Does Image Matter While Shopping for a Smartphone? A Cross-Cultural Study of Indian and Canadian Consumers

Do Consumers Really Care about Aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility When Developing Attitudes toward a Brand?

“…Therefore, based on the current findings, worldwide practitioners should recognize the important role of brand credibility and identification to design CSR activities that can favor consumer brand attitude. As stated earlier, brand identification favors positive consumer attitudes regardless of the specific country or culture (Kaur & Soch, 2018).…”

“…Thus, it may represent the most relevant dimension of CSR to raise favorable consumer perceptions toward a brand (at least in the context of the present study). Similarly, in countries with more collective cultures, such as Mexico and India (compared to the United States and Canada), the perceived social aspects of a brand would be expected to be deemed more important for engendering purchase intentions (Kaur & Soch, 2018;Yang et al, 2019). Moreover, in cultures with stronger strict social norms, corporate social performance (social aspects of CSR) tends to have a higher correlation with financial performance than that in cultures with less strict (indulgent) social norms (Sun et al, 2019).…”

“…Making a brand more acceptable and consistent with consumers' self-image, might motivate a customer to pay a higher price for the firm's products. In general, the evidence shows that, regardless of the consumer's culture, the perceived identification with an object tends to trigger favorable attitudes (Kaur & Soch, 2018). Furthermore, a recent study asserted that the congruity between a brand's image and the actual or ideal self-image activates emotions that can have a positive effect on the perceived quality of the brand (Klabi, 2020).…”

“…If companies seek to improve brand perceptions through CSR actions, an emphasis on the social and economic dimensions of PCSR should be prioritized in the short term because these dimensions of PCSR affect firm credibility, brand identification, perceived functional value, and attitude toward the brand (at least in the context of the present study: Mexico). However, from a global management point of view; it should be noted that the social aspects of CSR may have a greater effect in collective societies (e.g., Mexico and India) than in more individualistic cultures (Kaur & Soch, 2018;Yang et al, 2019). Accordingly, in countries tending toward individualism (e.g., Canada and United States), the economic aspect of CSR, or even the environmental dimension, might have a higher level of effectiveness in improving consumer attitude.…”

“…Therefore, future studies should test such effects in other countries and contexts to support the development of a more generalizable theory. Accordingly, comparative studies of countries that are characterized by more individualistic cultures and countries considered to have more collective cultures would be valuable because there is evidence that the social aspects are less important in the former than in the latter in terms of motivating purchase behavior (Kaur & Soch, 2018;Yang et al, 2019). For instance, environmental PCSR might have a more significant effect on brand perception in an individualistic society than social PCSR (in contrast with the present findings as Mexican culture tends to be more collective, as stated earlier).…”