Credible CSR communication: the relation with customer
engagement and organizational legitimacy and the role of
celebrity endorsement
University of Amsterdam
Graduate School of Communication Corporate Communication
Master thesis
Name: Suzanne Joosten Studentnr: 10555927
Supervisor: dr. I.J. (Irina) Lock June 29, 2018
2 Abstract
As researchers pursue to explain the connection between the credibility classification of CSR communication and legitimacy, this study stresses the importance of exploring the linkage on customer level. Building on Habermasian validity claims, a three by two design was used for an experiment whereby a corporate Twitter message was replicated to test the influence of perceived levels of credibility and the mediating customer engagement mechanism, on the organizational legitimacy. Additionally, the moderating role of celebrity endorsement in this process was researched. The results suggested that celebrity endorsement did not moderate the relation between credibility and customer engagement. Customer engagement partly mediated the relation between credibility level and organizational legitimacy, solely when participants perceived the message as high in credibility. These results thus imply the importance of engaging customers with the company to enhance the CSR communication process and increase the level of attained organizational legitimacy. This study addresses a literature gap by providing insight in an unresearched area with regard to the value of customer engagement in the relation between credibility and legitimacy. Additionally, communication professionals can find guidelines in this study to determine how to attain legitimacy by engaging customers with credible communication and celebrity endorsement.
3 Introduction
In 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge became a big online hit by creating awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease. This is a Facebook campaign, encouraging people to throw a bucket filled with ice cubes over themselves, and was brought to life to raise donations for research on ALS and went viral (Gorenstein, 2014). The online social media environment increases the speed at which messages are being sent and received, and has thereby become an important factor in communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities (Kesavan, Bernacchi & Mascarenhas, 2013). The success of the campaign shows the importance of engaging people in CSR activities. It might therefore be crucial for service firms, who are becoming more focused on incorporating customers in the co-creation process, to
further engage their customers (Mattila, Wu & Choi, 2016; Russell-Bennett and Baron, 2015). Overall, customers are more positively engaged with companies that incorporate CSR
communication, especially when the communication is credible (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004). Credibility and legitimacy, the license to operate of a company, are linked to each other, whereby credibility is suggested to be the basis of legitimacy (Lock & Seele, 2017). Non-credible CSR communication leads to negative attitudes, such as skepticism, of customers towards the company (Jones & Pittman, 1982), which endangers a companies’ organizational legitimacy (Lock & Seele, 2017). Inducing positive attitudes amongst customers, however,
increases their tendency to engage more with a company (Brief & Motowidlo, 1986). A way to encourage positive attitudes towards a company is by introducing the popular
marketing tool celebrity endorsement (Kamins, 1989; Spry, Pappu & Bettina Cornwell, 2011), to the field of CSR communication. These favourable attitudes suggest that incorporating celebrity endorsement in CSR messages is beneficial for a companies’ engagement with its customers. The level of customer engagement defines how connected the customer is to the brand/company (Hollebeek, 2011). Customers who are engaged express satisfied, content
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emotions towards the company (Brodie, Ilic, Juric, & Hollebeek, 2013). Social media is thereby perceived as a more reliable platform than traditional advertising to advocate CSR activities and thus considered to be an important communication platform (Foux, 2006).
Focusing on the CSR landscape in the Netherlands, public service companies are implementing social media tools to bring across messages with regard to sustainability and social responsibility, as for example the Dutch national railway company, the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS). The NS is an organization with strong roots in the Dutch society, whereby the concept of sustainability lays within the core of the organization (Noordegraaf & Teeuw, 2003). Additionally, focussing on the concept of celebrity endorsement, Jesse Klaver, is a Dutch political party leader of a left-oriented party called GroenLinks. He is a well-known public figure in the Netherlands, and cares about a sustainable environment ("Jesse Klaver", n.d.). This makes him a respectable celebrity to promote sustainability. Thus, the current study will focus on CSR messages on the Twitter account of the NS (NS_Duurzaam) and includes Jesse Klaver as a celebrity endorser in the process of communicating a CSR message.
This research aims to contribute to the literature by researching the mediating effect of customer engagement in relation to the credibility level of CSR communication and organizational legitimacy, and additionally the moderating role of celebrity endorsement. Previous literature suggests to research mediating values in effective CSR communication (Du, et al., 2010; Lock & Seele 2017). There is, however, no research on the joint effects of credible CSR communication and a mediating influence of customer engagement on legitimacy. Additionally, celebrity endorsement is an often applied and effective communicative source (Spry et al., 2011). Yet, the concept of celebrity endorsement is not researched in literature with regard to the connection with customer engagement in the process of CSR communication. In a practical sense, communications practitioners may benefit from this study with regard to the importance of credible online CSR communication, which can increase engagement amongst
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customers and ultimately heighten the organizational legitimacy. As well, the role of celebrity endorsement in the customer engagement process may additionally be beneficial in CSR communication to create customer engagement. The following research question is proposed:
RQ: What are the effects of the credibility level of CSR communication and the mediating role of customer engagement on the perceived organizational legitimacy of the NS, and what role does celebrity endorsement play in this process?
Central concepts and theoretical outline CSR communication
CSR communication is conceptualized in several perspectives within academic literature. Schultz, Castelló and Morsing (2013) first discuss two of those perspectives: the instrumental view on CSR and the political - normative view on CSR. By challenging these first two perspectives, a third view is created: the communication view on CSR. Within the communication view, CSR is seen as communication and functions as a forum for debates with regard to social norms and expectations towards corporate social responsibilities. This view is built on the constitutive role of communication in organizations (CCO) perspective. Within this view, CSR is established in and with communication as a result of the changing environment. The communicative view of CSR is central in this study, since it discusses the importance of communication in the construction of meaning. It is argued that (new) online media play an important role in the interaction with stakeholders, increasing the connectivity of individuals with regard to the company (Schultz, Utz & Göritz, 2011).
