Fit or fail?
The effects of perceived brand fit and site credibility on consumer attitudes and purchase intention towards CSR blog communication
Matteo Sabbatini 10679189
Master Thesis Persuasive Communication Supervisor: Sandra Zwier
University of Amsterdam 29-06-2018 Word count: 6600
ABSTRACT
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication is a topic of great interest both academical and professional fields. Corporate blogs offer great opportunities for CSR communication, given their personal and interactive nature. However, research on this subject is lacking and practitioners struggle to find effective ways and best-practices to employ CSR blog communication in a world of increasingly critical consumers. The current research contributes to the academical knowledge on this subject by posing the following research question. Does perceived brand fit affect attitude towards the brand and message and purchase intention when communicating CSR initiatives via company generated blogs, and is this effect moderated by source credibility? An online experiment was conducted to answer this research question. Participants were shown a CSR blog written by a fictional company ‘CleanCloth’ posted on a fictional website designed by the researcher. Two-way Anova analyses were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that perceived brand fit had a significant positive effect on attitudes towards the brand and message. Furthermore, site credibility had a significant positive effect on attitude towards the message. No significant moderation effect was found for site credibility on the effect of perceived brand fit on the dependent variables. The empirical framework provided can aid practitioners in conducting effective CSR blog communication. Recommendations for future research have been made for the continuation of study in this area. The current study has made an important first step in the field of empirical study regarding CSR blog communication.
Introduction
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a topic currently enjoying extensive attention from both the academic and professional world and has become a vital element for a positive brand image (Fieseler et al., 2009). This is in part because corporations are nowadays expected to incorporate social responsibility in their business strategy (Ingenhoff & Sommer, 2011; Mohr et al., 2001). CSR can be defined as a corporation’s duty to society, which goes beyond the corporation’s legal and economic motives (Petkus & Woodruff, 1992; Holme & Watts, 1999). However, this definition is not universally accepted, and joint best-practices and broad theoretical support for effective CSR strategies are lacking, making CSR a challenging subject for practitioners and scholars alike (Rim & Song, 2013). These challenges are further exacerbated by an increasingly critical general public and press which are putting the motives behind CSR strategies under heavy scrutiny. When CSR strategies and initiatives are
perceived as clearly ‘self-serving’ negative attitudes towards the corporation may be formed by the press and the public (Campbell & Kirmani, 2000). The current study will be conducted in the context of CSR communication.
While researchers agree that communication of CSR is vital to its effectiveness (Epstein & Roy, 2001) little research has been done regarding which factors play a role in successful CSR communication. One form of communication which has seen promising results for CSR communication is the ‘company generated blog’. Company generated blogs concern content in the form of written blogs, often written by an employee of the company, using a
conversational tone (Cox, Martinex, & Quinlan, 2008). It is generally believed that these blogs can promote high levels of interactivity and increase the personability of a brand and thus offer great opportunities for CSR communication. The interactive nature of blogs has been shown to increase perceived transparency of a company, which in turn leads the
communicated CSR initiative to be seen as more altruistic and less self-serving (Rim & Song, 2013). However, research on CSR blog communication is still scarce. While researchers agree that blogs and other social media tools offer unprecedented opportunities (Huang et al., 2007), little is known about which factors need to be considered when employing blogs for CSR communication.
Two other factors will be studied in the current paper that may shape the effects of CSR blog communication, namely perceived brand fit and source credibility. Perceived brand fit, or the
‘match’ between a societal cause and a company, has been shown to be an important factor in attitude formation toward CSR initiatives (Zdravkovic, Magnusson, & Stanley, 2010).
However, research on the importance of this factor in relation to other factors is inconclusive and sometimes contradictory (Lafferty, 2007). Furthermore, to the current authors
knowledge, no research has been done on perceived brand fit CSR communication in corporate blogs. By studying the possible influence of perceived brand fit, corporations will have more knowledge on how their chosen CSR initiative and its communication might affect consumer attitudes. In showing understanding of the relation between CSR initiative and brand, corporations will likely reduce the likelihood of being seen as disingenuous by the consumer. The current study will contribute to the knowledge on perceived brand fit by studying the variable in the context of CSR blog communication. Second, the possible moderating effect of source credibility will be studied. While source credibility has been thoroughly analyzed in the field of psychology and persuasive communication (Giffin, 1967; Sternthal, Dholakia, & Leavitt, 1978; Pornpitakpan, 2004) the role of website credibility has not yet been studied in the context of CSR communication through websites. Since CSR blogs, and corporate blogs in general are almost exclusively posted online (Huang et al., 2007) on websites which often show advertisements and other content shown to affect site credibility (Robin & Homes, 2008), site credibility seems to be a vital element in the context of CSR blog communication. Especially since, as stated before, CSR initiatives and the corporations behind them are often judged on the basis of their credibility and transparency. Thus, the current study will contribute to the research of source credibility expanding the context of study to that of CSR blog communication.
