Corporate Social (Ir)responsibility and Corporate Hypocrisy: Warmth, Motive and the Protective Value of Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

This article examines how a firm’s prior record on corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences individual stakeholders’ perceptions of corporate hypocrisy in the wake of a corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) event. Our research extends extant corporate hypocrisy literature by highlighting the role of individual stakeholders’ inferences about a genuine CSR motive in their judgments of corporate hypocrisy. This can serve to differentiate perceived corporate hypocrisy from inconsistency that arises because of a lack of ability and/or resources. Our research further identifies a source for such perceptions: individual stakeholders’ perceptions of firm warmth generated by a firm’s prior record of CSR. In addition, we find that when CSR and CSI are in the same (vs. different) domains, it can strengthen perceptions of hypocrisy. This provides direct evidence to explain why markets react differently when CSR and CSI events occur in the same domain (vs. different ones).

The ‘Court of Public Opinion:’ Public Perceptions of Business Involvement in Human Rights Violations

“…Third, we uncover factors that have a significant influence on attributions of irresponsibility that have not been widely studied. These include the importance of due diligence in shaping public views, which extends related concepts, such as intentionality, hypocrisy, and rectification (Chen et al, 2020 ; Clark et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, our coding of the responses to open-ended questions suggests that the fit between the harm and lay notions of what counts as a human right played a substantial role in people’s judgments.…”

“…There is evidence that people are more lenient when an actor fails to achieve a certain outcome if that actor put in high levels of effort; in such cases, people are more likely to respond with sympathy (Weiner, 1995 ). Furthermore, visible attempts to prevent or mitigate harm may be perceived as manifestations of care, which is likely to weaken damaging perceptions of hypocrisy (Chen et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Human rights due diligence is substantively different from other types of business due diligence because it focuses on risks to rights-bearers rather than risks to the firm, and it is meant to be an ongoing, iterative effort (Ruggie, 2009 ; United Nations, 2011 ). Hence, our analyses explore how public judgments are affected by proactive corporate behavior that demonstrates care, rather than by the mere sincerity of socially oriented gestures (Chen et al, 2020 ; Warren, 2022 ).…”

Social perception of brands: Warmth and competence define images of both brands and social groups

“…For the latter to occur, the Corporate Social Irresponsibility needs to be attributed to controllable factors and congruent with the communality of the company. This last prediction was empirically tested (Chen et al, 2020). Studying the perception of corporate hypocrisy, when Corporate Social Irresponsibility happened in the same domain as a firm's prior record of CSR, people perceived more corporate hypocrisy than if domains differs.…”

Corporate Social Responsibility of the Selected Transport Company Operated on the Czech Market

“…This may be due in particular to the voluntary basis and the absence of strict rules for the application of CSR activities. Organizations can still choose which path to social responsibility (Chen et al, 2020).…”