Social media
The online communicative environment with regard to CSR communication, especially when social media are used, is considered to be important in today's’ corporate environment (Kesavan et al., 2013). The growth of social media is persistent and attains power globally by its growing
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popularity. Therefore, companies are advised to embrace social media in their communication, and most importantly in their CSR messaging, since social media is capable of reaching out to millions of people worldwide (Kesavan et al, 2013). In general, organizations can view social media as a platform that can be used to advocate CSR communication (Lee, Oh & Kim, 2013). Social media is perceived as a more trustworthy source of information than traditional advertising and promotions (Foux, 2006), which is considered to be important since one can envision that credibility is vital for establishing good CSR communication.
Credibility
In order to appear credible, CSR communication needs to be in line with the following aspects: truthful, sincere, understandable and appropriate (Habermas’ validity claims, Seele & Lock, 2015; Lock & Seele, 2017). Non-credible communication may lead to corporate disasters and levels of discrepancies between talk and action, which may create higher levels of skepticism and distrust amongst stakeholders toward corporate CSR communication (Jones & Pittman, 1982). This phenomenon of deviation between talk and action is also described as the “credibility gap”.
Credibility gaps originate between companies and stakeholders when companies communicate about their CSR practices in a manner that is not perceived as credible due to their actions (Lock, 2015). For example, during a period of negative attention in the media about low wages for staff, the American retail company Walmart communicated that the company would contribute to the overall environmental well-being by spending approximately $500 million each year on energy efficiency. These actions emphasize that Walmart want to be a caretaker of the environment. This created higher levels of skepticism amongst stakeholders since the company was unable to communicate with their employees about higher wages but could contribute a big amount of money to the environment (Guardian, 2006; Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010). This example explains that it is therefore important for companies to
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communicate in a credible manner about CSR communication and limit the credibility gap, which is rewarded by the receivers by expressing promotional behaviours, advocating for the company (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004). To sum it up, a significant task with regard to communicating perceived ‘good’ CSR messages is to increase credibility and thereby reducing stakeholder skepticism. Furthermore, sustaining honest and credible communication is vital for an organization in order to create a consistent, uniform and credible corporate identity, and gain legitimacy (Crane & Glozer, 2016; Lock & Seele, 2017).
Organizational legitimacy
The concept of organizational legitimacy is mentioned in numerous scholarly pieces (Deephouse & Suchman, 2008; Kostova & Zaheer, 1999; Suchman, 1995) but is in this study in line with the following conceptualization of the definition: “Organizations acquire legitimacy when stakeholders find their actions to be generally accepted” (Dowling & Pfeffer, 1975; Lock, Filo, Kunkel & Skinner, 2015). In other words, legitimacy grows by the acceptance of others (Kostova & Zaheer, 1999). Lock and Seele (2017) thereby argue that the license to operate is a crucial factor in the existence of a company. As described before, the concept of credibility is vital in order for an organization to gain legitimacy; both concepts are inseparably connected to each other whereby credibility is seen as the basis of legitimacy (Crane & Glozer, 2016; Lock
& Seele, 2017).
The environment in which companies are operating is unpredictable and complex, which makes it difficult to communicate in a legitimizing order (Lock, 2015). This suggests that it might be crucial for companies to create a focus point for their CSR communication, next to appearing credible, in order to gain legitimacy. Building on this thought, Morsing and Schultz (2006) developed a model, based on the Public Information Model (Grunig & Hunt, 1984), where they distinguish between three dimensions of communication strategies with regard to CSR messages to increase organizational legitimacy: the information (1)-, response (2)- and
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involvement (3) strategy. The involvement strategy suggests that a company co-constructs their communication together with stakeholders, which is related to the CCO perspective. In this manner, it is possible to align companies’ CSR actions and stakeholders’ expectations and manage legitimacy (Massey, 2001; Morsing & Schultz, 2006). This concept relates to the study of Ospina, Diaz and O’Sullivan, (2004), who found with their research that managers intent to build and maintain relationships with stakeholders, since it is an important way to legitimize the company. To sum it up, dialogues with stakeholders should be merged with the CSR communication strategy of a company in order to create relations with important stakeholders, like customers, and obtain legitimacy (Morsing & Schultz, 2006).
Customer engagement
This study applies the concept of customer engagement whereby the level of a customer’s motivational state, both connected to the brand as well as depending on the context, is characterized by certain levels of cognitive, emotional and behavioural activity in brand interactions (Hollebeek 2011). Social media platforms are thereby suggested to be respectable tools to create and maintain customer engagement, since social media make it possible to interact and co-create by enhancing two-way communication (Manetti & Bellucci, 2016).
Corporate messages focused on promoting social responsible behavioural intentions are likely to induce strong and often positive reactions among customers (Manetti, 2011). An organization’s relationship with its customers is thereby an important mediator of CSR outcomes (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006). Additionally, engaged customers express higher levels of loyalty, satisfaction, connection, trust, empowerment, commitment, and emotional bonding (Brodie et al., 2013). This emphasizes the importance of incorporating the concept of customer engagement in CSR communication.
However, although it is acknowledged that customers expect companies to be involved in socially responsible behaviour and celebrate those that do by creating positive word of mouth
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(WOM) (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004), it is likely that customers perceive the motives of a company with skepticism. In the process of engaging customers, the credibility of the communication source is vital. Customers form their judgment on the basis of the perceived credibility with regard to a company’s CSR communication. This perception of credibility may level possible skepticism of customers regarding the socially responsible behaviour of a company since credible CSR communication relates positively to the attitudes of a customer with regard to the company (Bhattacharya & Sen 2004; Manetti, 2011). Positive attitudes may again lead to increased values of customer engagement (Kumar, Aksoy, Donkers, Venkatesan, Wiesel & Tillmanns, 2010).
