Assessing the effects of quality, value, and customer satisfaction on consumer behavioral intentions in service environments

In the face of marketplace polls that attest to the increasing influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumers' purchase behavior, this article examines when, how, and for whom specific CSR initiatives work. The findings implicate both company-specific factors, such as the CSR issues a company chooses to focus on and the quality of its products, and individual-specific factors, such as consumers' personal support for the CSR issues and their general beliefs about CSR, as key moderators of consumers' responses to CSR. the results also highlight the mediating role of consumers' perceptions of congruence between their own characters and that of the company in their reactions to its CSR initiatives. More specifically, the authors find that CSR initiatives can, under certain conditions, decrease consumers' intentions to buy a company's products.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2333479_code333677.pdf?abstractid=2333479&type=2

Does Doing Good Always Lead to Doing Better? Consumer Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility

In the face of marketplace polls that attest to the increasing influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumers’ purchase behavior, this article examines when, how, and for whom specific CSR initiatives work. The findings implicate both company-specific factors, such as the CSR issues a company chooses to focus on and the quality of its products, and individual-specific factors, such as consumers’ personal support for the CSR issues and their general beliefs about CSR, as key moderators of consumers’ responses to CSR. The results also highlight the mediating role of consumers’ perceptions of congruence between their own characters and that of the company in their reactions to its CSR initiatives. More specifically, the authors find that CSR initiatives can, under certain conditions, decrease consumers’ intentions to buy a company’s products.

Through qualitative and empirical research, the authors find that the service quality construct conforms to the structure of a third-order factor model that ties service quality perceptions to distinct and actionable dimensions: outcome, interaction, and environmental quality. In turn, each has three subdimensions that define the basis of service quality perceptions. The authors further suggest that for each of these subdimensions to contribute to improved service quality perceptions, the quality received by consumers must be perceived to be reliable, responsive, and empathetic. The authors test and support this conceptualization across four service industries. They consider the research and managerial implications of the study and its limitations.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3203465.pdf

Some New Thoughts on Conceptualizing Perceived Service Quality: A Hierarchical Approach:

Purpose – The authors perform a large‐scale literature review and use conceptual theory building to introduce the concept of sustainability to the field of supply chain management and demonstrate the relationships among environmental, social, and economic performance within a supply chain management context.Design/methodology/approach – Conceptual theory building is used to develop a framework and propositions representing a middle theory of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM).Findings – The authors introduce the concept of sustainability – the integration of environmental, social, and economic criteria that allow an organization to achieve long‐term economic viability – to the logistics literature, and position sustainability within the broader rubric of SSCM. They then present a framework of SSCM and develop research propositions based on resource dependence theory, transaction cost economics, population ecology, and the resource‐based view of the firm. The authors conclude by discussing manageri...

A framework of sustainable supply chain management: moving toward new theory

Companies are facing increasing pressure to both maintain profitability and behave in socially responsible ways, yet researchers have provided little information on how corporate social responsibility impacts profitability. This paper reports the findings from in-depth interviews of consumers to determine their views concerning the social responsibilities of companies. A typology of consumers whose purchasing behavior ranges from unresponsive to highly responsive to corporate social responsibility was developed from the analysis.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1745-6606.2001.tb00102.x

Do Consumers Expect Companies to Be Socially Responsible? the Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Buying Behavior

In service settings, customer satisfaction is often influenced by the quality of the interpersonal interaction between the customer and the contact employee. Previous research has identified the so...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1251919.pdf

Critical service encounters: The employee's viewpoint

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is often used as a key criterion in gauging corporate reputation. This research examined the influence of consumers’ attributions on corporate outcomes in response to CSR. Researchers and managers have considered consumers’ beliefs about CSR initiatives to be simplistic, serving either economic ends or reflecting sincere social concerns. The results of two studies established that consumers’ attributions were more complex than traditionally viewed, mirroring many of the motives ascribed to companies by managers and researchers. Rather than viewing corporate efforts along a self- or other-centered continuum, consumers differentiated four types of motives: self-centered motives that are strategic and egoistic and other-centered motives that are values driven and stakeholder driven. Consumers responded most positively to CSR efforts they judged as values driven and strategic while responding negatively to efforts perceived as stakeholder driven or egoistic. Attributions were shown to affect purchase intent as well as mediate the structure of an offer.

/pdf/building-corporate-associations-consumer-attributions-for-3b7r6bccs0.pdf

Building Corporate Associations: Consumer Attributions for Corporate Socially Responsible Programs

This experiment examined the influence of corporate social responsibility and price on consumer responses. Scenarios were created to manipulate corporate social responsibility and price across two domains (environment and philanthropy). Results from a national sample of adults indicate that corporate social responsibility in both domains had a positive impact on evaluation of the company and purchase intent. Furthermore, in the environmental domain corporate social responsibility affected purchase intent more strongly than price did.

The effects of corporate social responsibility and price on consumer responses

Although cause-related marketing has become increasingly popular, academic researchers have only begun to examine how consumers respond to it. In this study, the authors explore in depth how consum...

Lois A. Mohr

Papers

Do Consumers Expect Companies to Be Socially Responsible? the Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Buying Behavior

Critical service encounters: The employee's viewpoint

Building Corporate Associations: Consumer Attributions for Corporate Socially Responsible Programs

The effects of corporate social responsibility and price on consumer responses

A Typology of Consumer Responses to Cause-Related Marketing: From Skeptics to Socially Concerned: