Does the message content and channel used for CSR
communication influence consumer response?
An empirical research testing the influence of different CSR message variables on consumer’s perceived corporate credibility and willingness to pay
Author: Marlieke Dieles Student number: 10877460
Institution: Faculty Business and Economics at the University of Amsterdam Qualification: MSc Business Administration – track Marketing
Supervisor: Lars Moratis Date of submission: 23th June 2015 Word count: 12095
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Statement of originality
This document is written by student Marlieke Dieles 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.
Foreword
I wish to thank various people for their contributions and support throughout the process of writing this thesis. Firstly, I would like to thank Anouar El Haji for giving me the opportunity to conduct my experiment with the use of the auction program tool Veylinx and helping me during this process with advice and information. Furthermore I would like to thank my supervisor Lars Moratis for giving useful feedback throughout the process of writing this thesis. A special thanks to my parents for their support and encouragement throughout my study career. Finally, I wish to thank Mathijs de Soet for his unconditional support these last couple of months.
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Table of Content
Abstract ... 4 1. Introduction ... 5 1.1 Practical relevance ... 8 1.2 Academic relevance ... 8 2. Literature review ... 10 2.1 Definition of CSR ... 10 2.2. CSR communication ... 12 2.3 Message content ... 14 2.3.1 Social CSR ... 15 2.3.2 Environmental CSR ... 16 2.4 Consumer Response ... 18 2.4.1 Credibility ... 19 2.4.2 Willingness to Pay (WTP) ... 212.5 Message channels: corporate owned versus non corporate owned ... 24
2.5.2 Advertisement... 25
2.5.1 Websites... 26
2.6 Conceptual Framework ... 27
3. Research Design ... 29
3.1 Study context and research design ... 29
3.2 Population and participants ... 32
3.3 Independent variables ... 32
3.4 Dependent variables ... 33
4. Results ... 35
4.1 Description of the sample ... 35
4.2 Testing of the hypotheses ... 37
5. Discussion ... 41
5.1 General discussion ... 41
5.2 Managerial implications ... 45
5.3 Limitations and further research ... 46
6. Reference ... 49
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Appendix A – Auction pictures ... 55
Appendix B – Survey questions ... 58
Appendix C – SPSS output ... 58
List of figures and tables
Figure 1 - Conceptual framework ... 28Figure 2 - Histogram ... 36
Figure 3 - Adapted conceptual model ... 40
Table 1 - Treatments of the experiment ... 31
Table 2 - Frequency tabel ... 35
Table 3 - Means, Standard Deviations, Intercorrelations ... 37
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Abstract
Purpose – This thesis aims to examine variables that influence the effect that corporate
social responsibility (CSR) communication has on consumer response. The independent variable is the message content and the moderating variable is the corporate owned message channel. The dependent variables are: perceived corporate credibility and willingness to pay (WTP).
Design/methodology – An experiment was conducted with the use of Veylinx an online
sealed-bid Vickrey auction tool. The sample consists of 815 Dutch participants that are randomly assigned to one of the six treatments in this study.
Findings - The results showed that consumer’s perceived corporate credibility is increased by
the use of a CSR message, regardless of the nature of the message content. Secondly, CSR messages have no effect on consumer’s maximum WTP. Furthermore, this study supports the literature that the degree of perceived corporate credibility enhances consumer’s WTP. Finally this study shows that different corporate owned message channels do not affect consumer’s perceived credibility and WTP.
Research limitations –The design of the study enhances the internal validity of the results,
but limits the external validity and focused on the Dutch consumer market.
Practical implications – The findings suggest that sustainable companies should actively
communicate their CSR activities to the consumer, irrespective of the CSR message content and corporate owned message channel used to increase their perceived corporate credibility and consumers’ WTP.
Originality/value – This paper has taken a look at consumer’s actual behaviour responding
to CSR communication, excluding possible socially desirable answers. Furthermore, it sheds light on the effect of different corporate owned message channels.
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1. Introduction
In line with the increasing interest of consumers in social and environmental causes during the last couple of decades, the number of studies in this field has risen as well (Chan, Leung, & Wong, 2006). Furthermore, many companies have drastically changed their old traditional business models to new sustainable ones. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is labelled as the mantra for our time (Schmeltz, 2012). Currently, in our age of sustainability, companies are expected to incorporate CSR activities. The two most identified CSR causes are social and environmental responsibility (Loose & Remaud, 2013). Research has shown that CSR
positively influences consumers’ attitude towards companies and their purchase intentions (Becker-Olsen, Cudmore, & Hill, 2006; Du, Bhattacharya, & Sen, 2010; Nan & Heo, 2007). However, taken all studies together that measure consumer response to companies CSR activities, results have been varied and inconsistent (Peloza & Shang, 2011). Servaes and Tamayo (2013) state that CSR activities can definitely add value to a company but only under certain conditions. So further insights into these conditions are needed to fully comprehend the relationship between CSR and consumers response. According to Green and Peloza (2011) one of the conditions that influence consumer response is the cause of the CSR message. They propose that further insights are needed in how consumers value and choose between different CSR causes.
Furthermore, the process of CSR communication seems to still be a challenge for many corporations nowadays (Du et al., 2010). Communicating CSR activities to consumers is of vital importance to increase CSR awareness under the consumers. This is vital because companies are only able to reap the benefits from their CSR activities, once consumers are aware of these (Servaes & Tamayo, 2013). Thus, sustainable companies will be interested to learn more regarding different CSR communicating strategies that will be able to maximize
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consumer awareness. According to Öberseder, Schlegelmilch and Gruber (2011) consumers are more able and likely to integrate CSR into their decision making process when they are well-resourced with comprehensive CSR information. Moreover, it is already known that proactive CSR results in more favourable attitudes toward the firm and higher purchase intentions than reactive CSR activities (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006; Groza, Pronschinske, & Walker, 2011). Additionally, Groza et al. (2011), state that consumers are most likely to evaluate proactive CSR with positive motives and thereby enhancing their current attitude toward the firm. On the other hand, reactive CSR could induce negative perceptions and thereby overshadow a previous positive view with a negative one. Taking current CSR communication strategies into account, Schmeltz (2012) calls for a more direct and open approach for communicating CSR, especially to young consumers, instead of the current subtle and indirect way of communication. This lack of effective CSR communication by many companies is considered as the reason why companies cannot reap the potential benefits from their CSR activities (Du et al., 2010).
After a company successfully raises consumers’ awareness for CSR, they need to deal with consumers’ perceived corporate credibility and their scepticism. Corporate credibility refers to the extent to which a company is perceived by a consumer to possess expertise and can be trusted (Goldsmith, Lafferty, & Newell, 2000). Trustworthiness refers to honesty and believability that the company will uphold their CSR claims. A company partakes in
‘greenwashing’ when they lie about their CSR activities. Greenwashing activities lead to an increase in consumer’s level of scepticism and results in a decrease in consumers’ level of perceived credibility (Elving, 2012). Corporate credibility is important for companies as it has been found to be influential in persuading consumers and is incorporated in a company’s reputation (Goldsmith et al., 2000).
