-Oslen et al, 2004). However, in practice, companies often support causes that aren’t related to the firms’ core business practices (Barone et al, 2007). In alignment with the previous authors, Sen and Bhattacharya (2001) stated that the perceived fit between the firm and the CSR activities has a positive effect on consumer response. On the contrary, Yoon et al (2006), supported in their study that fit reduces the effect of CSR on brand attitude. In any case all scholars agree on the fact that fit has a significant effect on attitude towards the brand.

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There are two types of cause-brand fit; the functional type fit that is based on the comparative analysis of the functions of the product and the characteristics and intentions of social causes, and the image fit, which is based on the existence of related characteristics in the brand and the social cause image or positioning. Both types of fit have a significant influence on how people perceive CSR initiatives, but they do it through different mechanisms. Functional fit has a significant direct influence on brand CSR perception, whereas image fit has an influence on CSR perception only through the positive influence it has on altruistic attributions and brand credibility. (Bigné et al, 2012).

Taking into account that in the case of function-oriented brands, functionality is the main asset, we can assume that they are mostly related to the functional fit. On the contrary, prestige-oriented brands are more related to self-enhancement and image. Consequently we can assume that they have a strong connection with image fit. We can conclude that fit between the CSR initiative and the brand, high or low, has an effect on brand attitude and that it can be related to both prestige and function oriented brands. Therefore we can hypothesize the following:

Hypothesis 2: The degree of fit between the CSR initiative and the brand moderates

the effect of CSR initiative for both prestige and function oriented brands.

2.6.1 The effect of fit for prestige-oriented brands and function-oriented brands

Not all scholars found the same results regarding the effect of fit on attitude towards the brand. In fact, Nan and Heo (2007), after conducting an experiment to test the reactions of people towards a new brand of orange juice found no significantly different effect between high and low brand/cause fit on consumer responses. Lafferty

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(2007), used a shampoo brand to manipulate fit and concluded that a good fitting or logical cause-brand partnership did not have any significant effect compared to a poor fitting on attitude towards the company, the brand, or purchase intentions. Compatible with the previous authors, Elving’s research (2013) proved that when the firm’s reputation is good, good fitting had no different effect than bad fitting on consumers’ responses. He used a fictitious toilet paper brand to conduct his experiment.

On the other hand, Pracejus and Olsen (2004), conducting a survey on Theme parks and luxury hotels, found that high brand/cause fit had a more positive impact on the reactions of consumers than low brand/cause fit. Achabou and Dekhili (2013) conducted an experiment in Hermes luxury shirts. In their effort to find out if there is a match between luxury and sustainable development they realized that the presence of recycled material is negatively perceived by consumers. They claim that one possible explanation for this is that the notions of prestige and rarity are contradictory to recycling, meaning that recycling does not appear to be associated with prestige. That implies that the low fit between recycling and the Hermes brand leads to less favorable reactions of consumers than the high fit. Finally, Torelli et al, (2012) testing the evaluations of consumers for luxury brands including Rolex watches found out that disfluency from the conflict of motivations triggered by the simultaneous activation of self-enhancement and CSR concepts, meaning a low fit, can result in unfavorable brand evaluations.

Luxury brands that are associated with a self-enhancement brand concept are more prone to brand dilution comparing to brands associated with openness or conservation concepts and CSR activities can backfire for them. They face challenges when communicating CSR actions because the emotions triggered from them are contradictory to the emotions triggered by the self-enhancement concept. The

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activation of these two contradictory emotions by a brand message would be an unpleasant experience for consumers since it could provoke disfluency and, consequently, unfavorable brand evaluations (Torelli et al, 2012). The more successful a brand is the more expectations consumers have about its ethical behavior and the more possible it is that its branding strategy will become ethically questionable (Fan, 2005).

Finally, according to Davies et al (2012), ethics is not the first priority of consumers when they are purchasing products from luxurious brands. Luxury products scored lower on all measures of moral intensity. There is a lack of belief that luxuries are capable of making a difference, so consumers give less consideration on ethical issues in luxuries than commodities. As a result, ethical luxuries will find it more difficult to enter the market with an ethical message comparing to ethical commodities. These barriers in entering the market include the low flexibility on price premiums, the limited amount of information received by ethical consumers and the lower perception that ethical luxuries are able to create social change. So, it is difficult for ethical luxuries to compete with ethical commodities.