The formation of a dialogue between customers and a company about socially responsible behaviour, is a key aspect in the process of attaining legitimacy for the company, as explained by the study of Du and Vieira (2012). This perception emphasizes the increasing importance for companies to invest in customer engaging CSR activities. Customer engagement is therefore suggested to be an important factor in the process of CSR communication. The following hypotheses are proposed:
H1a. When CSR communication is perceived as more credible, this will lead to a higher level of customer engagement.
H1b. When the level of customer engagement is high, this will lead to a higher level of perceived organizational legitimacy of a company’s CSR communication.
H2. Customer engagement mediates the effect of credible CSR communication on organizational legitimacy; CSR communication high in credibility has a positive effect on organizational legitimacy when the level of customer engagement is high.
Growing awareness for the importance of customer engagement is equivalent to the increasingly popular trend of companies using social media to advocate their voice (Wirtz,
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Schilke & Ullrich, 2010). Du and Vieira (2012) additionally suggest the use of social media in the process of attaining legitimacy. With regard to social media platforms, customer engagement is seen as the outcome of good communication (Sashi, 2012). The factor of interactivity incorporated in social media and the discourse it enables, gives room for new opportunities to strengthen customer engagement. In view of the above, celebrity endorsement is considered to be one important tool in the process of creating value in the relation with customer engagement.
Celebrity endorsement
“A celebrity endorser is an individual who is known by the public for his or her achievements in areas other than that of the product class endorsed” (Friedman & Friedman, 1979, p. 63). Celebrity endorsement is considered an effective promotional tool by marketers globally. One in every four advertisements uses celebrity endorsement, where a celebrity is being presented to advertise for a product and the aim is to influence the opinion of the target audience (Spry et al., 2011). The online environment and in particular social media have made it possible for celebrities to connect with their audience in a whole new manner since social media enables the possibility to create two-way communication between customers and celebrities (Yan, 2011). Additionally, customers who are connected to celebrities through social media are also more committed to the brand the celebrity represent (Kowalczyk & Pounders, 2016).
Building on the concept of celebrity endorsement, the Source Credibility Model aims to explain that the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement depends on the level of expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness the celebrity transfers to the (potential) customer. A celebrity, who is perceived to be credible, is more likely to have a desirable impact on consumers’ attitudes, intentions, and behaviour (Ohanian, 1990). These positive attitudes towards the company increase one's tendency to engage, which is essential for a company to grow and establish their communication. Additionally, customers who are more engaged with a company
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will express more positive promotional behaviours like, (electronic) WOM (Kumar et al. 2010). The relation between celebrity endorsement and customer engagement is emphasized in the research of Javornik and Mandelli (2012). The participants in the focus groups organized in this research, indicated that incorporating celebrity endorsement in communication would significantly improve their enthusiasm to engage with a company, which highlights the suggestion that celebrity endorsers can be used to strengthen customer engagement. The concept of celebrity endorsement and the power of engaging customers offer insights into the conceptualization of strengthening customer engagement. Together with suggestions found in the literature, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H3. Celebrity endorsement positively moderates the relationship between the credibility level of CSR communication and the level of customer engagement; celebrity endorsement heightens the customer engagement level.
Figure 1: Conceptual model, including hypotheses Credibility level of CSR Customer engagement Celebrity endorsement Organizational legitimacy H3 H1a H1b H2
12 Method Pre-test
To confirm that the CSR messages in the different conditions, normal-, lower-, and higher credibility, were manipulated effectively and the celebrity endorsement would be recognized, a pre-test was conducted. The pre-test consisted of a randomized survey with six conditions which tested the perceived credibility of the manipulated message of the Twitter channel of @NS_Duurzaam. The sixteen-item credibility scale (Lock & Seele, 2017) measured on a 7 point Likert scale (1 strongly disagree – 7 strongly agree) tested the perceived credibility level. The survey item ‘Did you recognize the celebrity in the CSR message of the NS?’ had the answer possibilities yes/no, and was related to the manipulation of moderating variable celebrity endorsement. The results for a one-way analysis of variance suggest that there is a difference with regard to the perceived credibility levels over the six conditions (F(5, 55) = 9,98, p< .001). The normal credibility condition scored lower in credibility (M= 4.89, SD= 0.96) than the higher credibility condition (M= 5.19, SD= 1.22) and higher than the lower credibility condition without the celebrity endorsement (M= 2.41, SD= 1.64). The same for the normal; higher; lower credibility conditions with celebrity endorsement (M= 4.93, SD= 0.77; M= 5.05,
SD= 1.34; M= 3.06, SD= 1.12). These results suggested that the manipulations may be used in
the experiment. The low number of respondents for this pre-test (N= 61) proposed however to not solely base this decision on the significance levels of the test, with regard to reliability (Seele & Lock, 2017) issues. Therefore, an additional manipulation check was conducted after the official experiment.
The survey item which tested if the participants recognized the celebrity (Jesse Klaver) was analysed with a frequency table. N=30 participants were assigned to the conditions with Celebrity endorsement and of those participants, n=25 recognized the celebrity. These results suggested that the chosen celebrity was a correct choice and could be used in the experiment.
13 Design
In order to answer the research question and test the hypotheses, an online experiment with a 3×2 factorial between-subjects design was conducted. The research compared the effect of three levels of credibility in a CSR message on the mediating variable customer engagement and dependent variable organizational legitimacy, and additionally tested the role of celebrity endorsement in this process. The design consisted of experimental factor ‘Credibility level of the CSR message’ (three levels: higher, normal, lower) and experimental factor ‘Celebrity Endorsement’ (two levels: yes, no) as between-subjects variables (Table 1). The choice for a factorial between-subjects design was made to ensure that there was no danger of familiarity, whereby participants recognized what was being researched. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the six conditions by the online survey tool via which the experiment was set out.