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Consumers’ perceived corporate credibility also incorporates the perceived credibility of the source used to communicate the CSR message. Two different message channels, corporate owned versus non-corporate owned have been widely researched and the results show that the information credibility and the firm’s reputation are highly dependent on the message channel used for communicating the CSR message (Öberseder et al., 2011).
According to Du et al. (2010) there are many different corporate owned message channels (e.g. firm’s website and advertisements) that can be used to communicate CSR to the consumer. Further research should focus on CSR communication strategies and their impact on consumer response (Öberseder et al., 2011), such as perceived credibility and willingness to pay (WTP).
According to Beckmann (2007) little is known concerning consumers actual purchasing behaviour responding to CSR communications. Most research has measured consumer’s intentions, resulting in a research gap between consumers’ intentions and consumers’ actual behaviour. Furthermore, previous research often measured consumers’ attitudes and intentions towards ethical products without taking the higher price into account (Browne, Harris, Hofny-Collins, Pasiecznik, & Wallace, 2000). On top of that, some researchers question the findings concerning the impact CSR activities has on consumers’ purchase intentions and account these results to possible social desirability induced responses (Öberseder et al., 2011). So this paper will close this current knowledge gab by looking at consumers’ actual behaviour and maximum WTP for an ethical product.
Considering previous literature concerning CSR and the existing gap within this field, the following research question is developed: Does the type of CSR message content, social
or environmental, influence a companies’ credibility and consumer’s willingness to pay and is this relationship moderated by the message channel? This research question will be
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answered by conducting an experiment trough an online auction methodology that measures consumers’ actual maximum price that they are willing to pay.
1.1 Practical relevance
This research is relevant for managers and marketers of sustainable businesses in that the insights of this paper will increase their knowledge concerning CSR communication which can be incorporated into the company’s marketing strategies. Consequently, this knowledge can be used by companies in their CSR communications strategies to enhance the credibility of their CSR claims and overall reputation, which could lead to an increase in sales and a higher WTP (Du et al., 2010). Furthermore, it will provide marketers with a useful overview of when to use which kind of message channel for different kinds of CSR messages. Since this study investigates different kinds of corporate owned message channels, companies are able to use all the gained information and put it directly into practice. This research will increase marketers’ knowledge how to better attract and retain customers via different CSR message channels. Finally, better understanding of consumers’ reactions to CSR activities can help companies to allocate their resources in a more efficient and effective way to achieve their goals (Yoon, Gürhan-Canli, & Schwarz, 2006).
1.2 Academic relevance
This research will contribute to the elaborate but fragmented area of CSR communication and its antecedents and outcomes. Further research is still needed to increase the existing knowledge concerning the role of CSR and CSR communication in consumers’ purchase decisions and how to influence this decision (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012; Öberseder et al., 2011). Futhermore, Du, Bhattacharya and Sen (2010) point to “an urgent need for both
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more effectively to stakeholders” (p. 17). This study will provide new insights in the use of different CSR message content and message channels for communicating this to consumers and their response to these. In previous studies, most results showed that consumers have a positive response to CSR initiatives (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). However, some studies found contradicting- or no effects (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). Surprisingly little is known about other possible factors influencing consumers’ responses to companies that have incorporated CSR. As Beckmann (2007) states, the relationship between CSR activities and consumers-as-stakeholders’ perceptions and behaviours are generally under-researched given the
centrality of CSR in research and management literature. Particularly, consumers’ response to CSR communication is scarce (Beckmann, 2007). Additionally, there is a need for
understanding actual consumer behaviour which can differ greatly from consumers
(positive) intentions towards certain social issues (De Pelsmacker, Driesen, & Rayp, 2005). Consequently, there is a need for better understanding how and when CSR initiatives create a positive consumer’ response. This research will try to close this gap by looking at
consumers’ actual behavioural response towards different CSR message content and channels.
This paper will continue by providing an overview of the existing literature
concerning CSR communication and consumer response followed by the hypotheses and the conceptual framework in chapter 2. Secondly, the research design will be presented in chapter 3. Thirdly, the results will be presented in chapter 4. Finally, the results will be more elaborately discussed, including the academic and practical implications and future research opportunities will be given in chapter 5.
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2. Literature review
In this chapter the existing literature on the topics of CSR communication, CSR message content, consumer response and CSR message channels will be reviewed. Based on the existing literature and the current research gaps, the hypotheses are developed.
2.1 Definition of CSR
Recently, the field of CSR has evolved and scholars have studied many different facets related to the concept of CSR (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). However, there is still no satisfactory and generally accepted definition of the concept CSR. The European Commission defines CSR as: “companies taking responsibility for their impact on society” (European Commission, 2014). This means companies need to include social concerns, environmental concerns, human rights and consumer concerns into their business operations and strategie
s.
An often cited definition by Carroll (1979) reads as follows: “the social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time” (p. 500). In this paper, a widely cited definition offered by Aguinis (2011) is adopted: “context-specific organizational actions and policies that take into account stakeholders' expectations and the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental performance” (p. 855). A company doing business based on triple bottom line principles means it evaluates organizational performance based on the effects of strategies on people (i.e. social justice), planet (i.e. environmental quality) and profits(Cronin, Smith, Gleim, Ramirez, & Martinez, 2011). Companies are becoming aware of the fact that subscribing to triple-bottom line practices can increase customer demand (Cronin et al., 2011). Moreover, previous studies have stated the following positive outcomes probable from practicing CSR: a competitive advantage (Porter & Kramer, 2002), enhanced
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brand differentiation (McWilliams & Siegel, 2001), consumers that are likely to switch from one brand to another (with same product price and product quality), increased purchase intention, consumers boycotting companies with negative CSR practices (Du et al., 2010), increased product evaluation, increased (E)WOM participation and a higher WTP (Du, Bhattacharya, & Sen, 2007). With so many possible benefits, it is no wonder that CSR occupies a prominent place on the agenda of many companies in today’s socially conscious market environment.
The CSR activities of a company are supposed to address the concerns and satisfy the demands of its stakeholders (Beckmann, 2007). A company’s stakeholders are those who, affect or are affected, either directly or indirectly, by a company’s activities such as
employees, suppliers, shareholders, investors, the media, the community and the consumers (Beckmann, 2007). This study will take a look at CSR outcomes from the perspective of one particular group of a company’s stakeholders, the consumer. Socially conscious consumers take public consequences of their private consumption into account and attempt to use their purchasing power to achieve a positive social change (Webster, 1975). A person who takes minimizing harmful and maximizing long-run positive impacts on society into account during the purchase, usage and disposition of a product is partaking in socially responsible
consumer behaviour (SRCB). Consumers are an interesting party as they are able to pressure companies to integrate CSR practices in their business models primarily through impacting potential revenues and the image of the company (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012).