By researching these variables, the current study will provide further knowledge and an incentive for future research by making a first step in creating an inclusive theoretical backdrop on CSR blog communication. Furthermore, the results of this study may serve as a practical guide for practitioners employing CSR blog communication. By providing an empirical framework, professionals may be better equipped to effectively spend resources for communicating CSR initiatives.
The current study will attempt to address the challenges stated above by posing the following research question:
RQ: Does perceived brand fit affect attitude towards the brand and message and purchase intention when communicating CSR initiatives via company generated blogs, and is this effect moderated by source credibility?
Theoretical framework
Corporate Blogs
Blood (2002) defines a blog as a personal journal posted on a website. While this definition is not conclusive, it does contain an important facet of blogs relevant for corporate
communication, namely that a blog is a personal journal. This personable aspect may be employed by corporations to promote informal, dialogical discourse with (potential) consumers (Cox, Martinez, & Quinlan, 2008). This is especially relevant since dialogue between a corporation and consumers is often seen essential for the creation of positive consumer relationships (Kent, Taylor, & White, 2003). Corporations also show great interest in employing blogs and other social media communication tools since they can create
stakeholder engagement (Huang et al., 2007). Consequently, the corporate blog has the potential to solve or alleviate many communication challenges ushered in by the arrival of the new web and still faced by many companies today. These include a growing need for the corporation to take a proactive stance on societal issues and an increasingly critical target audience demanding an interactive, two-way discourse (Ihator, 2001). Given the inherent personality of a blog, they give the corporation an opportunity to engage in a conversation with the audience and show their active involvement in societal issues. Especially in CSR communication, this form of personal communication shows great promise. Before the internet era, corporations communicated mainly through print media, radio and television (Goodman, 2006). These forms of communication did not allow for two-way communication and were costly. Blogs allow the interactive communication of CSR initiatives and thus allow the opportunity to engage with a (critical) target audience and increase transparency.
However, blog communication brings its own set of challenges. After a further review of the literature, these challenges will be analyzed.
Fieseler et al. (2009) encourage practitioners to use blogs for CSR communication since it can give brands the opportunity to reach lucrative, and otherwise untapped consumers. They found that the comment feature of blogs, allowing users and the brand itself to leave
comments under a blog, stimulates discourse between the brand and a ‘highly informed’ user group. For this study, Fieseler et al., (2010) studied the online environment of a McDonald’s blog and showed that the discourse created by the blogs remains relatively confined to the topic of the blog. This is since people reading these blogs are often actively looking for
information which might be seen as sub-optimal for companies looking to reach a large number of potential consumers. However, these readers are often influencers and early adopters and thus are a desirable target group. Further research supports the positive effect of interactive features in blogs on the judgement of company motives when communicating CSR initiatives. Rim and Song (2013) found that blogs which allow users to leave comments increase perceived transparency of the brand. When communicating CSR through blogs, companies’ motives were seen as less self-serving, which in turn positively affected attitude towards the message and brand.
Corporate communication through blogs also poses challenges. No guidelines or theoretical foundation about the use or creation of blogs exist, creating a volatile environment (Jones, 2005). Furthermore, according to Jones (2005) employees of a company have to be extremely careful and always disclose their function when writing blogs, since their comments might be seen as manipulative when they don’t. Also, employees and former employees (and anyone else) might write negative comments on the blog, possibly damaging the firm’s reputation (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Given the great potential of blogs for CSR communication and the relative lack of knowledge regarding best practices and risk management, the potential effectiveness of CSR blog communication for customers’ attitude toward the CSR message and the brand was chosen as the topic for the current study. Furthermore, while the potential of CSR blog communication has been acknowledged, the factors which potentially influence its effectiveness have not been studied. These factors include perceived brand fit, which has been studied in the context of traditional CSR communication (Nan & Heo, 2007) and source credibility. As shown above, blogs hold great promise and challenges for CSR
communication. These both center around two factors: legitimacy and transparency. While these factors can be positively affected by using blogs, their open and interactive nature can also backfire. This can be especially damaging in regard to CSR communication, where a company’s motives behind the CSR initiative are heavily scrutinized by the consumer. Therefore, knowledge about factors affecting CSR blog communication is crucial for a comprehensive theoretical and practical understanding of this area of communication. The current study will contribute to this knowledge by studying the following two variables named above: perceived brand fit and source credibility.