There is an incongruity between the altruism of CSR initiatives and the self-enhancement concept of prestige-oriented brands, and those contradictory feelings may lead consumers to give more importance to fit between the CSR initiative and the brand, thus, fit is expected to have a stronger effect on brand attitude in the case of prestige-oriented brands than in the case of function-oriented brands. Also, there is a gap in the literature, since scholars who did their experiments on prestige-oriented brands, found a significantly more positive effect of high fit on attitude towards the brand compared to a low fit whereas those who did their experiments on function-oriented brands did not find a significant difference between the high and low fit

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effect. We can therefore assume that brand concept moderates the effect of fit and we can hypothesize the following:

H3: The effect of fit between the CSR initiative and the brand on attitude towards

the brand is stronger in the case of prestige-oriented brands than in the case of

function-oriented brands.

2.7 CSR and consumer skepticism

Even though CSR generally creates positive associations in the minds of consumers, they are often suspicious about the incentives of the firm that uses the CSR initiatives. Skepticism arises when they perceive those actions as profit-motivated and not as altruistic activities to achieve the general well-being of the society in which it operates. The negative reactions of consumers are not always provoked by beliefs that the firm will benefit from CSR initiatives but also by the perception that the firm hides the benefits it receives. According to Elving (2013), fit has an indirect effect and depends on the level of skepticism. The level of skepticism about the firm’s motives that engages in CSR influences the effect of fit on purchase intention and attitude towards the company. High levels of fit result to less skepticism, leading to a more positive attitude towards the company and higher levels of purchase intentions. The negative effect fit has on skepticism is aligned with the congruence theory. High levels of fit lead to a better integration of CSR communication and do not provoke inconsistencies between expectations and presented information. Consequently they lead to less critical thinking concerning the motives of the company. Therefore, we can expect that the effect of fit on consumers’ attitude can be explained by skepticism about the motives of the company engaging in CSR, meaning that the skepticism mediates the effect of fit on attitude towards the brand. This relationship between fit

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and skepticism will be part of the statistical analysis of the following pages in order to support our research hypotheses.

3. Conceptual framework

The research question that this study will attempt to answer is the following: “How does the perceived level of fit between the CSR initiative and the brand influence consumers’ attitude towards the brand? A comparison between prestige-oriented and function-oriented brands.” The research will be conducted through a 2 (prestige-oriented brands, function-(prestige-oriented brands) x 3 (CSR initiative, high fit, low fit) factorial within-subjects experimental design. Even though in this study each participant belongs to only one group, which would indicate that our study follows a between subjects design, in our case each group was part of the control group and the experimental group as well. The experiment will be conducted according to the following research design:

Figure 1: Graphical illustration of the conceptual model

CSR INITIATIVE

BRAND CONCEPT (FUNCTION-ORIENTED/PRESTIGE ORIENTED)

BRAND ATTITUDE FIT BETWEEN CSR AND BRAND

(HIGH FIT/LOW FIT)

Hypothesis 1 Hypothesis 2

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4. Methodology

Two sets of pre-tests were needed in order to find suitable brands and CSR initiatives for the experiment and to ensure that the manipulations will work as predicted in the main experiment. Also, they were used in order to secure that all brands chosen were equal in terms of likeability and familiarity and that the CSR initiatives paired with the brands are concerned as equally important and relevant. Both pre-tests consisted of the same population in order to avoid any bias effect. The population was 27 students of approximately the same age (22-28 years old).

4.1 Pretest 1

The purpose of the first pretest was to find out which brands to include in the experiment. Since the study concerns both function and prestige-oriented brands, respondents were exposed to 12 brands in total, 6 of which belong in the car industry and the rest 6 belong in the fashion industry. Half of the car brands were chosen as possible prestige-oriented brands and the other half were chosen as possible function-oriented brands. The same applies for fashion brands. Two different industries were chosen for the study in order to achieve better results, taking into account that usually women are more involved with the fashion industry and men are more involved with the car industry. The respondents were exposed to 6 popular car brands: Mitsubishi, Toyota, Lexus, Seat, Audi and Mercedes-Benz and to 6 popular fashion brands: Zara, Nike, Valentino, Levi’s, Prada and Gucci. They were asked to state their opinion regarding how familiar the brands were to them as well as how likeable they perceived them. Liking and familiarity were measured using three 7-point scales each (1=negative/7=positive,1=unfavorable/7=favorable,1=bad/7=good), and finally, (1=unfamiliar/7=familiar, 1=did not recognized/ 7=recognized and 1=had not heard of/7= had heard) of respectively. All scales were used based on the study of