A companies’ corporate image can be seen as the stakeholders’ whole perception of the way the company presents itself, either purposely or unintentionally (Pomering & Johnson, 2009). A company can enhance this corporate image by informing consumers with desired CSR information via CSR communication. According to Beckmann (2007) there are
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several aspects that complicate consumers’ positive attitudes and beliefs towards companies that engage in CSR such as the company’s reputation, the chosen CSR cause, active versus reactive CSR communication, perceived credibility and source credibility. For this reason it is important how CSR is communicated to the consumer.
2.2. CSR communication
Communicating CSR can be seen as a persuasive attempt to create a positive reputation in the eyes of the consumer (Vanhamme and Grobben as cited in Groza et al., 2011). In other words, using promotional techniques to inform consumers about the companies’ CSR
activities and actively promoting a positive CSR image and reputation (Ihlen, Bartlett, & May, 2011). Multiple studies revealed that awareness of a company’s CSR activities among
consumers is low (Du et al., 2007; Du et al., 2010). According to Dawkins (as cited in Du et al., 2010) most consumers do not seek CSR information proactively even if they are interested in the topic. Additionally, previous research of Bhattacharya and Sen (2004) suggests consumers are not even aware about the social features of most of the products they consume. Since a company can only reap the benefits from CSR activities as mentioned before, when consumers’ are aware of the companies’ CSR policies, a deeper understanding of the subject is imperative for managers to be able to improve their CSR strategies to increase customer awareness. Moreover, despite the major increase in attention to CSR in the literature, CSR communications is still a scarce topic (Ihlen et al., 2011). As a result, little guidance exists for the practice of CSR activities (Bhattacharya, Korschun & Sen, 2009).
A key challenge of CSR communication is to minimize consumer scepticism about the companies' CSR activities (Du et al., 2010) and to not be mistaken for 'greenwashing'
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information regarding their social and environmental responsibilities to the public (Furlow, 2010). This can include both over- and under-communicating the real level of CSR activities to the public. As a result of greenwashing, company’s perceived credibility and consumers WTP can be negatively affected (Elving, 2012). Chaudri and Wang (2007) state that
misleading CSR communication is counterproductive and can seriously jeopardize a
company’s reputation. Overall, scepticism diminishes the communication effectiveness of a CSR message. Companies then need to deal with these disbeliefs of stated claims and distrust of the companies’ motives. According to Pomering and Johnson (2009) future research should also consider message variables and message source characteristics when thinking of ways to diminish consumer’s sceptical disposition towards companies distributing their own CSR messages. An important question for companies nowadays is how they can communicate CSR to the consumer without raising consumer’s scepticism. Resolving this current constraint could lead to an increase in consumer’s attitude towards the company and purchase behaviour.
Most previous studies in the field of CSR communication focused on some variables that influence the relationship between CSR communication and consumers’ response. Some variables that have been shown to influence this relationship are: the difference between proactive and reactive CSR communication (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006; Du et al., 2007), quality of the products (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001), communication source, corporate owned versus non corporate owned (Yoon et al., 2006), perceived fit between company and the cause (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006) and consumer’s support for the specific CSR cause (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001). A company engages in reactive CSR if the company only engages in these activities after external pressure e.g. a natural disaster, consumer boycott, and bad press. Proactive CSR initiatives are self-initiated and started. This research paper will deepen
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the current knowledge of proactive CSR communication towards the consumer. According to (Du et al., 2010), to reach customers effectively, companies must use multiple channels or focus on one or two very relevant channels. This paper will give insights to the current proactive communication strategies of companies that differentiate from the mandatory social reporting and disclosure.
2.3 Message content
Within the broad concept of CSR, two key issues have been repeatedly identified: social and environmental responsibility (Loose & Remaud, 2013). Social responsibility encompasses activities that protect social welfare of multiple stakeholders and environmental
responsibility encompasses activities protecting and or not harming the natural environment (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004). Verbeke (2005) argues that consumers’ comprehension of the economic, social and environmental impact resulting from their behaviour influences their decision making process. Sen and Bhattacharya (2001) suggest that consumers identification with the company's social activities will strengthen the consumer's positive response to the company. In general, consumers’ evaluations are more positive for CSR causes of an
international versus national scope and are more concerned with acute causes versus ongoing disasters (Vanhamme, Lindgreen, Reast, & Van Popering, 2012). Nevertheless, Green and Peloza (2011) propose further research is needed to examine how consumers prioritize between different forms of CSR when choosing between products. Furthermore, Chan and Wong (2006) suggest that the effectiveness of registered claims and logo’s need to be further investigated. Even though there are previous studies that examined the
effectiveness of environmental claims in developing countries, the different effect between a social versus environmental claims is limited (Chan et al., 2006). This study will adopt this
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two-dimensional concept of CSR and examine the effect of communicating either a social or environmental message on consumers’ perceived credibility and WTP.
2.3.1 Social CSR
Past research into the relationship between companies engaging in social responsibility and their financial performance has yielded mixed results (Cronin et al., 2011). Hillman and Keim (2001) suggest that socially responsible initiatives that do not directly impact the primary stakeholders, will not likely create any additional value for the firm (Hillman & Keim, 2001). Additionally, Schmeltz (2012) suggests consumers are only concerned with causes which are proximately close to themselves and their personal values. This results in low concern for CSR causes which are oriented on the other side of the world. On the contrary, Luo and Bhattacharya (2006) found that socially responsible actions lead to, amongst other things, increased customer satisfaction and a higher firm market value. According to Green and Peloza (2011) consumers see socially responsibility as an extra bonus to the product features, but they will always choose product performance over emotional value. Giving social responsibility a lower priority. According to Mohr and Webb (2005) consumers support for sustainable products depends on the consumers’ own concerns for this particular domain, either social or environmental.
One example by which a company can communicate their social CSR activities to the consumer is by certifying the company and products under the label of Fair Trade
International. Fairtrade is an alternative approach to conventional trade that aims for
sustainable development of the producers in developing countries by improving the terms of trade and living conditions which allows them to improve their lives. In short, fair trade involves fair prices for the farmers who produce the products in developing countries. In return companies are allowed to use the fair-trade label on their products and in marketing
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activities. Fair-trade labelled products and brands are already widely known under the average consumer. However, fair-trade products still count for a small part of the total market share in all product categories (Cronin et al., 2011; De Pelsmacker et al., 2005). Once again there is an attitude-behavioural inconsistency, between what consumers think and do. Due to the inconsistent previous findings within the academic literature, it is important to understand the effect of communicating social CSR messages to consumers. Moreover, insights into determining factors for consumer purchasing behaviour will be very beneficial for the fair-trade industry. In this paper a Fair Trade International logo will be used to communicate a social CSR message.