Perceived brand fit
While perceived brand fit has been studied in various fields such as brand extension, celebrity endorsement, and cause related marketing (CRM) no central definition of this concept has been found (Nan & Heo, 2007). Generally, perceived brand fit is used to describe how well a brand and an extension (for example a sister brand) fit together. For example, when a sport clothing company such as Nike would launch a sister brand in the domain of sport equipment this is probably seen as a good fit, while a sister brand in for instance the domain of sanitart supplies would likely be seen as a less good fit.
Bridges, Keller, and Sood (2000) study perceived brand fit in the context of brand extensions. Brand extensions are new products or services designed to enter a new market where the brand was not active before (Aaker & Kelly, 1990). These authors argue for a definition of perceived brand fit which goes beyond similarity based purely on the similarity of attributes between the brand and its extension. According to their research, perceived brand fit relies largely on the salience of so-called ‘explanatory links’. Explanatory links are arguments held by a consumer about the parent brand which are relevant to its extension. Other research defines perceived brand fit as ‘the perceived link between a cause and the firm’s product line, brand image, position and/or the target market’ (Becker-Olsen, Cudmore, & Hill, 2006 p.47). This definition is used in a CSR context; however, it does not take into account personal consumer factors such as existing attitudes towards a brand which have been proven to be important by the study by Bridges, Keller and Sood, (2000) mentioned above, and other research (Dawar, 1992; Park; Milberg & Lawson, 1991).
The current paper will use the following definition of perceived brand fit, based on the literature reviewed above: Perceived brand fit is the perceived link between a cause, societal issue, or extension, and the brand’s image, position, or product line, based on similar
attributes and salience of explanatory links.
According to various studies, perceived brand fit is an important factor for consumers’ attitude formation. In the context of CSR, Zdravkovic, Magnusson and Stanley (2010) found that consumers had more positive attitudes towards a brand when perceived fit with the cause the brand is promoting was high, than when perceived fit between the brand and the cause was low. Other research mirrors these findings, stating a positive relation between CSR brand
fit and brand identification and loyalty Zdravkovic, Magnusson and Stanley (2010). Finally, Bigné and Perez (2012) found that high perceived brand fit between a brand and a CSR cause had a positive effect on the evaluation of brand motivations and credibility. A commonly used theory that explains this positive effect of brand fit is congruence theory (Bonney & Foley, 1963). According to this theory, the more a partnership ‘makes sense’ the more
effective persuasion messages from this partnership will be (Rifon et al., 2004). According to congruence theory, information is stored and remembered better when this information is congruent to already existing beliefs or attitudes.
While there seems to be a relatively large agreement that high perceived brand fit is beneficial for positive attitudes towards a brand, one study offering a different conclusion deserves to be mentioned. Lafferty (2007) studied whether brand fit between a brand and a societal cause influences consumer attitudes and purchase intention. In contrast to the other papers reviewed above, no effect of perceived brand fit was found on purchase intentions and attitude towards the ad. However, the researcher acknowledges that the manipulation of the variable brand fit might have caused some validity issues. The two causes used were only ‘slightly incongruent’, and therefore the researcher explains that the positive cognitive affect towards societal causes overrode any negative feelings created by (slightly) poor brand fit in his study.
The following hypothesis is formulated after reviewing the literature.
H1: When the perceived fit between the brand and CSR initiatives communicated through company-generated blogs is high, attitude towards the brand, message and purchase
intention will be higher than when the perceived fit between the brand and CSR initiatives is low
Source Credibility
Source credibility is a concept which has been researched for many decades (Hovland & Weiss, 1952) and more recently also in the context of websites (Fogg, 2003, Robin & Homes, 2008; Tseng & Fogg, 1999). Source credibility is how credible the sender of communication is perceived to be by its audience. The emergence of web-based content has brought new challenges in the area of source credibility research and practice. Websites, to an extent, have less perceivable professional quality control on their content than traditional media sources. No qualifications or education is necessary for creating a website and posting and spreading content, making it challenging to verify online information. Furthermore, given the
emergence of practices such as content marketing and sponsored content, advertising and information provision are often mixed in the online environment (Flanagin & Metzger, 2007). In the section below, a concise review of the literature about source credibility will be given after which a hypothesis for the present study about the role of source credibility in CSR blog communication will be formulated.
