The Impact of Digital Social Responsibility on Preference and Purchase Intentions: The Implication for Open Innovation

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed people’s life and the ways businesses implement their social responsibility initiatives. During the COVID-19 pandemic, online and digital platforms have been increasingly realized as important mechanisms for businesses undertaking and implementing socially responsible activities—digital social responsibility (DSR). The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of DSR on brand preference and consumers’ purchase intention comparing between high and low involvement product categories. The quantitative empirical research was conducted by using an online questionnaire instrument, and a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique was used to test the proposed model. Based on 194 samples of Thai respondents collected in November to December 2020, the findings demonstrate that DSR initiatives are significantly and positively associated with brand preference and with consumers’ purchase intention. The moderating result reveals that product involvement plays a significant role in strengthening the association between DSR initiatives and brand preference. The effect of DSR on brand preference is stronger for low product involvement respondents than for high product involvement respondents. The research highlights the significance of DSR and extends the current knowledge about DSR and its potential impact on customers’ perception.

The Interplay between Corporate Social Responsibility at Employee Level, Ethical Leadership, Quality of Work Life and Employee Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Case of Healthcare Organizations

“…This study deployed the structural equation modeling technique (SEM) to validate the hypotheses. SEM is a second-generation co-variance-based data analysis technique, which most contemporary scholars prefer to analyze the data at an advanced level [ 104 , 105 , 106 ] because this technique equips the researchers to estimate different interrelations in a single go. To evaluate the hypotheses of the current study, the authors conducted structural models using AMOS in three ways.…”

The Role of CSR Engagement in Customer-Company Identification and Behavioral Intention During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Apart from economic agendas, companies nowadays have increasingly assumed much importance on CSR engagement, which is viewed as a strategic movement for their business development (Kesavan et al, 2013 ; Puriwat and Tripopsakul, 2021 ). According to Fatma et al ( 2020 ), CSR engagement is related to how companies perform and communicate their CSR-related activities.…”

“…In addition to CSR initiatives, successful CSR engagement also requires the company to effectively communicate their CSR activities with their stakeholders through various platforms (Fatma et al, 2020 ). In general, CSR engagement by business organizations is supposed to effectively affect the behavioral intention of the consumers, which can eventually contribute to the increased economic benefits (Sharma et al, 2018 ; Puriwat and Tripopsakul, 2021 ). In regardless of the favorable outcomes of CSR engagement, discrepancies occur in the academic world that whether CSR engagement is of necessity in a critical period, e.g., COVID-19 (Han, H. et al, 2020 ; Bae et al, 2021 ; Puriwat and Tripopsakul, 2021 ).…”

“…In general, CSR engagement by business organizations is supposed to effectively affect the behavioral intention of the consumers, which can eventually contribute to the increased economic benefits (Sharma et al, 2018 ; Puriwat and Tripopsakul, 2021 ). In regardless of the favorable outcomes of CSR engagement, discrepancies occur in the academic world that whether CSR engagement is of necessity in a critical period, e.g., COVID-19 (Han, H. et al, 2020 ; Bae et al, 2021 ; Puriwat and Tripopsakul, 2021 ). Since this type of activity requires companies' investment of their limited available capitals that are might needed by other promotional activities as well.…”

Using Social Media as a Medium for CSR Communication, to Induce Consumer–Brand Relationship in the Banking Sector of a Developing Economy

“…This is because the organization's specific CSR engagement increases transparency in order to achieve consumer reliability [62]. CSR activities of an organization are attributed to shaping the cognitive and emotional aspects of consumer behavior including their loyalty and purchase likelihood as mentioned by different eminent scholars in the existing literature [10,[63][64][65]. Communicating about CSR through social media attaches consumers with a brand and they wish to stay with the brand as long as possible [66].…”