2.3.2 Environmental CSR
It has been shown that companies that improved their environmental performance have had greater financial performance and competitiveness (Cronin et al., 2011). Furthermore, developing environmentally friendly goods seems to play into the needs of the ever
increasing environmental conscious consumers (Cronin et al., 2011). Consumers are aware that using environmentally friendly products can enhance their image in the community and help them meet the social norms and standards in the community (Green & Peloza, 2011). However, these attributes are easily dismissed by consumers in times of economic
uncertainty (Green & Peloza, 2011). Consumers are especially fond of products that are not only environmentally friendly but also have a functional efficiency standard that would help them save money in the future e.g. fuel efficiency standards (Green & Peloza, 2011).
An example of an environmental CSR registered trademark and logo that will be further discussed in this paper is from the independent non-profit organisation: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC organization stands for improving how the world’s
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forests are managed by protecting it’s biodiversity and ecological processes and ensuring that the forest will still be present in the future (FSC, 2015). In other words, products with a FSC-trademark are made without harming the soil, wildlife’s habitat and the forest health. The FSC- trademark can be used for wood and wooden products like paper. Using the independent forest certification is an example of an environmental CSR practice. Companies are only allowed to use this CSR trademarks in advertisements and on their products once they are officially registered as a certified company. The FSC trademark and what it stands for is commonly known under the conventional consumer. However, when it comes to communicating FSC many companies agree that this should be done in a more effective and efficient manner (Kelly, 2012). In this paper the FSC logo will be used to communicate an environmental message.
Previous research investigating the different effects of different CSR message content seem to rate environmental causes as more influential than social causes. According to Schmeltz (2012) people view CSR initiatives in relation to environmental responsibility as more important than a social cause. Young, Hwang, McDonald and Oates (2010) state that the environment is rated as the most important ethical driver during purchasing decisions, followed by human rights and welfare issues. Moreover, Mohr and Webb (2005) state that environmental CSR can even affect consumers purchase intentions more strongly than price, which was not the case for social CSR.
It will be of interest for both academics and marketers to learn more about the effect of different CSR messages on consumer response. Marketers would also benefit from
insights into how and when different CSR messages can convey the most beneficial consumer responses.
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2.4 Consumer Response
Consumer’s attitude and behaviour towards a company and their products can be influenced by a companies’ CSR activities (Brown & Dacin, as cited in Feldman & Vasquez-Parraga, 2013). This is because consumers often include companies CSR activities into their company and product evaluation and choice (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004). This paper will look at
consumers’ responses as an outcome variable of a companies’ CSR activities. In other words, this paper studies the extent to which consumers base their purchases on the desire to minimize harmful impacts, also defined as socially responsible consumer behaviour (SRCB) (Mohr, Webb, & Harris, 2001). According to Feldman and Vasquez-Parraga (2013), once consumers have received communication about a company’s CSR activities, this will increase their CSR awareness, which in turn, generates positive attitudes towards the company, the product and will increase consumers’ purchase intentions. However, while most consumers claim to be ‘green’ when asked, green products only account for less than four percent of the product market share (Cronin et al., 2011). This shows there is a major discrepancy between consumers’ attitude toward green products and companies and their actual purchase behaviour. Previous research has revealed that consumers place ethical concerns high on their list of purchase criteria but often not at the expense of the traditional choice factors as price and quality (Shaw, Hogg, Wilson, Shiu, & Hassan, 2006). Servaes and Tamayo (2013) conclude that consumers are more likely to purchase goods from socially responsible companies but only some are willing to pay a higher price. Another explanation for
consumers’ attitude-behavioural gap could be to their levels of scepticism and cynicism directed to green marketing activities. Currently, marketing is viewed with a high level of cynicism and suspicion when trying to convey a socially responsible image (Jahdi & Acikdilli, 2009). Some companies have tried to solve this problem by using certifications and labels of
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independent green organizations (Parguel, Benoît-Moreau, & Larceneux, 2011). However, consumers’ actual perceptions of a firm that uses certifications of green business practices and if this creates additional firm value and credibility still needs to be further researched (Cronin et al., 2011). In general consumers tend to be more positive towards companies practicing CSR (Nan & Heo, 2007). However, more research that takes a relative approach comparing different methods of practicing CSR is needed to fully understand consumers responses to CSR activities and CSR communication (Nan & Heo, 2007). This paper will take a look at perceived corporate credibility and WTP as consumer response outcomes.
2.4.1 Credibility
In this paper, corporate credibility entails to what extend consumers believe the company can be trusted to tell the truth and has the knowledge and ability to fulfil its claims (Newell & Goldsmith, 2001). A company that lacks credibility is likely to influence a person receiving a message from this particular company, unfavourably (Newell & Goldsmith, 2001). A
company’s credibility can be harmed or damaged when they lie to consumers or when it is reported that the company is in violation with ethical norms (Lafferty, Goldsmith, & Newell, 2002). On the contrary, when corporations exceed the assumed ethical perceptions,
consumers perceive the company as more credible and are more likely to purchase the company’s products (Keller as cited in Lafferty et al., 2002). While many companies already communicate their CSR activities, consumers trust in corporate communications is low (Mohr & Webb, 2005). Hence, communicating CSR toward the consumers and staying credible is a difficult issue for companies.
Source credibility is a very important factor for any CSR communication to be successful (Jahdi & Acikdilli, 2009). Without source credibility, consumers will remain
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discussed benefits. Furthermore, CSR activities are in most cases not transparent and observable for consumers and other stakeholders (Hartmann, 2011). As a result, consumers need to trust the companies to uphold their CSR activities, making them even more sceptical of these responsibilities. Most regularly used platforms for communicating CSR are through advertisement campaigns and a company’s corporate website. According to Jahdi and Acikdilli (2009) people are more concerned with the quality of online information versus offline information, because there are no media gatekeepers to control online information. Naturally, companies are able to enhance their credibility by backing up their promises with third party certified standards and rating agencies (Du et al., 2010). In other terms,
increasing credibility by association or partnering. In this manner companies can seek recognition and promote their CSR activities while increasing the credibility of these claims. By forming a partnership with an external party with high awareness and a good reputation, a company can increase positive brand associations and awareness (Lafferty & Goldsmith, 2005). However, companies are currently still looking for better ways to effectively signal their CSR quality to consumers (Moratis, 2014). The question asked here is, can companies improve their credibility by changing the CSR message content to the consumer? Based on the literature, the following hypotheses are derived:
H1a: A company’s perceived credibility will increase when the company communicates a CSR activity, both for a social and environmental message. H1b: A company’s perceived credibility will be higher when an environmental CSR message is communicated than when a social CSR message is communicated.