The prominent theoretical frameworks under which the majority of the research about source credibility has been conducted is the source credibility theory (SCT) (Fogg, 2003). SCT is a theoretical framework which underlines how the credibility of a sender or communicator’s message is perceived. While this theory does not provide a concrete model, it has served as a building block (backbone?) for many researchers to study the complex concept of source credibility and is thus very relevant for the current study. An extensive literature review on SCT done by Pornpitakpan (2006) states that source credibility consists of three components which have a positive correlation with credibility: expertise, trustworthiness and
attractiveness. In other words, a source of information is seen as more credible when this source is perceived as knowledgeable on the topic at hand, trustworthy, and attractive. For example, an advertisement for a toothpaste brand presented by a conventionally attractive person (high attractiveness), who is a dentist(expertise), paired with testimonials (high
trustworthiness) will be perceived as more credible than an advertisement where these factors are not present.
Given the inherent subjectivity of the factors that make up source credibility, determining what truly makes a source credible has proven to be challenging for practitioners and academics. Research has shown however that source credibility of the medium in which an
advertisement is placed positively impacts attitude towards the brand and the advertisement (Goldsmith, Lafferty, & Newell, 2010). The current study will study source credibility in an online context and will thus be referring to ‘site credibility’ from here forward.
Regarding site credibility, visual components such as website design have been found to positively affect credibility (Robin & Homes, 2008). The study by Robin and Homes compared two experimental conditions, one showing a ‘low budget’ version of a website using minimal professional design, simply showing the content, and one condition where ‘color and graphics’ were used to create a professional looking site. The results of this study showed that, when showing the same content, the high professional design treatment
condition elicited higher site credibility than the low professional design treatment condition. It should be noted though that this study offered no theoretical or professional underpinning for what makes a website look ‘low budget’ or ‘professional’, the operationalization was based on the ‘researchers judgement’. The findings of Robin and Homes (2008) are in
agreement with research done by Fogg et al. (2001) who found that the ‘design and look’ of a website is the most important determinant when judging a website’s credibility.
Based on prior studies, Stephen and Rain (2009) defined seven key structural website characteristics which, when present, lead to high perceptions of website credibility. The results of this study have interesting implications for the current research. These seven characteristics include: ‘third-party endorsements, images, a physical address or telephone number, a privacy policy statement, a navigation menu, the name of the person or
organization operating the website, and link(s) to external websites’ (Stephen & Karmickel, 2009, p.546). Firstly, the seven structural website features used by the researchers indeed were shown to have a positive effect on website credibility. These included the features of privacy statement, contact details, and images. Furthermore, a positive correlation between website credibility and attitude towards a health message incorporated in the website was found. While this study was done in the field of health communication, it is one of the few which has empirically tested the relationship between message features, website credibility, and attitude towards the message. Finally, this study further supported the findings of Fogg et al. (2003) underlining the importance of visual components in website credibility judgements.