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Olsen et al (2006). Afterwards, respondents had to answer questions about their opinion about 9 CSR initiatives in terms of importance and relevance. The CSR initiatives were the following: “The brand uses sustainable technology in order to be environmentally friendly”, " The brand creates a campaign for road safety", " The brand uses alternative fuels to achieve less contamination", " The brand uses recycled materials to create all clothes and accessories", " The brand's clothes and accessories are hand-made so that no electricity is wasted", " The brand uses faux leather and fur for its clothes and accessories to support animal rights", " The brand participates in a campaign for human rights", "The brand does a donation for global poverty", and "The brand participates in a campaign to raise funds for AIDS".

4.1.1 Results of Pretest 1

The pretest was analyzed in SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Several Paired sample T-tests were executed in order to find one pair of fashion brands and one pair of car brands that are equal in terms of liking and familiarity. Mitsubishi and Lexus were chosen as car brands that are equally likeable (M=5,53 and 6,03, p=0,14) and equally familiar (M=6,28 and 6,02, p=0,197). Zara and Gucci were chosen as fashion brands in terms of likeability (M=6,07 and 6,16, p=0,691) and familiarity (M=6,69 and 6,55, p=0,282).

As far as the CSR initiatives are concerned, two pairs were chosen. The first was sustainable technology and campaign for human rights that were perceived as equally important (M= 6,59 and 6,48, p=0,502) and relevant (M=6,44 and 6,37 p=0,691). The second was recycled materials and campaign for AIDS that were also perceived as equally important (M=6,41 and 6,48, p=0,646) and relevant (M=6,48 and 6,30, p=0,345).

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28 4.2 Pretest 2

After having identified the brands and CSR initiatives that will be used in the experiment in the first test, a second one followed. The purpose of the second pre-test was to find out which brands were perceived as prestige-oriented and which as function-oriented. At first, the respondents were asked to evaluate the market position of Zara, Gucci, Mitsubishi and Lexus. That was measured by using 7-point scales on two items (budget/luxury, functional/prestige). The scales were the same that Lei et al (2008) used in their study. The second pretest was also used to find out how respondents perceived the level of fit between the CSR initiatives and the brands. Car brands (Mitsubishi, Lexus) were paired with the first set of CSR initiatives (sustainable technology and campaign for human rights) whereas fashion brands were paired with the second set of CSR initiatives (recycled materials and campaign for AIDS). Respondents were asked to rate the degree of fit between the CSR initiative and the brand by using 4 statements of 7-point scales (low fit/strong fit, dissimilar/similar, inconsistent/consistent, non complementary/complementary), based on the study of Bae and Cameron (2006).

4.2.1 Results of Pretest 2

Several Paired sample T-tests were also executed in the second pre-test in order to find out which brands were perceived as prestige-oriented and which ones as function-oriented. As expected, Gucci was perceived as prestige-oriented and Zara as function-oriented (M=6,8 and 1,33, p=0). In the car brand category, Lexus was perceived as prestige-oriented and Mitsubishi as function-oriented (M=6,59 and M=1,65, p=0). The results were also same as predicted regarding the perception of fit

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between the CSR initiatives and the brand: Sustainable technology was perceived as a high fit and campaign for human rights was perceived as a low fit when paired with car brands. Recycled materials were perceived as a high fit and AIDS campaign as a low fit when paired with fashion brands. The difference was significant between high fit and low fit conditions in both cases (p=0). The results were expected as sustainable technology is usually highly related with the car industry and recycled materials are highly related with the fashion industry. On the contrary, campaign for human rights and campaign for AIDS are usually perceived as social causes that do not have a direct relationship with the car and fashion industries. What was also important to check in this pre-test was if the measures of both high fit and low fit were equal, meaning that they have the same distance from the neutral position. This was done by taking the deduction of the mean minus the median. In this case median is 4 since we use a 7-point Likert scale. Indeed, both high fit and low fit measures had the same distance from the neutral position for all brands.

