The Role of Gender Differences in the Impact of CSR Perceptions on Corporate Marketing Outcomes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions regarding business sustainability. Another important objective of this study was to explore the moderating role of gender on the relationship between CSR perception and three corporate marketing outcomes (i.e., corporate brand equity, corporate distrust, and corporate hypocrisy). Using a sample of 867 consumers in South Korea, a t-test and hierarchical moderated regression analysis were employed to test four hypotheses. The results of this study showed that female consumers have a higher perception toward CSR than male consumers. The results also revealed that the positive relationship between CSR perception and corporate brand equity was stronger among men than women. In addition, the negative relationships between CSR perception and corporate distrust and between CSR perception and corporate hypocrisy were both stronger among men than women.

Perfect or Imperfect Duties? Developing a Moral Responsibility Framework for Corporate Sustainability from the Consumer Perspective

“…Married people's recycling or sustainable product purchase behavior may be affected by their partners, or by social norms (Starr, ), while unmarried people may believe that companies have to be more supportive for communities as they may need more support from their communities. Finally, despite the previous research on the high tendency toward sustainable consumption behavior in female consumers and highly educated consumers (Carrigan & Attalla, ; Starr, ; Hur et al , ), the findings of this study showed that there are no differences between consumers' gender and educational levels in their views as to which activities are considered perfect or imperfect duties of corporations.…”

The Relationship between Femininity and Sustainability Reporting

“…Scholtens & Sievänen (2013) investigate the differences in the socially responsible investing (SRI) in Nordic countries and their study shows that Norway and Sweden, that have more femininity than Finland and Denmark, are both SRI pioneers. Hur et al (2016) and Jones et al (2017) find that female consumers have higher perceptions toward CSR than male consumers. Thanetsunthorn (2015) shows that masculinity has a significantly negative association with CSR performance on employee and community dimensions, but there is no significant relationship with the environmental dimension.…”

The perception of corporate social responsibility and employee engagement: Examining the underlying mechanism

“…Contradicting views have been seen in existing studies pertaining to the impact of gender differences in CSR expectations and perceptions. Many past studies have shown that women place more priority on CSR issues and activities because they are more socially responsible than men (Alonso‐Almeida, Fernández de Navarrete & Rodriguez‐Pomeda, ; Hur, Kim, & Jang, ; Mejri & Bhatli, ). Brammer, Millington and Rayton () conducted an empirical study and found that women were highly interested in CSR, whereas men were more concerned with training provisions in organizations.…”