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2.4.2 Willingness to Pay (WTP)
The construct willingness to pay (WTP) is defined here as the maximum amount of money a customer is willing to pay for a product. Thus, WTP is the value that a consumer assigns to a product in monetary units (Homburg, Koschate, & Hoyer, 2005). This is a very important concept for marketers. If consumers are willing to pay a higher price for a product, the company can increase the sale price and this will lead to larger profits. Hence, for companies it is interesting to know how consumers’ WTP can be positively influenced.
Previous research has given inconsistent results concerning consumers’ purchase intentions for sustainable products. On one hand, multiple studies have shown that
consumers’ purchase intentions are higher when companies engage in CSR (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006; Du et al., 2007; Du et al., 2010). Additionally, other studies have looked at the perceived fit between the firm- CSR activity, firm-consumer, and the coherent effect on consumers’ WTP (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006). Furthermore, research has shown that many consumers are willing to pay higher prices for products from ethical companies, also known as environmental behaviour (De Pelsmacker et al., 2005). Predictors of this behaviour are personal values, emotional involvement, environmental awareness and perceived control (Grob, 1995). De Magistris, Del Giudice and Verneau (2014) found that consumers who believe in social responsibility have a significantly higher WTP once a CSR label is added. On the other hand, Beckmann (2007) states that most consumers are not willing to compromise on a products’ price. It seems that consumers buying criteria is still mainly affected by the products’ price, quality, convenience and brand familiarity and not the sustainability of the product (De Pelsmacker et al., 2005).
In most studies consumer’s attitudes and purchase intentions are measured and not actual behaviour (Beckmann, 2007). Despite the accepted view by Fishbein & Ajzen as cited
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in Lusk, McLaughlin and Jaeger (2007) that intentions are the best predictors of actual behaviour, it has long been recognized that intentions do not perfectly correlate with actual purchases (Lusk, McLaughlin, & Jaeger, 2007). Even though a consumer has a strong
purchase intention this intention will not always proceed into actual purchasing behaviour, this is also defined as the intention-behaviour gap (Sheeran, 2002). Willingness to pay for a product measures consumers actual purchase behaviour, which is a more definite consumer response than the previous discussed attitudes (Feldman & Vasquez-Parraga, 2013). One explanation for this measured attitude-behaviour gap is that the respondents of the surveys may suffered from the tendency to give socially desirable answers (De Pelsmacker et al., 2005). Meaning that the respondents gave answers that are more positive than their real attitudes and differ from their actual behaviour. Furthermore, due to peer pressure or group norm, respondents might give more positive answers than they would otherwise give
(Venkatesan, 1966). Other possible explanations for the attitude-behavioural gap are that consumers are sceptical towards CSR messages, a lack of awareness, inertia or consumers belief they are not able to make a difference by themselves (Bray, Johns, & Kilburn, 2011). It has become clear that different forms of CSR can impact consumers on different manners (Green & Peloza, 2011). For companies it would be interesting to know which variables have an effect on consumers’ WTP, so they can use these to their advantage. Moreover, Mohr and Webb (2005) recommend replicating their study that measures the effect of CSR information on consumer's WTP in a field experiment to provide a more conservative test and be able to determine when this effect arises. Following this line of thought, the subsequent question has been raised: do different CSR messages have different effects on consumers’ willingness to pay? The following hypotheses are developed to answer this question:
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H2a: Consumers’ willingness to pay for a product will increase when the company communicates a CSR activity, both for a social and environmental message.
H2b: Consumers’ willingness to pay for a product will be higher when an
environmental CSR message is communicated than when a social CSR message is communicated.
In addition to these hypotheses, it is also interesting to know the relationship between perceived corporate credibility and consumers’ WTP. Does perceived corporate credibility have an influence on the level of consumers’ WTP? In that case, companies could increase consumer’s maximum WTP by enhancing their perceived credibility. Newell and Goldsmith (2001) state that perceived credibility favourably influences a consumer. Furthermore, it is already known that positive attitudes towards a company will increases customers’ purchase intentions (Feldman & Vasquez-Parraga, 2013) and that consumers are more willing to purchase goods from socially responsible companies (Servaes & Tamayo, 2013). Following this line of thought, consumers’ with higher perceived credibility of a company’s CSR activities, will have a more positive attitude towards the company and consequently will be more willing to purchase goods. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that perceived credibility will positively increase consumers’ WTP. However, the direct relation between consumers’ perceived credibility and WTP still needs to be determined.
Furthermore, it is still unknown if consumers are willing to pay a higher price, when they perceive the company as more credible. This leads to the following hypotheses:
H3a: The higher the degree of perceived corporate credibility the higher consumers’ willingness to pay for a product.
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H3b: The lower the degree of perceived corporate credibility the lower consumers’ willingness to pay for a product.
2.5 Message channels: corporate owned versus non corporate owned
CSR information sources can be divided into two types from consumer perspective:
controlled or uncontrolled by the company (Parguel et al., 2011). Consumers often question the credibility of CSR information emanating from company-controlled sources (Yoon et al., 2006). Corporate owned message channels examples are press releases, annual corporate responsibility reports, own website, packaging material, TV-commercials, magazine- and billboard advertisements. On the other hand there are a lot of non-company controlled CSR communicators: e.g. customers, media, NGO's, monitoring groups, that nowadays mostly communicate online on websites, forums, blogs, YouTube channels and offline in magazines and newspapers (Du et al., 2010). Du et al. (2010) assume consumers will perceive
companies as more self-interested than non-corporate sources. Furthermore, CSR message distributed via corporate owned sources will be received by consumers with more scepticism and lower perceived credibility than other sources (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006; Du et al., 2010), since consumers will be more critical of plausible biased or self-interested messages (Wiener et al., as cited in Du et al., 2010).
To better understand consumers’ response to CSR, Beckmann (2007) suggests we need to ask how CSR should be communicated, via which media channel. According to Schmeltz (2012), consumers mainly notice CSR communication on a product’s packaging, websites and television. Furthermore, product packaging and magazines are most likely to succeed in engaging with consumers, with websites and advertisements also rated positively (Schmeltz, 2012). More research into these specific media channels is therefore most
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interesting for companies, since they would prefer to have the highest possible awareness of their message and be able to control the message content. A better understanding of
consumers’ responses to companies CSR messages is relevant for researchers and
companies if they want to understand the currently, mixed outcomes from CSR activities. This paper will further investigate a couple of corporate owned message channels, as these seem to attain the most attention from customers, while our knowledge of the effects of CSR communication through these channels is still limited. This paper will take a further look at advertisements and the corporate home website as corporate owned message channels.