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30 4.3 Main experiment

Conditions:

The experiment consisted out of 1 survey divided into four different groups. Each respondent was randomly assigned to a group in order to answer questions regarding their attitude towards four brands: Mitsubishi, Lexus, Zara and Gucci. In the first group respondents had to answer questions about their attitude towards Mitsubishi without CSR, and about the attitude towards Lexus, Zara and Gucci with CSR. In the second group, respondents had to answer questions about their attitude towards Lexus without CSR and about their attitude towards Mitsubishi, Zara and Gucci with CSR. In the third group, they had to answer questions about their attitude towards Zara without CSR and about their attitude towards Gucci, Mitsubishi and Lexus with CSR. In the fourth group, respondents had to answer questions about their attitude towards

PERCEIVED LEVEL OF FIT

CSR INITIATIVE HIGH LOW

BRAND CONCEPTS PRESTIGE-ORIENTED BRANDS Condition 1:Non-existing CSR initiative Condition 3:High fit& prestige-oriented brands

Condition 5:Low fit& prestige-oriented brands FUNCTION ORIENTED BRANDS Condition 2:Non-existing CSR initiative

Condition 4:High fit & function-oriented brands

Condition 6:Low fit & function-oriented brands

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Gucci without CSR and about their attitude towards Mitsubishi, Lexus and Zara with CSR. In our case, the control group (people who responded about attitude towards the brands without the presence of the CSR initiative) was mixed with the experimental group (people who responded about attitude towards the brands with the presence of the CSR initiative). Therefore, every respondent belonged to both the control and the experimental group. To sum up, each respondent saw one brand without CSR initiative and the other three with CSR initiatives. Attitude towards the brand was measured by three items on a 7-point scale (bad/good, unfavorable/favorable, negative/positive) based on the scales that Becker-Olsen et al (2006) used for their study. The brands and CSR initiatives used were the ones chosen in the pretests. Therefore, the fashion brands were paired with recycled materials and the AIDS campaign whereas the car brands were paired with sustainable technology and the campaign for human rights.

For the brands that were paired with CSR initiatives (experimental condition) respondents were exposed to both high fit and low fit conditions. As a result of the second pre-test, when fashion brands were paired with recycled materials, we had a high fit condition and when they were paired with the campaign for AIDS we had a low fit condition. When car brands were paired with recycled materials we had a high fit condition and when they were paired with the campaign for human rights we had a low fit condition.

The variable fit is divided in two separate variables: high fit and low fit. Those were computed in SPSS separately, thus, were analyzed separately and together they formed the fit as a total. More information regarding the names of the variables that were computed in SPSS can be found in the appendix.

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In order to better support the results, respondents had to also answer questions regarding their skepticism towards motives of the brands that embrace CSR initiatives. There were four statements, “The brand sincerely cares about the cause”, “The brand has genuine concerns for the cause”, “The brand tried to make a good image by supporting the cause” and “The brand tried to improve its existing image by supporting the cause”, where the cause represented the CSR initiative. Respondents had to state how much they agree or disagree with these statements, on a 7-point scale (1/Strongly disagree, 7/Strongly agree) based on the ones Yoon et al (2006) used for their study.

Finally, respondents in all groups also had to answer demographic questions and to state how important they feel it is that a brand embraces CSR initiatives, which was measured using a 5-point scale (1/Not at all important, 7/Extremely important). These were introduced as variables that could potentially affect the results.

Overview of groups

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4

Mitsubishi: CSR=0 Lexus: CSR=1 Zara: CSR=1 Gucci: CSR=1 Mitsubishi: CSR=1 Lexus: CSR=0 Zara: CSR=1 Gucci: CSR=1 Mitsubishi: CSR=1 Lexus: CSR=1 Zara: CSR=0 Gucci: CSR=1 Mitsubishi: CSR=1 Lexus: CSR=1 Zara: CSR=1 Gucci: CSR=0 CSR=0 : CSR initiative is absent CSR=1: CSR initiative is present

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One example of how the questionnaire appeared to the respondents can be found in the appendix. In particular, the example used is that of group 4, where people saw Gucci without the CSR condition and all the other brands paired with CSR initiatives. However, for ease of reference, only the questions for the Mitsubishi brand attitude are shown. Zara and Lexus had the exact same questions as Mitsubishi.