Following the literature review above, the following hypothesis is formulated for the current study about the effects of site credibility in CSR blog communication:
H2: When company-generated blogs that communicate CSR initiatives are placed within a context with high site credibility, attitude towards the brand, message and purchase intention will be higher than when the company-generated blogs communicating CSR initiatives are placed within a context with low site credibility
To the present author’s knowledge, no research has as yet been done on the moderating effect of source credibility in the relation between brand fit and brand attitudes. Nevertheless, after reviewing the literature on both concepts and various related studies, an interaction effect between source credibility and perceived brand fit can be expected. According to a study done by Lafferty, (2007), perceived brand fit is not ‘strong’ enough to influence positive responses generated by CSR messages. This study thus suggests that feelings towards a CSR initiative and the company’s motivation are more important factors than perceived brand fit. This finding supports the expected moderating effect of the current study. Moreover, studies show that when a CSR initiative is perceived as being too ‘firm-serving’ negative attitudes towards the message and brand are elicited (Bae & Cameron, 2006; Fein, 1996). Thus, when CSR communication is seen as mainly motivated by image concerns and as not authentic in nature, skepticism and distrust towards the company grows. This implies that when CSR initiatives are communicated through channels which are not perceived to be credible, negative attitudes can be expected to be elicited, even when perceived brand fit is high. These findings can be further supported with the help of attribution theory (Heider & Fritz, 1958). According to attribution theory, the perceived cause of a piece of information is linked to its effect. To illustrate: a consumer seeing an advertisement (the effect) might attribute this advertisement to the cause of a corporation wanting to sell the product, or the consumer might attribute the ad to the qualities of the specific brand or product being advertised. In the former case, a consumer would see and advertisement purely as a tool for a company to make profits, thus probably reducing the effect of the ad, while the latter case leads to attribution to product or brand characteristics, thus increasing likelihood of, for example, product purchase (Settle & Golden, 1974). Literature on website source credibility shows that websites
containing advertisements are seen as less credible than websites offering editorial
information where no persuasive intent is apparent (Fogg et. al, 2001). These findings are echoed by many years of psychological research showing that when persuasive intent is apparent, a message is seen as less believable (Matthes, Schemer, and Wirth, 2007; Van Noort, Antheunis, & van Reijmersdaal; Cotte, Coulter & Moore, 2005). Thus, it is expected
that a website with obvious persuasive and commercial intent, and therefore low credibility, will undo any positive attitudes created by high perceived brand fit. This prediction is further supported by the fact that a company’s motive behind a CSR initiative
(firm-serving/commercial or society serving) is one of the most important predictors in determining attitude towards the initiative and brand (Campbell & Kirmani, 2000).
Following the analysis of the literature above, the following hypothesis is formulated:
H3: When perceived brand fit between a brand and a CSR initiative communicated through an online blog is high, attitude towards the brand and message will be higher than when perceived brand fit is low, but this effect will only occur when source credibility is high
The variables and their expected relations are visually represented in the conceptual model below.
Method
Sample & Procedure
A total of N = 120 participants participated in the experiment of which 47 male, and 73 female. The average age of the participants was 29 (SD = 1.05). The experiment was conducted online and constructed in the program Qualtrics. The participants were reached through the network of the researcher by using platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Whatsapp. After clicking on the link participants were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions. This was done with a functionality of the survey program Qualtrics, with which the experiment was constructed. To check if the independent variables were correctly operationalized, a pilot test of the experiment was conducted. The experiment was shown to n=15 participants. Two yes/no statements were used for the manipulation check ‘The website I just viewed was a credible source’ and ‘The social initiative presented by CleanCloth fits their brand’. All participants chose the appropriate answer, so the
manipulation was deemed as successful and the stimulus material was used in the final experiment.
Design & Materials
To answer the hypotheses, a 2 x 2 (high/low credibility x high/low perceived brand fit) between-subject design was used. The independent variables were site credibility and perceived brand fit, and the dependent variables were attitude towards the message and the brand. A choice for between-subjects rather than within-subjects factors was made to prevent spurious effects caused by the participants changing their behavior because they feel the researcher expects something of them (Charness, Gneezy, & Kuhn, 2012). Furthermore, since the participants were exposed to a moderately long text, using a between-subjects design reduced the possibility that participants would get bored or frustrated reading.
Stimulus material
The stimulus material consisted of screenshots made of two fictional websites of two fictional news agencies. The websites were designed in the program sketch by the researcher.
Two blogs were written about a CSR initiative of ‘CleanCloth’, a fictional Dutch clothing company, as told by their supposed CEO, John Marcs. A first person writing perspective was used, since this is commonly used in CSR blogs, and underlines the personal, informal tone (Blood, 2002). Furthermore, both conditions, high and low perceived brand fit were written to have the same length and structure. The stimulus material of one of the conditions (high credibility, high perceived brand fit) is shown in Figure 2. All of the stimulus material used is shown in appendix A.
Independent variables
Site credibility
The operationalization of the independent variable site credibility was based on earlier research (Rains & Karmikel, 2009; Fogg et al.; 2001; Robin & Homes, 2008). The presence of advertisements on a web page is negatively correlated with site credibility. In the low credibility condition, various advertisements were therefore shown alongside the blog text. These ads were taken from existing websites. Furthermore, an image showing ‘ten ways to slash your bills’ was placed next to the text, since the study by Fogg et al. (2001) showed content which is indistinguishable from an advertisement correlates negatively with site credibility. Finally, to give the low credibility website a more budget look and feel, which negatively correlates with site credibility (Robin & Homes, 2008), a custom header title was created using the typeface Comic sans. The high credibility condition was created by editing the lay-out of the website of ‘The Guardian’, a highly reputable news source. The name of the site was altered to ‘The Seeker’, however the same typeface as employed by The
Guardian was used, and the design was kept intact. No advertisements were shown. A menu bar was shown, which positively correlates with site credibility (Fogg et al., 2001). Finally, a sub-title was shown beneath the header: ‘A joint collaboration between the Guardian & the Washington Post’ the research by Fogg et al., 2001 also shows that a link to reputable external organizations and increase perceived expertise.
