Journal
BUSINESS ETHICS QUARTERLY
Volume 30, Issue 4, Pages 486-524Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/beq.2019.50
Keywords
corporate hypocrisy; corporate social responsibility; corporate social irresponsibility; experimental studies
Funding
- University of Bath
- University of the West of England
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This article examines how a firm's prior record on corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences individual stakeholders' perceptions of corporate hypocrisy in the wake of a corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) event. Our research extends extant corporate hypocrisy literature by highlighting the role of individual stakeholders' inferences about a genuine CSR motive in their judgments of corporate hypocrisy. This can serve to differentiate perceived corporate hypocrisy from inconsistency that arises because of a lack of ability and/or resources. Our research further identifies a source for such perceptions: individual stakeholders' perceptions of firm warmth generated by a firm's prior record of CSR. In addition, we find that when CSR and CSI are in the same (vs. different) domains, it can strengthen perceptions of hypocrisy. This provides direct evidence to explain why markets react differently when CSR and CSI events occur in the same domain (vs. different ones).
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