Renewal or not? Consumer response to a renewed corporate social responsibility strategy: Evidence from the coffee shop industry

The impact of updating or renewing a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy is an important topic in the CSR literature stream for market researchers and practitioners alike. Using Starbucks as a case study, this paper explores the impact of a CSR renewal strategy on customer loyalty, examining the importance and relevance of CSR renewal strategy, brand reputation, and customer-company identification. Three laboratory experiments are used to test the hypotheses of the mediating role of customer-company identification and moderating role of brand reputation on the CSR renewal strategy effect. This study finds that renewing the CSR strategy can increase customer loyalty by increasing customer-company identification. However, this only happens for a strong brand like Starbucks. For a firm with a weak brand, leaving its CSR efforts unchanged has a stronger effect on increasing customer loyalty than renewing or updating its CSR strategy. Implications on CSR renewal strategy in hospitality are discussed.