Perceived brand fit
Perceived brand fit is defined as the perceived link between a cause, societal issue, or extension, and the brand’s image, position, or product line, based on similar attributes and salience of explanatory links. In both conditions, the blog started with an introduction of the fictional brand ‘Cleancloth’, a supposed clothing company. In the low fit condition, a water project initiative is then introduced. No explanatory link is given between the company and the initiative, so that the fit between the type of brand (clothing) and the cause (water) seems low. In the high brand fit condition on the other hand the introduction included a short sentence explaining CleanCloth employs sustainability practices daily, thus creating an explanatory link. A sustainable fashion project is introduced, so that the fit between the type of brand (clothing) and the cause (sustainable fashion) appears high.
The clean water initiative created for the low brand fit condition was based on existing clean water projects (https://www.charitywater.org/our-projects/), as was the high brand fit
condition (https://www.fonds21.nl/).
Dependent measures
Attitude towards the brand
Attitude towards the brand (Ab) can be defined as ‘an individual’s internal evaluation of the brand’ (Mitchell & Olson, 1981 p. 318). Spears and Singh (2012) conducted an extensive literature review to establish reliable items to measure Ab. These items were used for the current study. They included statements such as: ‘my feelings towards CleanCloth are very unfavourable/ very favourable’ and ‘I think CleanCloth is a very bad/very good brand’. The items are measured on a five-point Likert scale ranging from very unfavourable to very favourable and from very bad to very good (see appendix B).
Attitude towards the message
The definition of this variable was adapted from the definition of attitude towards the ad, which can be defined as the viewers favourable or unfavourable response towards an
advertisement (MacKenzie & Lutz, 1989). Items measuring attitude towards the message in the current study include pleasure/hedonistic values (Bauer & Greyser, 1968): ‘I enjoyed reading this text’, and informative values (Rubin, 2002; Wang, Sun, Lei & Toncar, 2009) ‘The text I just read was informative’ and ‘the text I just read was clear. The items were measured on a five-point Likert scale ranging from completely disagree to completely agree (see appendix B).
Purchase intention
Purchase intention is a step in the decision-making process which analyzes the possibility of a consumer buying a specific product in a specific situation (Shah et al., 2012; Morinez et al., 2007). This variable was measured with items adapted from literature on purchase intention (Mirabi, Akbariyeh, & Tahmasebifard, 2015; Salisbury et al., 2001). These items included: ‘I
would consider purchasing a product from CleanCloth in the future’ and ‘given the chance, I would purchase a product from CleanCloth’. These items were measured with a five-point Likert scale ranging from completely disagree to completely agree (see appendix B).
Scale construction
Attitude towards the message
A principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to check if the items could be measured with a unidimensional scale. Regarding the items measuring attitude towards the message, the PCA showed a unidimensional scale could be constructed. One component had an eigen-value above 1 (eigen-value 2.71), which could clearly be seen by the ‘elbow’ in the scree plot. The component accounted for 67.75% of explained variance for attitude towards the message.
All items were positively correlated with the component, with the item ‘the text I just read was informative’ having the highest correlation (0.85) and the item ‘I enjoyed reading this text’ the lowest correlation (0.79). The constructed scale was deemed reliable with a
Chronbach’s alpha of 0.84. The reliability of the scale could not be increased by deleting any items.
Purchase Intention (PI)
The PCA showed that a unidimensional scale for PI could be constructed. One component had an eigen-value above 1 (eigen-value 2.311) which could be seen by the ‘elbow’ in the scree-plot. The component accounted for 77.04% of explained variance for purchase
intention. All items were positively correlated with the component, the item ‘it is likely that I will actually purchase a product by a brand similar to CleanCloth’ had the highest
correlation (0.92) and the item ‘given the chance, I would consider purchasing a product by CleanCloth’ the lowest correlation (0.81). A scale was constructed which measured purchase intention. This was a reliable scale with a Chronbach’s alpha of 0.85. The reliability of the scale could not be increased by deleting any items.