Sample
The sample consisted of participants out the Dutch population who were required to be able to operate independently in the customer market to effectively measure customer engagement. A requirement for that was that the participant was categorized as an adult, thus reached the age of 18 and above. The participants were gathered with a multi-stage random sampling method, whereby a part was gathered with stratified sampling and a part with random sampling. The survey was disseminated amongst participants via the QR code and a shortened link provided by Qualtrics in a (multiple) train(s) in the Netherlands and on the online platforms Survey Circle, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Participants who were asked on the train seemed less willingly to fill out the survey than the online participants contacted thru the online platforms. Both methods to gather participants were used to make sure that the sample would reach a high enough number of participants to conduct further analyses. The experiment consisted of a total number of N=196 who finished the survey. The survey included an intention check, whereby
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respondents were asked to check the box “Completely disagree”. This question showed that 19 of the 196 participants did not answer correctly and were therefore excluded from further analyses. The final sample consisted of N= 177 participants, of whom n=4 were not a customer at the NS. The participants who were not a customer of the NS were however not excluded in further analyses due to the small sample size. Furthermore, of the final sample n=58 were recruited on the train with the QR code, and n=119 via an online link. Of the total sample of participants, n=127 (71.8%) was between the 18 and 25 years old; n=130 (73.4%) was female and n=95 (53.7%) reached the bachelor educational level. A full table of the descriptives of the complete sample can be found in Appendix 3. Table 1 shows an overview of the final participant count per condition.
Table 1: Experimental design
Credibility level of CSR message Celebrity endorsement
Yes No
Higher message credibility N=30 N=31
Normal message credibility N=31 N=28
Lower message credibility N=29 N=28
Note: Percentages of total sample.
Procedure and manipulations
Participants for the experiment were gathered over the course of three weeks, whereby NS customers were asked to participate in the research. After agreeing to participate in the research each participant was randomly assigned by Qualtrics to one of the six conditions in the experiment. All six conditions contained a screenshot of a Twitter message of the corporate sustainability Twitter account of the NS. The picture included a message about that the NS recycled material from old trains, to build new trains. The original text in the message was
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modified to enhance and lower the credibility with regard to the credibility criteria of Lock and Seele (2017). The other stimulus was with regard to the presence of a celebrity. Three conditions contained the celebrity “Jesse Klaver” party-leader of GroenLinks, a Dutch party with a political left-oriented and widely known advocator of sustainable behaviour, whereby a picture of the celebrity was placed on the left side of the message, with a mentioning of his name and a quote. After being exposed to the stimulus material, the participants completed an online questionnaire measuring the perceived credibility of the message, the level of customer engagement towards the NS and the level of attained organizational legitimacy of the NS. When placed in one of the conditions with celebrity endorsement, the participants were also required to answer the questions with regard to the credibility of the source of the communication statement, Jesse Klaver. The research manipulated an existing CSR message from the corporate Twitter account, which protected the external validity since the real-life resemblance is mostly preserved. The internal validity was ensured by modifying the different messages only with regard to the stimuli, other characteristics of the message will remain the same and can therefore not play diverse roles in the separate manipulations. The questionnaire can be found in Appendix 1 and the experimental materials can be found in Appendix 2.
Measures
All the proposed scales were translated to Dutch (forward-back translation) whereby the items were answered on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
Independent variables
Credibility level of CSR communication: The sixteen-item scale measuring the
credibility of CSR communication of Lock and Seele (2017) was implemented in order to measure the measured independent variable. The scale had a very high internal reliability with
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a Cronbach’s alpha of .95 (M= 4.22, SD= 1.30). The credibility scale contained scores ranging from 1.00 to 6.88, with higher scores indicating higher values of perceived credibility values.
Attitude: Before being exposed to the stimulus, participants were asked to give their
opinion about the NS by answering the five-item attitude scale developed by (Spears & Singh, 2004). The scale was found to be very high in internal reliability (α= .94; M= 4.41, SD= 1.14). The attitude scale contained scores from ranging from 1.00 to 7.00, with higher scores indicating higher values of attitude with regard to the NS.
Celebrity endorsement: In order to measure the credibility level of the proposed
celebrity Jesse Klaver, the fifteen-item scale measuring source credibility, developed by Ohanian (1990) was used in this research. The scale had a very high internal reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha of .99 (M=4.39, SD=1.03). The celebrity endorsement scale contained scores ranging from 1.93 to 6.64, with higher scores indicating higher credibility values with regard to the celebrity.
Dependent variables
Customer engagement: In order to measure whether participants were engaged with the
NS the level of customer engagement was measured with a scale developed by Gallup Consulting (2009) (Sashi, 2012), to measure the concept of customer engagement with an eleven-item scale. The scale was found to be very high in internal reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha of .89 (M= 3.85, SD= 1.01). The customer engagement scale contained scores ranging from 1.00 to 6.27, with higher scores indicating higher values of customer engagement.
Organizational legitimacy: To measure to what extent participants found the NS to be
legitimate a scale developed by Chung (2010) was implemented, which measured organizational legitimacy with five items on a 7 points Likert scale. The scale showed a good internal reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha of .89 (M= 4.84, SD= 1.12). The organizational legitimacy-scale contained scores ranging from 1.00 to 7.00, with higher scores indicating
17 higher values perceived organizational legitimacy.
The research did not take place in a laboratory, which could have created an artificial environment. Instead, the dependent variable was measured with an online survey. This method protected the external validity since environmental stimuli, that could have affected the research, were not altered by the researcher and appear therefor more similar to the everyday practice of the participant.
