The attribution effects of CSR motivations on brand advocacy: psychological distance matters!

Companies are becoming increasingly involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) to enhance their self- rather than public interests, and this has made CSR ambiguous when considering organizational goodwill. This study therefore investigated the relative effects of CSR motivations on brand advocacy while considering psychological distance as a moderating variable. Two between-subject experiments were conducted using coffee shop customers in the United States as participants. The findings revealed that customers demonstrate more brand advocacy toward a company when they believe the company has conducted a CSR activity with a public-serving motivation than when they believe the company has conducted a CSR activity with a firm-serving motivation. Furthermore, customers demonstrate greater brand advocacy with respect to public-serving motivations when a firm's spatial or temporal CSR initiative distances are low (when there are local or present benefits, respectively). However, customers demonstrate greater brand advocacy with respect to firm-serving motivations when a company conducts a CSR initiative with a low social distance (when there are in-group benefits).

Automated summary

Companies that engage in corporate social responsibility with a public-serving motivation are more likely to receive brand advocacy from customers. Customers are more likely to advocate for a company's brand when they perceive local or present benefits from the company's CSR activities. However, when customers perceive in-group benefits from a company's CSR activities, they are more likely to advocate for the company's brand.