2.5.2 Advertisement
Research concerning CSR advertisements and their effects on consumer behaviour is still limited (Farache & Perks, 2010). Even though this is an interesting topic, since CSR advertisements demonstrate how companies want to be perceived by others (Farache & Perks, 2010). Previous research have concluded that a CSR message incorporated in an advertisement increases consumer’s attitude toward the company (Nan & Heo, 2007), but does not affect consumer’s purchase intentions (Hamiln & Wilson, 2004). In general,
advertisements with a CSR message are critically evaluated by stakeholders (Du et al., 2010; Vanhamme et al., 2012). When a company actively advertises its CSR activities, this can be perceived as insincere and as a result may lead to negative company and product
evaluations (Pomering & Johnson, 2009; Yoon et al., 2006). Furthermore, some studies state that the use of advertising to communicate CSR can be found, distasteful by some
consumers (Schultz & Morsing as cited in Pomering & Johnson, 2009). According to Obermiller, Spangenberg and MacLachlan (2005) consumers are more sceptical towards advertising than any other communication method.
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On the other hand, CSR advertising can be potentially very fruitful for a company’s image. As consumers’ evaluation of a company is based on the information they receive and the company can communicate any information they want via an advertisement (Pomering & Johnson, 2009). Furthermore, advertisements are a popular promotional tool for
companies as it allows for greater creativity, communication value and flexibility in terms of target audience reach (Pomering & Johnson, 2009). Servaes and Tamayo (2013) came to the conclusion that there is a positive relationship between advertising intensity and customers’ awareness of CSR activities. Plus this increased awareness will also increase customer’s demand for socially responsible behaviour and thereupon their own socially responsible behaviour (Servaes & Tamayo, 2013).
2.5.1 Websites
It has become clear that the internet and the company’s corporate website in specific, have developed quickly into an indispensable and powerful tool to communicate companies’ CSR activities to their stakeholders (Capriotti & Moreno, 2007). Nowadays, many companies dedicate a section of their websites to their CSR activities, to illustrate the importance they attach to CSR (Servaes & Tamayo, 2013). A couple of benefits of engaging in CSR
communication on the internet are that it allows for an ongoing and interactive dialogue and is available for multiple stakeholders at the same time (Chaudri & Wang, 2007). However, many companies still fail to communicate their CSR activities in an active manner to their stakeholders (Capriotti & Moreno, 2007). Websites seem to be a good medium to
communicate CSR since most consumers are always online nowadays (Gruen, as cited in Schmeltz, 2012). Further benefits of corporate websites are that they can act as an uncertainty reducing information source, be persuasive advertising medium, a means to inform customers and possibly help to maintain customer relationships (Stuart & Jones, as
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cited in (Capriotti & Moreno, 2007). On the other hand, a big weakness of displaying
information on a website is that consumers can only be informed by this, when they actively search for information on this particular website (Schmeltz, 2012).
Hartmann (2011) states that further research that captures consumers’ true preferences with respect to CSR and their product choice would be of great value.
Furthermore, research including mediators and moderators that will help with clarifying the various possible roles of key constructs that will improve scholar’s research understanding of the underlying processes of CSR are of great need (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). Lastly, Servaes and Tamayo (2013) press the issue of having a better understanding about the CSR message channels and which are more credible and effective. To help answer these questions, the following hypotheses are developed:
H4a: The relationship between CSR message content and consumers perceived corporate credibility is moderated by the message channel. The relationship is assumed to be more positive when the company’s website is used as message channel.
H4b: The relationship between CSR message content and consumers’ willingness to pay for a product is moderated by the message channel used for the CSR message. The relationship is assumed to be more positive when the company’s website is used as the message channel.
2.6 Conceptual Framework
Based upon the literature review and the derived hypotheses, the conceptual framework below in figure 1 is developed.
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Figure 1 - Conceptual framework
In the next chapter, the different variables of the conceptual model and the research design will be discussed in further detail.
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3. Research Design
In this chapter the research design of this study will be elaborated. The research strategy, treatments, sample population and independent and dependent variables used will be discussed in further detail.
3.1 Study context and research design
This study will try to establish relationships between different constructs and thus can be categorized as an explanatory study (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). The hypotheses are developed using existing theory. These hypotheses will be tested and consequently either be confirmed or disconfirmed which will lead to further development of theory (Saunders et al., 2009). In particular, this paper examines the relationships between social and environmental CSR messages on consumers perceived corporate credibility and WTP and if these are moderated by different kinds of corporate owned message channels.
To test the hypotheses, an internet based experiment is conducted. The experiment will minimalize threats to the internal validity of the research, because this method reduces the possibility that the findings are attributable to something else other than the carefully chosen interventions (Saunders et al., 2009). Participants can participate in this experiment in their own homes on their laptop or computer. No lab environment is needed which will highly reduce time and cost required to execute the experiment. Participants will be able to participate in the experiment at any time of the day, within a time limit of two days from the moment of the invitation. This flexible time scale will highly increase the response rate. The experiment will be conducted using the program Veylinx which is an online auction. The program Veylinx makes use of the Vickrey (second-price sealed-bid) method (Veylinx, 2015). This is an anonymous sealed-bid auction, where the highest bidder wins the auction, but
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pays the price of the second highest bid (Veylinx, 2015). Participant’s strategy in this auction is to bid one’s true valuation for the product (Sandholm, 1996) and as a consequence, the WTP values from this auction can be assumed to be corresponding to the actual payments in the marketplace (Chang, Lusk, & Norwood, 2009). If a participant bids higher, they end up with a loss if they win. On the other hand if the participants bids less, the chance of winning is smaller, but the winning price is unaffected (Sandholm, 1996). As a result, the Vickrey method promotes a truthful bidding and avoids counter speculation (Sandholm, 1996). Furthermore, due to the sealed-bids and the anonymous nature of the auction, participants will have no social pressure to give socially favourable answers to enhance their social image. Consequently, socially desirable answers will be excluded from the experiment. As a final point, actual behaviour is measured as people place bids to purchase a product.
The product chosen for this experiment is a black and white low cut sneaker from the brand Ethletic. This product is chosen with the idea that everybody, both men and women are familiar with the product and that it will also appeal to both. No further information besides the brand name and the available sizes are provided to the participants, as to maximize external validity (Saunders et al., 2009). All participants are asked about their familiarity with the brand Ethletic, to be able to analyse if any of the effects are due to pre-existing attitudes toward the brand, or due to the experiment (Wagner et al., as cited in Groza et al., 2011).
In the experiment all participants are shown the same product in one of the following completely randomized scenarios: a social CSR message treatment shown on either a website or an advertisement, an environmental CSR message treatment shown on either a website or an advertisement and a baseline treatment where no CSR message is displayed on either a website or an advertisement. All groups receive a short description of the offer
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including the different available shoe sizes. The six different conditions are manipulated on message content and message channel. An overview of the experiment design is shown below in table 1 and the images of the six treatments are shown in appendix A. A pre-test has been conducted, firstly, to test if people were familiar with the CSR logos and knew what these logos represent. Secondly, to test if the message channel and the message content are perceived as realistic and believable by the participants.