5. Results

Overview of hypotheses, variables and tests used

Variables: CSR initiative or not (1= CSR initiative, 0= CSR initiative absent), High fit (1-7 scale ), Low Fit (1-7 scale), Brand attitude (1-7 scale), Skepticism (1-7 scale), 1=Prestige-oriented brands (Gucci, Lexus) and 2=Function-oriented brands

Hypotheses Ind ep en d en t v a ria b le Mo d er a to r De p en d en t v a ria b le Co n tr o l Te sts (Be twe en sub je cts) Hypothesis 1 CSR Initiative or not Brand attitude Paired samples T-test Hypothesis 2 CSR Initiative or not Low and high fit Brand attitude Hierarchical Multiple regression ,one model for function brands and one for prestige brands Hypothesis 3 Prestige or function oriented brands Low and high fit Brand attitude CSR Initiative or not Same as H2

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(Zara, Mitsubishi), Gender, Age, Nationality, Education, Importance given to CSR initiatives (1-7 scale)

5.1 Sample/Response analysis

The survey program Qualtrics was used to distributed the survey with a link, which assigned each respondent to one of the groups randomly. The link to the survey was posted on social media websites and was sent though email chains. The survey was online for a total of five days. Before being exposed to the questions, respondents had to agree that they wanted to participate and were informed about the purpose of the survey, which was to better understand how consumers respond to Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. They were guaranteed confidentiality and permission to opt out at any time on their terms. They were finally given the details of the author in order to be able to pose any queries or comments regarding the survey.

After five days of distribution, a total of 297 people had responded to the Qualtrics survey. There were however, missing data in the total sample. From the 297 surveys, 67 surveys had missing data, and these were excluded from the data set. Some of them had not received any answers but were only opened through the link and others were partially answered. Therefore, the total sample that will be used for statistical analysis is 230 responses. In the tables below we can see information about the respondents’ gender, age, educational level and how important CSR initiatives are for them.

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35 Table 1

Gender

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent Valid Male 111 48,3 48,3 48,3

Female 119 51,7 51,7 100,0 Total ₂₃₀ _100,0 _100,0

According to Table 1 the ratio of male and female respondents was 48.3% and 51.7% respectively.

Table 2 Age

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

230 18 59 27,09 5,682

According to Table 2 the respondents’ mean age was 27.09 years with a standard deviation equal to 5.68. The youngest was 18 years old and the oldest 59 years old.

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36 Table 3

Educational level

Cumulative Percent Less than High School 1 ,4 ,4 ,4

High School 17 7,4 7,4 7,8

Bachelors Degree 91 39,6 39,6 47,4 Masters Degree 118 51,3 51,3 98,7

Doctoral Degree 3 1,3 1,3 100,0

Total ₂₃₀ _100,0 _100,0

According to Table 3 51.3% of the respondents have a master degree, 39.6% of respondents have a bachelor degree, 7.4% of the respondents have a high school diploma, 1.3% of the respondents have a PHD and the rest 0.4% of the respondents have an education less than high school.

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37 Table 4

Importance given to Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives

Cumulative Percent Not at all Important 5 2,2 2,2 2,2

Very Unimportant 7 3,0 3,0 5,2

Neither Important nor Unimportant

65 28,3 28,3 33,5

Very Important 117 50,9 50,9 84,3

Extremely Important 36 15,7 15,7 100,0

Total ₂₃₀ _100,0 _100,0

According to Table 4, 66.5% of the respondents replied that it was at least very important for a brand to embrace CSR, 28.3% of the respondents had a neutral perception on the subject and the rest 5.2% believed that it was not important.

5.2 Pre-analysis

The purpose of this analysis is to explore if the population of the survey is normally distributed and if the scales used to measure the results are reliable or not.

5.2.1 Normality check

Normality of the data distribution had to be checked, since new variables were computed. Therefore, skewness and kurtosis had to be analyzed.

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38 Table 5

Kurtosis and Skewness of distributions

N Skewness Kurtosis

Statistic Statistic Std. Error Statistic Std. Error high fit 230 -,343 ,160 -,120 ,320 low fit 230 -,503 ,160 ,139 ,320 Brandtotal_CSR 230 -,392 ,160 ,190 ,320 BrandTotal 230 -,322 ,160 -,234 ,320 Skepticism_Function 230 -,362 ,160 1,114 ,320 Skepticism_Prestige 230 -,507 ,160 1,453 ,320

According to table 5, negative skewness exists for all the variables, which means that there is a higher density of data in the right part of the distribution. In any case the level of skewness and kurtosis are not very significant. Thus, this means there is not a significant deviation from the normal distribution.