Manipulation check
The manipulation check to determine whether participants experienced the manipulation in credibility was tested with a one-way analysis of variance. The results suggested that there was a difference with regard to perceived credibility levels over the six conditions (low, normal and high) with and without celebrity endorsement, the whole model was found to be significant (F(5, 171) = 16,40, p< .001). The normal credibility condition scored higher (M= 4.83, SD= 0.82) than the lower credibility condition (M= 3.08, SD= 1.36), but had an unexpected higher score than the higher credibility condition (M= 4.77, SD= 0.93), on perceived credibility. The post-hoc Bonferroni test additionally showed that the difference in perceived credibility between the means of the higher and the normal credibility condition was not significant (Mdifference = -.06, p > .05). The normal and lower (Mdifference = 1.75, p<.001) and the higher and
lower credibility condition (Mdifference = 1.69, p<.001) did however differ significantly.
The conditions with celebrity endorsement showed the same results. The normal credibility condition scored higher (M= 4.73, SD= 0.82) than the lower credibility condition (M= 3.24, SD= 1.40), the higher credibility condition (M= 4.60, SD= 1.05), on perceived credibility. The post-hoc Bonferroni test showed once more that the difference in perceived credibility between the means of the higher and the normal credibility condition was not significant (Mdifference = -.14, p > .05). The normal and lower (Mdifference = 1.49, p<.001) and the
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significantly. Thus, the conditions were regrouped, normal and high credibility condition were added together to the high credibility condition, with and without celebrity endorsement, for further analyses.
Results Randomization
Four randomization checks were conducted to check whether the demographic characteristics were spread equally among the conditions. A one-way analysis of variance was used for age and educational level and a Chi-square for gender and Twitter usage.
For the demographic variable age, equal variances could not be assumed according to Levene’s Test F(5, 171) = 2.84, p= .017. There were however no significant differences in the mean age between the conditions, the variances between the six conditions are assumed to be equal (F(5, 171) = .94, p= .457). Additionally, there were no significant differences in the mean educational level between the conditions, the variances between the six conditions were assumed to be equal (F(5, 171) = 1.22, p = .300). Furthermore, out of the 177 participants in the six conditions there were respectively no significant differences in gender (χ2(5 = 3.42), p= .636), or in Twitter usage (χ2(15 = 12.85), p= .614). All the demographic variables are divided equally between the conditions and will therefore not be included in further analyses as covariates.
Control variables
The 4th model of the PROCESS macro of Hayes tested the possible effect of the control variable
attitude NS. The results showed that the attitude of the NS was a significant predictor of and showed a positive relationship with customer engagement (CE) (b= .48, t=9.50, p< .001,
CI[0.38, 0.58]), and organizational legitimacy (b= .51, t=8.28, p< .001, CI[-0.02, 0.19]). When
the variable credibility level was constant and the variable attitude NS increased with one unit, CE increased with 0.48 units. Additionally, when keeping the variables credibility level and CE
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constant and increasing the variable attitude NS with one unit, organizational legitimacy increased with 0.51 units. To control for the variable source credibility of celebrity endorsement, a linear regression analysis was conducted. The results showed that the regression model with source credibility as predictor and CE as outcome variable was significant, (F(1, 78)= 5.18, p= .026). Source credibility showed a significant positive association with CE (b= 0.25, t=2.28, p= .026, CI [0.03, 0.50]). When source credibility increased with one unit, the CE increased with 0.25 units. The strength of the prediction was moderate: 25 per cent of the variation in CE was predicted by the credibility of the source (R2 = .25). Attitude NS and source credibility were included in further analyses as co-variates. To control for the question if participants knew Jesse Klaver before being exposed to the stimuli and the possible effect on the mean CE scores, an Independent Samples T-Test was conducted, one group did however contain less than 30 observations (n= 10). Additionally, there was no significant difference in the mean scores of CE for answering ‘no’ (M=3.79, SD=1.11) and answering ‘yes’ (M= 3.43,
SD= .90) on the question whether the participants knew Jesse Klaver (t(88)= .982, p= .329). Of
the 90 participants who entered one of the three conditions including the stimuli of Jesse Klaver,
n= 10 did not know and n= 80 did know Jesse Klaver before being exposed to the stimuli. The
results concerning the significance level and the small size of the n= 10 group suggested that this variable did not needed to be included in further analyses.
Hypotheses testing
Credibility level and customer engagement
Hypothesis 1a expected that the credibility level of a CSR message would have a positive
influence on CE. In order to study the effect of the conditions on CE, two linear regression analyses were conducted with each of the two conditions with different levels of credibility (low, high), of which the results can be found in Table 2, and the covariate attitude NS as predictors. The model with the high credibility condition was found to be significant (F(2, 56)
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= 26.84, p< .001), and showed a strong prediction (R²= .70). Both the high credibility condition and the covariate had a moderately strong association with CE (b*= 0.31, t=2.89, p= .005,
CI[.10, .56]; b*= 0.50, t=4.73, p< .001, CI[.06, .65]). The model with the low credibility
condition showed additionally significant results (F(2, 25) = 17.78, p< .001), and a strong prediction (R²= .77). The covariate attitude NS showed a strong association with CE (b*= 0.73,
t= 5.16, p< .001, CI[.06, .14]), the low credibility condition however, did not significantly
predict CE, (b*= 0.08, t= .57, p= .573, CI[-.14, .24]). These results confirm hypothesis 1a, CSR communication high in credibility leads to higher levels of customer engagement.
Table 2
Multiple linear regression with the high and low credibility conditions without celebrity endorsement on outcome variable customer engagement (N= 87).
B/B* S.E.
High credibility condition 0.33/0.51* 0.11
Low credibility condition -0.08/-0.03 0.17
Note: * p < 0,05. ** p < 0,01. *** p < 0,001
Customer engagement and organizational legitimacy
Hypothesis 1b expected that CE would have a positive influence on organizational legitimacy.
A linear regression analysis tested this possible effect with CE as predictor and organizational legitimacy as the outcome variable. The model was found to be significant (F(1, 175) = 391.87,
p< .001). CE showed a significant very strong association with organizational legitimacy (b*=
0.83, t=19.80, p< .001, CI[.83, 1.02]). CE explained 83 per cent of the variance in scores on organizational legitimacy (R² = .83). The above provides evidence which supports hypothesis 1b.