Attitude towards the brand (ab)
Finally, the PCA showed that a unidimensional scale for Attitude towards the brand (Ab) could be constructed. One component had an eigen-value above 1 (eigen-value 3.14). The component accounted for 78.55% of explained variance for attitude towards the brand. All items were positively correlated with the component. The item ‘my feelings towards CleanCloth are..’ had the highest correlation (0.91) and the item ‘I think CleanCloth is a… brand’ the lowest correlation (0.87). Using these items, a scale was constructed measuring attitude towards the brand. This scale was found to be reliable with a Chronbach’s alpha of 0.91. The reliability of the scale could not be increased by deleting any items.
Results
H1: When the perceived fit between the brand and CSR initiatives communicated through company-generated blogs is high, attitude towards the brand and message and purchase intention will be higher than when the perceived fit between the brand and CSR initiatives is low
To test this hypothesis a two-way Anova analyses were used, with perceived brand fit as independent variable and attitude towards the message, attitude towards the brand, and purchase intention respectively as dependent variables.
The high perceived brand fit condition had significantly higher scores for attitude towards the brand than the low perceived brand fit condition (see table 1), F(1,119) = 3.91, p = 0.050. This was a weak effect η2 = 0.032.
Participants in the high perceived brand fit condition also had a significantly higher average attitude towards the message than participants in the low perceived brand fit condition (see table 1), (F(1,119) = 7.29, p = 0.008. This effect was of moderate strength, η2 = 0.060.
Finally, the high perceived brand fit condition also had a higher perceived purchase intention than the low perceived brand fit condition (see table 1), but this effect was not significant, (F(1,119) = 2.06, p = 0.15).
Table 1
Mean scores of dependent variables across high and low perceived brand-fit conditions Attitude towards the
brand M SD
Attitude towards the message M SD Purchase intention M SD Low perceived brand- fit 3.93 0.70 3.64 0.76 3.12 0.82 High perceived brand-fit 4.17 0.60 3.99 0.65 3.34 0.87
Following the analyses results above, H1 can be partly accepted. Perceived brand fit had a positive effect on two of the three expected dependent variables, attitude towards the brand, and attitude towards the message. No significant effect was found for purchase intention.
H2: When company-generated blogs that communicate CSR initiatives are placed within a context with high site credibility, attitude towards the brand and message and purchase intention will be higher than when the company-generated blogs communicating CSR initiatives are placed within a context with low site credibility
To test this hypothesis, a two-way Anova analyses were conducted with source credibility as independent variable, and attitude towards the brand, attitude towards the message, and purchase intention as dependent variables, respectively.
Mean attitude towards the brand were somewhat higher in the high source credibility condition than in the low source credibility condition (see table 2), but the effect was not significant. (F(1,119) = 3.17, p = 0.078).
Mean attitude towards the message scores were significantly higher in the high source credibility condition than the low source credibility condition (see table 2). The ANOVA analysis conducted showed this was a significant effect, (F(1,119) = 4.67, p = 0.33). This was found to be weak effect, η2 = 0.038.
Finally, the high source credibility condition had higher mean scores for purchase intention than the low source credibility condition (see table 2), but this effect was not significant (F(1,119 = 0.136), p = 0.713).
Table 2
Mean scores of dependent variables across high and low site credibility conditions Attitude towards the
brand M SD
Attitude towards the message M SD
Purchase intention
M SD Low site credibility 3.95 0.71 3.67 0.74 3.27 0.84 High site credibility 4.17 0.57 3.97 0.67 3.21 0.88
H2 can be partly accepted. A significant effect was for source credibility was found for one of three dependent variables, namely: attitude towards the message. No significant effects were found for attitude towards the brand and purchase intention.
H3: When perceived brand fit between a brand and a CSR initiative communicated through an online blog is high, attitude towards the brand and message will be higher than when perceived brand fit is low, only when source credibility is high
No significant interaction effects were found between perceived brand fit and source
credibility for any of the dependent variables attitude towards the message (F(1,119) = 0.127, p = 0.722), purchase intention (F(1,119) = 0.40, p = 0.530, and attitude towards the brand (F(1.119 = 0.041, p = 0.84).
Discussion
The current research has attempted to answer the following research question: Does perceived brand fit affect attitude towards the brand and message and purchase intention when communicating CSR initiatives via company generated blogs, and is this effect moderated by source credibility?
