Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activity for Service Brand: Effects of CSR-Brand Fit, Consumer-CSR Fit on Skepticism and Brand Loyalty

Abstract

Because of the widespread CSR practice, the quality and outcome of CSR activities vary, and the tendency of consumers to become suspicious of CSR activities is increasing. This paper intends to examine how the antecedents “CSR-brand fit” and “consumer-CSR fit” impact on consumers’ skepticism and how skepticism influences service brand loyalty. A questionnaire is designed with the case “Meituan’s Green Mountain Project” and conducted to examine the relationship of different variables. Adopting survey data methodology, there are 91 Chinese Meituan users participated in the survey, and significant results were generated through simple linear regression analysis in SPSS. The result indicates that the increase in CSR-brand fit and consumer-CSR fit can reduce consumers’ skepticism, and there is no significant relationship between skepticism and brand loyalty. Thus, it is found through the results that enhancing consumers’ perception of the congruity between brand image and CSR activities, and improving the perceived fit between CSR activities and personal relevance, can contribute to minimizing consumers’ skepticism. In this case, the author proposes practical solutions with the functional theory of attitudes and the self-image congruence model. The solutions guide practitioners to pay attention to the compatibility, fit, and logic of content when planning CSR activities, with the aim of reducing the level of skepticism, leading to an effective outcome for brands.