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Mediating role of customer engagement
Hypothesis 2 suggested a mediation relation, where the credibility level of a CSR message
would have a positive effect on the organizational legitimacy, mediated through CE. First, two separate PROCESS macro’s of Hayes (4th model, mediation) with the covariate attitude NS,
and high/low credibility conditions without celebrity endorsement were conducted, similar to the research of Boerman, Van Reijmersdal and Neijens (2012). Low credibility condition did not show a relation with CE as was found at the testing of hypothesis 1. Additionally, the results of the mediation analysis indicated predictably that low credibility condition was not a significant predictor in the mediation model (indirect effect= .05, SE= .08, 95% BCBCI[-.110, .193]). There was however a significant mediation effect of the high credibility condition (indirect effect= .28, SE= .12, 95% BCBCI[.052, .457]), indicating a mediation model. The strength of the prediction is strong, the high credibility condition together with covariate attitude NS and mediator CE explain 70 per cent of the variance in scores on organizational legitimacy (R² = .70). The Sobel test conducted shows full mediation in the model, z= 2,57, p= .010. CE fully mediated the relationship between high credibility condition and organizational legitimacy. These findings confirm hypothesis 2, customer engagement positively mediates the relation between a CSR message high in credibility and organizational legitimacy.
Celebrity endorsement
Hypothesis 3 studied the moderating role of the celebrity endorsement in the relationship
between the level of credibility of the CSR message and CE, two multiple regression analyses were conducted, with predictors the high and low credibility condition with celebrity endorsement. The moderating variable, the source credibility of the celebrity, was added as interaction term. The results of the moderations can be found in table 3.
The regression model with the high credibility condition was found to be significant (F(4, 36) = 12,84, p< .001) and showed a strong prediction (R²= .77). Source credibility as
22
moderator was not significantly associated with CE (b*= -1.78; t= -1.90; p= .065; 95% CI[-.53; .02]). Source credibility did however show a significant indirect association with CE (b*= 1.38;
t=2.13; p= .040; 95% CI[.07; 2.84]). The second regression model with the Low credibility
condition was found to be not significant (F(4, 23) = 0,58, p= .679). These results indicate that celebrity endorsement does not function as a moderator, which leaves hypothesis 3 unsupported.
Table 3
Multiple linear regression to test the moderating effect of celebrity endorsement on the relation between credibility level and customer engagement (N= 90).
B/B* S.E.
High credibility condition -0.26/-1.78 0.13
Low credibility condition -0.05/-0.36 0.18
Note:* p < 0,05. ** p < 0,01. *** p < 0,001
Discussion and conclusion
The aim of this research was to examine the relationship between the credibility level of CSR communication, the mediating role of customer engagement and organizational legitimacy, and the role of celebrity endorsement in this process.
This study contributed to literature by addressing a gap in academic research. The mediating value of customer engagement had not been studied before in the relation between credibility level and organizational legitimacy. Customer engagement is however considered to be important since a dialogue between customers and the company is a key aspect in the process of attaining legitimacy (Du & Vieira, 2012). Thereby, research has shown that customers are more positively engaged with companies who present good CSR communication, especially those that communicate in a credible manner (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004).
23
The first hypothesis assumed that the a CSR message high in credibility would increase the level of customer engagement, which is confirmed by this research. The more credible the participants perceived the message, the more engaged they indicated to be. The condition with the message lower in credibility did not show this relation and was thus not significantly associated with customer engagement. These results are in line with previous literature. A companies’ credibility in communication is positively related to the attitudes of a customer towards the company (Manetti, 2011). Attitude is thereby linked to the value of engagement, when a customer has a positive attitude towards a company, they tend to feel more engaged with the company (Kumar et al., 2010). The attitude of the customer towards the company can also explain the lack of relation between the message which is low in credibility and the level of customer engagement. The results showed that the relation between attitude towards the company and customer engagement was stronger than the relation between credibility and customer engagement. Which could indicate that in some cases, as in the current study with the message lower in credibility, the relation between credibility and customer engagement does not exist without the presence of attitude towards the company.
The second part of the first hypothesis assumed that the more engaged the participants were with the company, the higher the attained organizational legitimacy for the company would be, this was as well confirmed. This hypothesis was based on and in line with previous research suggesting the importance of a dialogue between stakeholders and a company about socially responsible behaviour, a vital point in the process of attaining legitimacy for the company (Du & Vieira, 2012).
The second hypothesis expected a mediating role of customer engagement, and found evidence that customer engagement indeed mediates the relationship between the credibility of a CSR message and organizational legitimacy. As expected and explained by the previous hypotheses, when respondents perceived the message as more credible, they indicated to be
24
more engaged with the NS, which resulted in higher levels of organizational legitimacy. Whereas, the condition with the message lower in credibility did not show this mediation relation, as expected by the lack of a direct relation between the message lower in credibility and the customer engagement. These results relate to the importance of the mediating value of customer engagement in CSR communication. The hypothesis was linked to previous research whereby is suggested that the relation between customers and the organization is an important mediator of CSR outcomes (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006), however, this research did not consider the factor of customer engagement. The findings of the current study thus contribute to previous research on the relation between credibility of CSR communication and legitimacy (Du et al., 2010; Lock, 2015). This study suggests a mediating relation between credibility, customer engagement and legitimacy, which has not been researched yet and may therefore contribute to fill a gap in literature up.
The conducted research found that the concept of attitude with regard to the NS needed to be taken into consideration in the relation between credibility and customer engagement. The attitude of a participant toward the company appeared to be positively related to the level of engagement with - and the level of organizational legitimacy the participant attributed to - a company. This research suggested that when the participants’ attitude towards the company was positive, the engagement of the customer with the company was influenced positively as well, regardless of whether or not they saw a more or less credible message. This finding substantiates earlier research suggesting that positive attitudes increases the engagement tendency of customers (Brief & Matowidlo, 1986; Kumar et al., 2010).