The results of the conducted experiment have interesting implications for the academic and professional context. Firstly, as was formulated in the first hypothesis, perceived brand fit had a positive effect on attitude towards the brand and message. This mirrors earlier findings by other researchers (Bigné & Perez, 2012; Zdravkovic, Magnusson & Stanley, 2010). While these studies also found positive effects of high perceived brand fit on consumer attitudes in the context of CSR, they were not done on blogs and none of the studies analyzed attitude towards the message. Thus, the current study has shown that the positive effects of perceived brand fit also apply to CSR blog communication and can affect consumer attitudes not only towards the brand but also towards the message.
The implication is that brands and practitioners might thus research whether the CSR
initiative they want to communicate fits with the brand. If the brand-cause relationship is not obvious, explanatory links may be provided in communication to increase perceived brand fit. This has also been concluded by other researchers in the context of brand extensions (Aaker & Kelly, 1990). For example, a company supporting a CSR initiative which has no obvious link with their core business may include a small text in their communication explaining why they chose for that particular initiative. Similar explanatory links can also be used to strengthen already well-fitting brand-cause connections. Future research could further examine the importance and function of these explanatory links in the context of CSR brand communication. Using different frames in communicating these links might result in a stronger or weaker perceived brand fit.
The present study also found evidence for the positive effect of source credibility on attitude towards the message. Again, these results echo findings by other researchers (Goldsmith, Lafferty, & Newell, 2010; Stephen & Karmickel, 2009). However, these studies were
conducted in the context of traditional advertising and health communication. To the authors knowledge, no studies have been done on source credibility regarding CSR blog
communication, therefore the results of this study offer relevant implications. Companies communicating their CSR initiatives through blogs posted on third-party websites should be critical of these sites. Websites containing factors such as many advertisements,
unprofessional design, and non-sensical design features are often judged as not-credible. Posting a blog on such a site may create negative attitudes towards the communicated brand. Conversely, choosing a credible site will likely create positive consumer attitudes.
While this study may serve well as a theoretical framework for academics and a practical one for communication professionals within the context of CSR blog communication, it is not without limitations. Creating a fictitious brand and website was done to prevent possible biases towards existing brands and website. However, this negatively affects the ecological validity of the results. Future research on site credibility and CSR communication could examine whether existing attitudes on a brand moderate the site credibility effect. Since the current study used a fictional brand, this could not be studied. The stimulus material gave little information about the actual core business of the brand, such as the type of clothes they sell, at which prices. These factors however often do play a role in brand attitude formation in real world cases. Furthermore, mean scores on all dependent variables across all conditions were relatively high. Possibly, CSR initiatives are seen as generally positive, especially when presented by a company with no records of dishonesty, such as a fictitious brand. This could also be a possible explanation for the lack of moderation effect of perceived brand fit. Since scores on the dependent variables were uniformly relatively high, a negative moderation of source credibility would logically be hard to expect in the context of CSR communication. That said, the current experiment has created a relevant foundation on which future research might build by examining source credibility and perceived brand fit effects on existing brands within the context of CSR blog communication.
Having taken into consideration the implications and limitations, it can be concluded that the current study has made steps in the research on CSR blog communication. Source credibility and perceived brand fit were shown to influence consumer attitudes towards the brand and message in CSR blog communication. These findings can serve as much a much-needed theoretical framework for practitioners. Given the relative scarcity of research on CSR blog communication, this study can also aid future researchers interested in this subject matter. Thus, the first steps have been made in creating a comprehensive theoretical and practical framework for CSR blog communication.
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Appendix A. Stimulus material
Appendix B. Questionnaire
Sex:
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Female (2)Q2 Age
Please answer the following statements about the text you just read.
Q1 The text I just read was informative
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Agree (4)Q2 The text I just read was clear
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Completely Agree (6)Q3 The text I just read was useful to me
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Completely Agree (5)Q4 I enjoyed reading this text
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Agree (4)Please answer the following statements about your personal shopping behavior
Q5 Given the chance, I would consider purchasing a product by CleanCloth
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Completely Agree (5)Q6 It is likely that I will actually purchase a product by a brand similar to CleanCloth
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Agree (4)Q7 I intend to purchase a product from a brand similar to CleanCloth in the future
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Completely Agree (5)Please answer the statements below about the CleanCloth brand
Q8 My feelings towards CleanCloth are
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Positive (4)Q9 I think CleanCloth is a ... brand
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Very Likeable (5)Q10 I think CleanCloth is a ... brand
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Very Good (5)Q11 My feelings towards Cleancloth are
