Information specificity, social topic awareness and message authenticity in CSR communication

Abstract

PurposeThis paper explores how companies can improve consumer attitudes towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages and companies by designing the content of the message, which should provide specific information and improve social topic awareness among consumers. The paper also explores the mediating role of message authenticity between the CSR message content and consumer attitudes towards the information and the company.Design/methodology/approach302 participants evaluated the website of a fictitious company that included information about its CSR activities. The authors collected data through a questionnaire of Likert-type and dichotomous scales and contrasted the hypotheses with a causal model, analysing the relationships among variables through structural equation modelling (SEM) with the software EQS 6.1.FindingsThe findings suggest that information specificity and social topic awareness improve consumer perceptions of message authenticity. The findings also show that message authenticity improves consumer trust and attitudes towards the information and the company. Attitude towards the information, message authenticity and social topic awareness show the largest impacts on trust and attitude towards the company, while information specificity also has a positive although smaller effect.Originality/valueIntegrating information specificity and social topic awareness within the conceptual model presented in this paper, based on the heuristic-systematic model (HSM) and attribution theory, allows researchers and practitioners to close the gap between companies' CSR activities and consumers' perceptions, attitudes and behaviours.

Impact of the length of stay at hotels on online reviews

“…This is supported by information manipulation theory (McCornack, 1992), which predicts that authentic information tends to be more specific than deceptive information. More recently, Pérez and Liu (2020) also showed the positive impact of information specificity on the perceived authenticity of information by applying the heuristic-systematic model.…”

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“…Los resultados observados en el estudio guardan una estrecha relación con las investigaciones precedentes, corroborando que la responsabilidad social corporativa es una variable cuyo desarrollo está condicionado por un enfoque multidimensional donde se manifiestan variables relacionadas con la alta dirección como son el liderazgo (Aftab et al, 2021;Bardos et al, 2020), la concepción estratégica de la organización (Abugre y Anlesinya, 2020; y el diseño organizacional que se implemente para alcanzar estos objetivos estratégicos (Donnelly y Wickham, 2020; García-Castillo et al, 2020), así como los procesos de comunicación organizacional (Park y Kang, 2020;Pérez et al, 2020) que se derivan de la materialización del diseño organizacional implementado y de la acción de los líderes.…”

“…En correspondencia con la proyección de los líderes y como manifestación de sus posiciones, se reconoce como otra variable de influencia: la concepción y conducción estratégica de la organización a partir del enunciado de la visión, misión u objetivos de trabajo (Abugre y Anlesinya, 2020; . En estrecha relación, y como forma de asegurar el logro de los objetivos rectores, también se reconoce la concepción del diseño organizacional que se aplica en la organización (Donnelly y Wickham, 2020;García-Castillo et al, 2020) y los procesos de comunicación organizacional (Park y Kang, 2020;Pérez et al, 2020).…”

Is it better to communicate product information abstractly or concretely? The role of consumer product expertise and shopping-stage mindset

“…Perceived trustworthiness of abstract vs concrete product descriptions Lexical concreteness of textual communication is defined as the degree to which the words provide vivid, detailed information about described objects, actions, situations and context (Feldman et al, 2006). A more lexically abstract message may elicit adverse reactions, being perceived as less objective and truthful (Feldman et al, 2006), less authentic, less associated with reality (Pérez et al, 2020), less vivid (Burns et al, 1993;Walters et al, 2012) and indicating inferior perception of warmth and competence (Kim and Magnini, 2020). Such a message would also be considered less trustworthy (Miller et al, 2007;Robinson and Eilert, 2018).…”