The expected moderating role of celebrity endorsement in the relation between credibility and customer engagement appeared not to exist, as celebrity endorsement did not strengthen this relationship. Yet, celebrity endorsement is indirectly and positively related to customer engagement. When participants were shown the message high in credibility with Jesse
25
Klaver, celebrity endorsement positively influenced the customer engagement level, through the attitude towards the company. These findings are partly in line with previous research. The indirect effect can be explained by the Source Credibility Model, which was taken into consideration in this study as the factor explaining the effect of celebrity endorsement. This model describes the importance of credibility in the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement, whereby a celebrity who is perceived to be credible, is more likely to have a desirable impact on customers’ attitudes, intentions, and behaviour (Ohanian, 1990). Additionally, the lack of moderation effect and the presence of the indirect effect can be partially explained by Kamins (1989) who suggests that celebrity endorsement is linked to the attitudes of customers, which is related to the level of engagement with a company (Brief & Motowidlo, 1986). This may imply that, in the current study, Jesse Klaver influenced the attitude of the participants and thereby not directly the engagement. In addition to that, Spry et al. (2011) mention that celebrity endorsement can create favourable attitudes towards the endorsed brand and may not be directly linked to ones tendency to engage, thus induces rather attitude than intention. This may suggest that celebrity endorsement and thereby the credibility of the source, may be directly related to the attitude and do not have a direct effect on the relation between the level of credibility and the engagement of the customer.
To conclude, this experimental research showed that customer engagement is an important factor in the relation between credibility of CSR communication on Twitter and organizational legitimacy. Implications of this study are an addition to current debates about the effects of credibility in (online) CSR communication, relative to the relation between stakeholders and the company (Du et al., 2010; Lock & Seele, 2017). Particularly when considering the environment of social media (Kesavan et al, 2013; Lee et al., 2013) and additionally taking the indirect effect of celebrity endorsement into account as a possible asset to engage customers (Javornik & Mandelli, 2012).
26 Practical implications
The findings of this study suggest that practitioners may benefit from enhancing the credibility of, and exploring customer engaging mechanisms in, their online CSR communication. As the example of Walmart showed, communicating in a non-credible way may create skepticism, which endangers the legitimacy of a company. Practitioners should be aware of the recommendation that this study proposes to communicate in a credible manner about CSR activities to convince customers to engage with the company. This being said, companies should additionally consider taking into account that the customer attitude may be an important factor resulting in opinions about the perceived credibility of the CSR communication and as well the level of customer engagement. Practitioners could organize independent focus groups to determine which communication is considered to be credible and to determine the attitude of the customer with regard to the company. The improvement of both should be a focus point for managers in the CSR communication field, as it leads to positive outcomes as heightened customer engagement and organizational legitimacy. Furthermore, the concept of celebrity endorsement could be taken into consideration in practical cases. Practitioners should focus on recruiting credible celebrities to endorse CSR messages/communication, to ensure the tendency of increased customer engagement, considering the importance of the credibility of the source which endorses a message (Ohanian, 1990).
Limitations and future research
This research experienced some shortcomings that could be improved in future research. The sample is not a respectable representation of the society, the generalizability is considered to be low. The sample consisted of mostly higher educated younger people, most of whom were women, which is not a truthful representation of the population involved with online CSR communication. The characteristics of the group are not comparable to society and may therefore not be the most suitable, which suggests that a larger and more divers sample could
27
achieve more accurate results for future research. The sample was nonetheless used in the current research due to time restrictions. Another possible limitation of this research may be that it was not possible to specify the answers of those who conducted the research in the train, using the facilities of the NS, and those who were not at the train at the moment of filling out the survey. Yet, this research did not expect significant differences in the results related to this factor, since it is not controllable where the participants fill in or finish the survey if the research is not bound to the lab. Future studies could focus on taking the factor of attitude towards the organization in to account to increase customer engagement and the credibility of the online CSR message in relation to attaining organizational legitimacy. Additionally, the attitude was now measured before the participant saw the stimuli, in other words, is cannot be said if and how the credibility level of the message influenced the attitude of the customer. Future research could change this by first generating exposure to the stimuli. In order to elaborate on the findings in this study, follow-up research can as well expand with regard to the social media platforms, which is now limited to only Twitter. Lastly, CSR focused research could pay attention to the direct link between celebrity endorsement and customer engagement, as suggested to be existing in the current study too, since improved customer engagement led in fact to increasing levels of organizational legitimacy.
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34 Appendices
1. Questionnaire (Dutch translation)
Master Thesis Credibility and Celebrity Endorsement - final
Beste participant. Heel erg bedankt voor uw deelname aan deze vragenlijst. Het doel van dit onderzoek is gericht op het vaststellen van uw kennis en mening met betrekking tot het Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Ondernemen van het bedrijf de Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) op het online sociale platform Twitter. Door de vragenlijst heen zijn verschillende soorten antwoordmogelijkheden. Belangrijk is dan ook om telkens de vraag eerst goed door te lezen. Rechts onderaan de pagina staat een pijltje, hierop klikt u om naar de volgende vraag te gaan wanneer de huidige is beantwoord. De vragenlijst zal maximaal 10 minuten van uw tijd in beslag nemen. Bedankt voor uw deelname en succes.