Table 1 - Treatments of the experiment
The auction has been distributed online via email and the social media forum Facebook. The auction is a self-administered auction and with the use of the snowball technique people can share this auction with friends, to increase the number of respondents (Saunders et al., 2009). Additional to these newly administered participants, there is already an existing database with potential participants, who will receive an email with an offer to participate in a new auction. The participants were not informed about the specific objective of the study during both the recruitment stage and the experiment.
Data for this experiment is gathered in two ways, firstly via the auction all participants are asked place a real bid by this method consumers’ actual WTP is measured. This is a valid method of measuring consumers’ actual willingness to pay, since it excludes socially
desirable answers and includes actual behaviour. Secondly, respondents are asked to answer a couple of questions after their placed bid. The length of the questionnaire is minimized to five questions, to maximize the response rate. The survey contains questions regarding the respondents’ familiarity with the brand Ethletic, and their perceived company’s product
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expertise and credibility. All participants have previously filled in their age and gender when they registered at the website of Veylinx. The survey questions used in the experiment are shown in appendix B.
This experiment has 3*2=6 treatments in total as can be seen in table 1. An estimated sample size of 50 participants per treatment is recommended by Saunders et al. (2009), as a result a minimum requirement of 450 participants are needed to conduct this research. 3.2 Population and participants
The population that will be investigated in this research are consumers living in the Netherlands. This population will consist of different sexes and ages. Most of the
participants will have a high level of education, since the program Veylinx is used by scholars and students for research purposes and these are most likely to spread the auction amongst friends and colleagues who will probably have similar educational backgrounds. The main reason to spread this study among this population is due to the easy access which will reduce time and costs.
3.3 Independent variables
The independent variables in this study are the message content and message channel used for the CSR communication. Both the message content and channel will be manipulated in this study. The message content will involve a social CSR message, an environmental CSR message or no CSR message.Both CSR causes are ongoing disasters and of international scope, to ensure that the participants are not influenced by these factors.
To manipulate the social CSR treatment, an international recognized Fairtrade logo is included next to the product. The logo consists of the Fairtrade logo and the texts:
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Appendix A. To manipulate the environmental CSR treatment, the logo of international recognized Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is included in the picture. The logo consists of the FSC logo and the texts: natural rubber trees that recycle 7x more CO² than the rainforest; and certified rubber, as can be seen in Appendix A. In the base line condition, no CSR
message is included, participants will only see the product and some product information which is kept constant in all the six treatments.
The pre-test demonstrated that people are familiar with the organisations Fairtrade International and FSC. Furthermore, the CSR message with the Fairtrade logo was identified as a social cause and the CSR message with the FSC logo was identified as an environmental cause.
The message channel used to promote the product will either be a reproduction of a corporate home website or an advertisement. The website and advertisement used in the experiment are shown in Appendix A.
3.4 Dependent variables
The dependent variables in this study are consumers’ perceived corporate credibility and WTP. It is known, that consumers overestimate their own WTP on socially desirable issues when they are asked in research surveys (Nan & Heo, 2007). Furthermore, people can suffer from social desirability influences, when they are surrounded by others or in cases of self-reported behaviour (Peloza & Shang, 2011). Unfortunately a lot of previous studies employed self-reported behaviour or intentions and consequently are open to social desirability bias (Carrington, Neville, & Whitwell, 2010). Additionally, previous research often studied participants’ hypothetical choices, and not their actual choices. These issues will all be resolved by using the program Veylinx an online, anonymous auction, were
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participants are asked to place a real bid, at home in a private setting, and the winner will actually purchase the product. For these reasons, this study measures and studies
consumers’ actual WTP.
The second variable corporate credibility will be measured by a small survey after the participants have conducted their bids on the product. The variable corporate credibility is measured using the scale developed by Newell and Goldsmith (2001), consisting of two questions concerning the companies’ product expertise and trustworthiness. To improve the easiness of the questions, the participants were asked to which extent they agreed with the statements on a 5-point scale. This scale is divided from totally agree (1) at one side to totally disagree (5) at the other side. The survey questions can be seen in appendix B.
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4. Results
After conducting the experiment and analysing the data, the hypotheses are tested. In this chapter the sample is described and the results are presented.
4.1 Description of the sample
In total 903 respondents participated in the experiment from which 815 fully completed the survey (N=815). For further data analysis only the data of fully completed surveys has been taken into account. The sample size (N=815) is large enough to be able to generalize the results. The age of the respondents are between 16 and 77 years old with an average age of 42 years. The men and female ratio is respectively 54.1% and 45.9%. On average the
participants are educated to college level. Each of the 815 participants was participating in only one of the six available treatments in the experiment. The distribution of participants over the six different treatments is shown below in table 2. The minimum amount of participants in each treatment is 122 persons (N=122). The brand familiarity in every treatment is 5% or less with a total average of 3%.
Table 2- Frequency tabel
The sample data has been tested for normality and the significance for skewness and kurtosis was calculated. Since parametric tests assume a normal distribution in the data set, data without normal distribution needs to be transformed. The data for bid_amount were found to be not normally distributed (S=1.69, SE=.09) and transformed to variable
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ln_bid_amount with a normal distribution by taking the natural logarithm of bid_amount +1, as can be seen in figure 2.
The scales of items perceived_expertise_brand_ethletic and
convincing_sustainability_ethletic were recoded (1=5, 2=4, 3=3, 4=2, 5=1) into
R_perceived_expertise_brand_ethletic and R_perceived_expertise_brand_ethletic. Scale reliability was calculated by determining the Cronbach’s alpha for the perceived credibility. An analysis of the scale shows good reliability for perceived credibility (α=.82). Afterwards a new scale was developed from these items called R_perceived_credibility.
The descriptive statistics and intercorrelations among WTP and credibility for the six different conditions are shown in table 3. On average participants had a neutral to slightly negative credibility evaluation (2.77 ≤ M ≤ 3.04 out of 5). Secondly, the participants had an average of willingness to pay ranging from 3.89 ≤ M ≤ 4.61 out of 9. Perceived credibility has a positive and highly significant relationship with willingness to pay for the social CSR and baseline advertisement treatment (0.28=r, 121 ≤ N ≤ 138, p <.01). Perceived credibility has a positive and significant relationship with willingness to pay for the environmental CSR
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advertisement and baseline website condition (0.20= r, 132 ≤ N ≤ 136, p <.05). Perceived credibility has a positive but non-significant relationship with willingness to pay for the social and environmental CSR website condition (0.15=r, N=136, p>0.05; 0.10=r, N= 134, p>0.05).
