Both theory and recent research evidence suggest that a corporation's socially responsible behavior can positively affect consumers' attitudes toward the corporation. The effect occurs both directly and indirectly through the behavior's effect on customer-corporation identification. The authors report the results of four studies designed to replicate and extend these findings. Using a field survey design, Study 1 provides evidence that perceived corporate social responsibility affects not only customer purchase behavior through customer-corporate identification but also customer donations to corporate-supported nonprofit organizations. Using experimental designs, Studies 2 and 3 replicate and extend the Study 1 findings by providing additional evidence for the mediating role of customer-corporate identification on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and customer donations. However, the combined results of Studies 2 and 3 also show that because of a "perceived opportunity to do good" by supporting a company that is changing its ways, consumers are more likely to donate to a corporatesupported nonprofit when the corporation has a weaker historical record of socially responsible behavior. Finally, Study 4 tests the relationship between the nonprofit domain and the domain of the corporation's socially responsible behavior as a boundary condition for this effect.
The greening of corporate America has added a new and different type of criterion to some organizational buying decisions—social responsibility. Scholars have given little attention to such noneconomic buying criteria. On the basis of a study of 35 buying processes in ten organizations and an in-depth examination of 21 of those processes, the author addresses how and why socially responsible buying comes about in organizations. The findings suggest that two factors have been key to the success of socially responsible buying initiatives. One factor is the presence of a skillful policy entrepreneur. Policy entrepreneurs are found to have many of the same characteristics as business entrepreneurs, but invest their resources in instituting new organizational policies. Their zeal for socially responsible buying is rooted in a commitment based on a complex and often difficult process of moral reasoning. The second factor influencing the success of socially responsible buying is the organizational context within which policy entrepreneurs operate. The author differentiates organizational contexts on the basis of whether the socially responsible buying is part of a deliberate corporate strategy and further classifies them through a framework and identifies themes observed across the contexts. Guidance is offered for vendors marketing socially responsible products and services.
The author examines company advertising campaigns with social dimensions and compares them to matched standard, or nonsocial, campaigns. The author investigates the managers’ objectives for the campaigns with social dimensions, examines the processes creating them, and develops a model for explaining success factors. Most campaigns have mixed objectives, both economic and social, which have many implications. Although these campaigns are not particularly effective in achieving traditional economic objectives, such as increasing sales, they are highly effective in achieving company-oriented objectives, such as motivating the work force or communicating the essence of the company's mission. Drawing on research and theory related to organizational identification, the author discusses causal mechanisms underlying social campaigns’ effectiveness with company-oriented objectives and presents directions for further research. Ethical considerations and managerial implications are discussed, as well.
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