Informed consent: ‣ Ik ben duidelijk ingelicht over de aard en methode van het onderzoek, zoals uiteengezet in de uitnodigingsmail voor dit onderzoek.‣ Ik stem geheel vrijwillig in met deelname aan dit onderzoek.‣ Ik besef dat ik op elk moment mag stoppen met het
onderzoek.‣ Ik begrijp dat als mijn onderzoeksgegevens worden gebruikt in
wetenschappelijke publicaties, of op een andere manier openbaar worden gemaakt, dit volledig geanonimiseerd gebeurt.‣ Ik begrijp dat mijn persoonsgegevens niet door derden worden ingezien (zonder mijn uitdrukkelijke toestemming). Als ik meer informatie wil, nu of in de toekomst, dan kan ik me wenden tot Suzanne Joosten,
suzanne.joosten@outlook.com Voor eventuele klachten over dit onderzoek kan ik me wenden tot het lid van de Commissie Ethiek namens ASCoR, per adres: ASCoR secretariaat,
Commissie Ethiek,
Universiteit van Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam; 020‐525 3680; ascor‐secr‐ fmg@uva.nl
o
Ik begrijp bovenstaande en ga door met de survey35 Question customer NS
Deze survey focust zich op het bedrijf de Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS)
Bent u een klant bij de NS (maakt u gebruik van de services van de NS zoals het gebruik van de treinen)?
o
Jao
NeeQuestions attitude NS
Answers: 1 completely disagree – 7 completely agree Wat vindt u van de NS:
1. Aantrekkelijk 2. Goed
3. Aangenaam 4. Positief 5. Sympathiek
*Conditions with Jesse Klaver, additional questions
Deze survey focust zich daarbij ook op Jesse Klaver, de partijleider van GroenLinks, kent u hem?
o
Ja36 Questions Source Credibility
Answers: 1 completely disagree – 7 completely agree 1. Loyaal 2. Eerlijk 3. Vertrouwd 4. Oprecht 5. Betrouwbaar 6. Een specialist 7. Ervaren 8. Slim 9. Bekwaam 10. Competent 11. Aantrekkelijk 12. Van hoge klasse 13. Knap/mooi 14. Elegant 15. Sexy
*End additional questions celebrity endorsement conditions
Het onderzoek bevat telkens dezelfde afbeelding van een bericht met betrekking tot Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Ondernemen (vanaf nu afgekort als: MVO) van de
Nederlandse Spoorwegen (vanaf nu afgekort als: NS) op Twitter. Lees dit bericht goed door en beantwoord daarna de vragen met betrekking tot de NS.
37 Questions credibility of the message
Answers: 1 completely disagree – 7 completely agree
1. Ik denk dat de uitspraken in de tekst accuraat zijn 2. Ik denk dat de uitspraken in de tekst correct zijn 3. Ik ben ervan overtuigd dat de uitspraken waar zijn
4. Ik denk dat de(ze) tekst het beste bewijs dat momenteel voorhanden is, gebruikt 5. De argumenten worden gerechtvaardigd door de feiten in de tekst
6. De tekst weerspiegelt de oprechte bedoelingen van de NS 7. Ik denk dat de intenties van de NS overeenkomen met de tekst 8. De tekst is niet misleidend
9. Het MVO-bericht past in de context van de sociale en milieu uitdagingen binnen de openbaar vervoer sector
10. Als ik dit MVO-bericht lees, ben ik van mening dat de tekst MVO problemen goed aankaart
11. Ik denk dat de tekst met recht de NS vertegenwoordigt 12. Ik begrijp de tekst
13. De tekst is duidelijk geschreven
14. De tekst is op een begrijpelijke manier geschreven 15. Ik begrijp de betekenis van de tekst
38 Questions customer engagement
Answers: 1 completely disagree – 7 completely agree
1. Ik ben tevreden met de NS
2. Ik ben geneigd om de NS als treinmaatschappij te blijven kiezen
3. Het is waarschijnlijk dat ik de NS aan een vriend/medewerker aanbeveel 4. De NS is een naam die ik altijd kan vertrouwen
5. De NS levert altijd op wat ze beloven 6. De NS behandelt me altijd eerlijk
7. Als zich een probleem voordoet, kan ik altijd op de NS rekenen om een eerlijke en bevredigende oplossing te bereiken
8. Ik ben er trots op een NS klant te zijn 9. De NS behandelt me altijd met respect
10. De NS is het perfecte bedrijf voor mensen zoals ik 11. Ik kan me geen wereld zonder de NS voorstellen.
Questions organizational legitimacy
Answers: 1 completely disagree – 7 completely agree
1. Ik heb een positief oordeel over de NS
2. Ik geloof dat de NS de overheidsvoorschriften volgt 3. De NS verricht goed werk
4. Ik denk dat de NS eerlijk is
39 Demographic variables, categorial scales
Hoe vaak maakt u gemiddeld gebruik van het sociale media platform Twitter?
o
Eén keer per maand of mindero
Meerdere keren per maando
Meerdere keren per weeko
Vrijwel dagelijks Ik identificeer mij als een:o
Vrouwo
ManIn welke leeftijdscategorie valt u?
o
18 - 25 jaaro
26 - 35 jaaro
36 - 45 jaaro
46 - 55 jaaro
56 - 65 jaaro
65+ jaar40 Wat is uw hoogst genoten opleiding?
o
Geen onderwijs / basisonderwijs / lagere schoolo
LBO / VBO / VMBO (kader- en beroepsgerichte leerweg)o
MAVO / eerste 3 jaar HAVO en VWO / VMBO (theoretische en gemengde leerweg)o
MBOo
HAVO en VWO bovenbouw / WO-propedeuseo
HBO / WO-bachelor of kandidaatso
WO-doctoraal of master End messageDit is het einde van de survey. Dank voor uw deelname! Voor vragen kunt u mailen naar: suzanne.joosten@outlook.com
Heb je deze survey gevonden via surveystudent.nl?
Dan is dit het codewoord 5ae453f6a01aa om je credit te claimen.
SurveySwap? Klik op onderstaande link!https://app.swapsurvey.com/s/ryWEORbTf
Voor SurveyCircle users (www.surveycircle.com): de Survey Code is: NW4T-3RG8-PGXN-SHKX
41 2. Manipulation materials
Condition 1: normal credibility, no celebrity endorsement
Condition 2: normal credibility, celebrity endorsement
