Research from Northwestern University to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that corporate social responsibility influences the way consumers evaluate a firm’s products. In other words, products from socially responsible companies are experienced as performing better, particularly for consumers who are less familiar with that product category.
According to the authors, “The positive impact of corporate social responsibility is attenuated when consumers believe that the company’s actions are driven by self-interest rather than by benevolence. In this context, we show that a company’s prosocial behavior is more likely to benefit perceived product performance when it is aligned with consumers’ moral values. Furthermore, we document the impact of corporate social responsibility even when actual product performance is readily observable and consumers directly experience the product. The fact that we find significant effect across different consumption domains, including taste, density assessment, color comparison, and resolution assessment, reflects the robustness of the effect of corporate social responsibility on perceived product performance.”
Read the abstract.
For more on this topic, check out the Marketing Tab in Morning Coffee .
See all 5 Cups articles.