5.2.2 Reliability Check

In order to check whether the construct of the brand attitude without CSR, the brand attitude with CSR and the skepticism variables were reliable, the Cronbach’s alpha index has been used. Values above 0,7 indicate high level of reliability while values above 0,6 are acceptable. The analysis was conducted for each group separately. Brand attitude without CSR was answered once for each firm while Brand attitude with CSR was answered three times for each firm. The latter also applied for skepticism. This path of analysis was obligatory for each group separately since different respondents had answered in each group. Thus, questions with the same

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meaning and for the same brand had answers in different rows. As seen in table 6, the results were satisfactory and there was low value of the Cronbach’s alpha index only in one case. Therefore, we can conclude that the scales used were reliable enough.

Table 6

Cronbach’s alpha

Brand attitude with CSR Skepticism

Brand attitude without CSR CSR initiative CSR initiative CSR initiative

Skepticism Skepticism Skepticism

Mitsubishi 0,850 0,936 0,935 0,858 0,608 0,695 0,765

Zara 0,960 0,944 0,904 0,918 0,700 0,567 0,798

Lexus 0,958 0,903 0,969 0,918 0,280 0,694 0,720

Gucci 0,915 0,927 0,972 0,947 0,690 0,702 0,623

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40 5.2.3 Group differences

The purpose of this section is to check if the responses in all groups are equal and that there is no response bias.

Table 7

Age differences among the groups Group

Mean Standard Deviation Mean Standard Deviation Mean Standard Deviation Mean Standard Deviation 27.11 6.41 26.70 3.12 26.84 6.36 27.67 6.23

According to the ΑNOVA test there is not any statistically significant age difference among the four groups (F(3, 226)=.328, p=.805).

Table 8

Importance given to corporate social responsibility initiatives Group

Mean Standard Deviation Mean Standard Deviation Mean Standard Deviation Mean Standard Deviation 3.75 .90 3.63 .79 3.89 .77 3.72 .87

According to the ANOVA test there is not any statistically significant difference in relation to the importance given to corporate social responsibility initiatives among the four groups (F(3, 226)=.986, p=.400).

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41 Table 9

Distribution of gender across the groups

Gender Total Male Female Group Group 1 N 30 26 56 % 27,0% 21,8% 24,3% Group 2 N 25 32 57 % 22,5% 26,9% 24,8% Group 3 N 26 31 57 % 23,4% 26,1% 24,8% Group 4 N 30 30 60 % 27,0% 25,2% 26,1% Total N 111 119 230 % 100,0% 100,0% 100,0%

According to table 9 there is not any statistically significant difference between the respondents’ gender among the four groups (X2

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42 Table 10

Distribution of the respondents’ educational level across the groups

Education

Total High School Bachelors Degree

Masters/Doctoral Degree Group Group 1 N 5 20 30 55 % 29,4% 22,0% 24,8% 24,0% Group 2 N 2 20 35 57 % 11,8% 22,0% 28,9% 24,9% Group 3 N 7 22 28 57 % 41,2% 24,2% 23,1% 24,9% Group 4 N 3 29 28 60 % 17,6% 31,9% 23,1% 26,2% Total N 17 91 121 229 % 100,0% 100,0% 100,0% 100,0%

According to Table 10 there is not any statistically significant difference between the respondents’ educational level among the four groups (X2

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43 Table 11

Distribution of the respondents’ perception on the importance of CSR across the groups

Corporate Social Responsibility importance

Total Not at all Important Very Unimportant Neither Important nor Unimportant Very Important Extremely Important Group 1 N 2 1 16 27 10 56 % 3,6% 1,8% 28,6% 48,2% 17,9% 100,0% Group 2 N 0 4 20 26 7 57 % ,0% 7,0% 35,1% 45,6% 12,3% 100,0% Group 3 N 1 0 14 31 11 57 % 1,8% ,0% 24,6% 54,4% 19,3% 100,0% Group 4 N 2 2 15 33 8 60 % 3,3% 3,3% 25,0% 55,0% 13,3% 100,0% Total N 5 7 65 117 36 230 % 2,2% 3,0% 28,3% 50,9% 15,7% 100,0%

According to Table 11 there is not any statistical significant relationship between the respondents’ perception on the importance of CSR and the four groups (X2

=10.608, df=12, p=0.563).