4.2 Testing of the hypotheses
The first hypotheses of this research is if there is a difference between the different CSR message content groups and consumers’ perceived corporate credibility. In the experiment, the message content and the message channel are manipulated. To test the first
hypotheses, treatment one and two will be combined for the environmental CSR message group (N=278). Secondly, treatment three and four will be combined for the no CSR message group (N=276). Finally, treatment five and six will be combined for the social CSR message
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group (N=261). The three samples are normally distributed. In the experiment the respondents were asked about their perceived company’s product expertise and
trustworthiness, which has been combined and transformed to the perceived credibility variable. One-way ANOVA test is used to test if there is a significant difference between the message content groups. All outputs of SPSS can be seen in appendix C. There was a
statistically significant effect of CSR message content on perceived corporate credibility, F (2,800) = 4.20, p<.05. Turkey post-hoc tests revealed that the perceived corporate credibility was significantly higher for both the group with an environmental CSR message (p=.05) and social CSR message (p=.02) compared to the group with no CSR message. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the environmental and social CSR message group (p=.95). It seems that any CSR message positively influences consumers’ perceived corporate credibility and that there is no significant difference between an environmental and social CSR message. Following the results of this test, hypotheses 1a has been
supported. However, no significant support has been found for hypotheses 1b. Consequently hypotheses 1b is rejected.
The second hypotheses of this research are if there is a difference between consumers’ willingness to pay for a product and the different CSR messages. A one-way ANOVA test is used to test if there is a significant difference between the message content groups and consumers’ willingness to pay. Surprisingly, the results show that there was no statistically significant effect of CSR message content on consumer’s willingness to pay, F (2,812) = .812,
p=.44. As a result, no support has been found for hypotheses 2a and b. Consequently,
hypotheses 2a and b are rejected.
The third hypotheses of this research tests if the degree of perceived credibility has a role in the relationship between the six different treatments and consumers’ willingness to
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pay. A linear regression analysis has been performed for the six different treatments to investigate the ability of perceived corporate credibility to predict consumers’ willingness to pay, as can be seen in table 4. Results from the regression analyses show a significant relation for treatments one B=.84, p<0.05 (environmental CSR message via an
advertisement), three B=1.18, p<0.01 (no CSR message via an advertisement), four B=0.80,
p<0.05 (no CSR message via a website) and five B=1.18, p<0.01 (social CSR message via an
advertisement). This entails that for a one unit increase in perceived credibility the model predicts consumer’s willingness to pay will increase by 1.84 units in treatment one
(environmental CSR message via an advertisement). There is no significant relationship between perceived credibility and consumers’ willingness to pay for treatment two (environmental CSR message via a website) and treatment six (social CSR message via a website). In conclusion, hypotheses 3a and b are partially supported.
The fourth hypotheses of this research is if the relationship between CSR message content and both consumers’ perceived credibility and WTP is moderated by the corporate owned message channel. To test these hypotheses, treatment one, three and five are combined for the advertisement group (N=405). Treatment two, four and six are combined for the website group (N=410). The samples are normally distributed. To test if the message channel moderates the relationship between CSR message content and consumers’
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perceived credibility, the SPSS macro of Hayes (2013) was used. Due to violation of the normality assumption, the bootstrap sample was set on a level of 5000 times as
recommended by Hayes (2013).The overall model of the regression analyses is statistically significant, but the overall variance explained by these predictors are very low F(3,799)=2.75,
p< 0.05, R²=.01. However, the interaction effect between CSR message content and the
message channels is not found to be significant. Therefore, no evidence of the moderation is found. As a result, hypothesis 4a has been rejected. Lastly, to test if the message channel moderates the relationship between CSR message content and consumers’ willingness to pay, the SPSS macro of Hayes (2013) was used with a bootstrap sample level of 5000. Results from the regression analyses are found to be not significant F (3,811) =.04, p>0.05, R²=.0001. As a result, no support has been found for hypothesis 4b, and consequently this hypothesis is rejected. Based on these findings, a new conceptual model is proposed with the accepted hypotheses and is shown below in figure 3.
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5. Discussion
In this chapter the results will be discussed in an attempt to answer the main research question of this paper. Furthermore, the results from this paper will be compared to the existing literature and possible contributions will be discussed. Afterwards, the managerial implications will be presented. Finally, limitations of this research and some opportunities for further research will be discussed.
5.1 General discussion
Previous research has shown that engaging in CSR activities can be of great importance and be very beneficial for a company (Du et al., 2007; Du et al., 2010; Nan & Heo, 2007; Servaes & Tamayo, 2013). Furthermore, actively promoting this message content to consumers is seen as vitally important, if a company wants to receive and enjoy the discussed benefits (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006; Du et al., 2007; Du et al., 2010; Öberseder et al., 2011; Servaes & Tamayo, 2013). Besides these known positive effects, little is known regarding consumers’ perceived credibility and actual willingness to pay (Beckmann, 2007; Öberseder et al., 2011). Additionally, scientific knowledge is still limited concerning possible message variables that influence this relationship and under which conditions CSR activities can add value to a company (Öberseder et al., 2011; Pomering & Johnson, 2009; Servaes & Tamayo, 2013). The results reported in this paper extend the literature on variables in CSR communication that can influence consumer response.
The research question of this study was: Does the type of CSR message content, social
or environmental, influence a companies’ credibility and consumer’s willingness to pay and is this relationship moderated by the message channel? This research question is derived from the current lack of knowledge in the field of CSR communication and consumer response literature. The research question is answered by conducting an online experiment with six
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different treatments. In the experiment the message content, either social or environmental, and message channel, either an advertisement or website are manipulated. The program Veylinx, an anonymous online sealed-bid auction with a Vickrey method was used to
measure consumer’s actual WTP. Participants would first see an image of the product in one of the six treatments and place a bid, afterwards via a couple of questions, consumers’ perceived credibility was measured. Afterwards the data of 815 respondents was analysed with the use of SPSS.
First, the results show that a CSR message has a positive influence on consumer’s perceived corporate credibility. Consumers’ perceive a company as more credible when they see a CSR message including a well-known CSR label in an advertisement or on the
company’s website compared to not having any CSR message. This finding is in line with previous research stating that CSR messages will increase consumer’s awareness, which in turn increases consumer’s attitude (Feldman & Vasquez-Parraga, 2013; Groza et al., 2011). Furthermore, this supports the contention that by engaging in proactive CSR
communication, companies can yield more favourable attitudes from consumers (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006; Groza et al., 2011). Thirdly, this result supports the study of Cronin et al. (2012) that indicates that certification of green business practices can create value for the company. On the other hand, the results show that there is no significant difference between a social and an environmental CSR message. This is contradicting to previous literature that suggests that environmental causes are rated as most important by
consumers and play’s an even bigger role than the product’s price in a purchasing decision (Mohr & Webb, 2005; Schmeltz, 2012; Young et al., 2010). It is likely that the effect of CSR in those previous studies is due to the fact that the participants’ level of CSR awareness is artificially raised and only measures attitudes and intentions instead of actual behaviour.
