When Does Being Good Imply Doing Good? : Exploring Context Effects on Corporate Social Responsibility

This research explores the double-edged nature of CSR (corporate social responsibility) reputation. Using the inclusion/exclusion model of context effects, we suggest that when CSR reputation is used to interpret company action, assimilation effect results and an ambiguous action to deal with crisis will be judged positively for a company with a positive CSR reputation. However, when CSR reputation is used to form the standard the focal company is held to, contrast effect results and an ambiguous action will be judged negatively for a company with a positive CSR reputation. The presence or absence of information on competitor actions influences which context effect, assimilation or contrast, will occur. Two experiments provide support for our hypotheses.



Citation:

Shuili Du and Sucharita Chandran (2009) ,"When Does Being Good Imply Doing Good? : Exploring Context Effects on Corporate Social Responsibility", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Sridhar Samu, Rajiv Vaidyanathan, and Dipankar Chakravarti, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 67-67.

Authors

Shuili Du, Simmons College, School of Management, Boston, Massachusetts , USA
Sucharita Chandran, School of Management, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts , USA



Volume

AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8 | 2009



Share Proceeding

Featured papers

See More

Featured

I'm Scared, Want to Listen? Fear's Influence on Self-Disclosure

Anupama Mukund Bharadwaj, University of Washington, USA
Lea Dunn, University of Washington, USA
Joey Hoegg, University of British Columbia, Canada

Read More

Featured

In Pursuit of Imperfection: How Flawed Products Can Reveal Valuable Process Information

Erin P Carter, University of Maine
Peter McGraw, University of Colorado, USA

Read More

Featured

Pretty Healthy Food: How Prettiness Amplifies Perceived Healthiness

Linda Hagen, University of Southern California, USA

Read More

Engage with Us

Becoming an Association for Consumer Research member is simple. Membership in ACR is relatively inexpensive, but brings significant benefits to its members.