CSR-related consumer scepticism: A review of the literature and future research directions

Consumer scepticism has attracted increasing scholarly attention in recent years. However, the scientific understanding of the development and consequences of consumer scepticism towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) and related programmes remains fragmented. In response, this paper reviews, synthesises and assesses the CSR-related scepticism literature from more than two decades (1998-2021) within the ante-cedents-consequences framework. In this paper, 89 studies in the existing literature are synthesised and critically evaluated, and the problems and gaps in the literature are highlighted. This paper also presents an attempt to develop an integrative framework to provide a comprehensive understanding of the antecedents and consequences of CSR-related scepticism. Finally, it offers future research directions based on the current knowledge and gaps in the extant literature.

Automated summary

This paper reviews the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related scepticism over the past two decades and evaluates 89 studies. It presents an integrative framework to comprehensively understand the antecedents and consequences of CSR-related scepticism and highlights the problems and gaps in the literature. Future research directions based on the current knowledge and gaps in the extant literature are also provided.