Therefore it is concluded that there are no significant differences in the groups in terms of gender, age, educational level and importance given to CSR initiatives. As a result, it can be confirmed that there is no response bias.

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44 5.3 Descriptives

In the current section descriptive statistics have been used in order to display the respondents’ answers (mean values, standard deviations, frequencies and percentages). Each statistical analysis will need to be controlled against four control variables: Gender, age, education and the importance given to CSR initiatives. When the means for these variables vary significantly between all treatments, it will likely affect the results. Therefore, the frequencies of these variables will be discussed below.

Table 12

Brand attitude without CSR

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Mitsubishi_attitude 56 2,00 7,00 4,4524 1,14315 Lexus_attitude 57 1,00 7,00 5,1637 1,57249 Zara_attitude 57 1,00 7,00 4,7953 1,45400 Gucci_attitude 60 1,00 7,00 4,4556 1,45357 BrandTotal 230 1,00 7,00 4,7145 1,43740 Prestige_Attitude 117 1,00 7,00 4,8006 1,54750 Function_Attitude 113 1,00 7,00 4,6254 1,31470

In Table 12 we can observe the brand attitude of the respondents for each brand concept category without CSR, the prestige-oriented (Gucci, Lexus) and function-oriented (Mitsubishi, Zara) brands and in the total brand attitude. For all the firms the brand attitude presented a positive average level of response without large differences among the firms.

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45 Table 13

Brand attitude with CSR

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Mitsubishi_CSR 174 2,00 7,00 5,2720 1,11541 Lexus_CSR 173 2,00 7,00 5,4162 1,09742 Zara_CSR 173 1,00 7,00 5,2794 1,10670 Gucci_CSR 170 1,00 7,00 4,9863 1,35721 Brandtotal_CSR 230 2,22 7,00 5,2396 ,92427 Function_AttitudeCSR 230 1,00 7,00 5,2862 1,03347 Prestige_AttitudeCSR 230 1,00 7,00 5,1652 1,14854

In Table 13 we can observe the brand attitude of the respondents for each brand concept category with CSR, the prestige-oriented (Gucci, Lexus) and function-oriented (Mitsubishi, Zara) brands and the total brand attitude. For all the firms the brand attitude presented a positive average level of response without large differences among the firms.

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46 Table 14

Skepticism

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Skepticism_Lexus 173 1,00 7,00 4,9422 ,99795 Skepticism_Zara 173 1,00 7,00 4,8960 1,15544 Skepticism_Gucci 170 1,00 7,00 4,7632 1,12833 Skepticism_Mitsubishi 174 1,00 7,00 4,9167 1,00552 Skepticism_Function 230 1,00 7,00 4,9261 1,03202 Skepticism_Prestige 230 1,00 7,00 4,8054 1,04754

In Table 14 we can observe the respondents’ level of skepticism for the motives of the brand embracing CSR initiatives for each brand concept category, the prestige-oriented (Gucci, Lexus) and function-prestige-oriented (Mitsubishi, Zara) brands and the total brand attitude. For all the firms the level of skepticism presented a positive average level of response without large differences among the firms.

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47 Table 15

High fit vs Low fit Attitude

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Lexus high fit 173 2,00 7,00 5,4663 1,12221 Lexus low fit 173 2,00 7,00 5,3661 1,22510 Zara high fit 173 1,00 7,00 5,1349 1,20069 Gucci high fit 170 1,00 7,00 4,8059 1,45078 Gucci low fit 170 1,00 7,00 5,1667 1,42683 Mitsubishi high fit 174 1,00 7,00 5,2318 1,24280 Mitsubishi low fit 174 2,00 7,00 5,3123 1,26874 Zara low fit 173 1,00 7,00 5,4239 1,25913 High fit prestige brand 230 1,00 7,00 5,1246 1,20525 Low fit prestige brand 230 1,00 7,00 5,2058 1,23172 High fit function brand 230 2,17 7,00 5,1942 ,98781 Low fit function brand 230 1,94 7,00 5,3440 1,09829

In table 15 we can observe the brand attitude of the respondents’ for each brand concept category with CSR, the prestige-oriented (Gucci, Lexus) and function-oriented (Mitsubishi, Zara) brands and the total brand attitude in high and low fit conditions. For all the firms the brand attitude presented a positive average level of response without large differences among the firms.