IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v183y2021ics092180092100001x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Too Cold to be Skeptical: How Ambient Temperature Moderates the Effects of CSR Communication

Author

Listed:
  • Lasarov, Wassili
  • Mai, Robert
  • Krause, Jan S.
  • Schmidt, Ulrich
  • Hoffmann, Stefan

Abstract

Consumer reactions to firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication range from favorable approval to outright skepticism toward the company. This paper contributes to the CSR literature by introducing a so-far overseen but relevant variable that helps to explain why consumer sometimes react positively and sometimes negatively to CSR communication: the ambient temperature. With a controlled 2 (CSR communication with ecological vs. economic motives) × 3 (ambient temperature: warm vs. moderate vs. cold) between-subject laboratory experiment, the authors confirm that ambient temperature moderates consumer evaluations of CSR communications. In warmer ambient temperatures, reports of ecological (vs. economic) motives induce consumer skepticism toward the CSR communication from the firm; colder temperatures appear to have no influence, in line with prior findings suggesting that the human body has a greater tolerance for cold than heat. Our findings bear several implications for managers. If they lack knowledge about ambient temperature when placing CSR campaigns, firms may risk unexpected backfiring effects. If managers can control the ambient temperature (e.g., in retail stores), they are well-advised to be cautious when placing CSR-related advertisements in warm settings.

Suggested Citation

  • Lasarov, Wassili & Mai, Robert & Krause, Jan S. & Schmidt, Ulrich & Hoffmann, Stefan, 2021. "Too Cold to be Skeptical: How Ambient Temperature Moderates the Effects of CSR Communication," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:183:y:2021:i:c:s092180092100001x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.106943
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092180092100001X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.106943?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Vanhamme & B. Grobben, 2009. "Too good to be true ! : the effectiveness of CSR History in Countering Negative Publicity," Post-Print hal-00581630, HAL.
    2. Boush, David M & Friestad, Marian & Rose, Gregory M, 1994. "Adolescent Skepticism toward TV Advertising and Knowledge of Advertiser Tactics," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 165-175, June.
    3. Kathy Babiak & Sylvia Trendafilova, 2011. "CSR and environmental responsibility: motives and pressures to adopt green management practices," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(1), pages 11-24, January.
    4. Sung-Bum Kim & Dae-Young Kim, 2017. "Antecedents of Corporate Reputation in the Hotel Industry: The Moderating Role of Transparency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-15, June.
    5. Camilla Barbarossa & Patrick Pelsmacker, 2016. "Positive and Negative Antecedents of Purchasing Eco-friendly Products: A Comparison Between Green and Non-green Consumers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(2), pages 229-247, March.
    6. Aradhna Krishna & May O. Lwin & Maureen Morrin, 2010. "Product Scent and Memory," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(1), pages 57-67, June.
    7. Barbarossa, Camilla & De Pelsmacker, Patrick & Moons, Ingrid, 2017. "Personal Values, Green Self-identity and Electric Car Adoption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 190-200.
    8. Longinos Marin & Salvador Ruiz & Alicia Rubio, 2009. "The Role of Identity Salience in the Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(1), pages 65-78, January.
    9. Robert Mai & Stefan Hoffmann & Wassili Lasarov & Arne Buhs, 2019. "Ethical Products = Less Strong: How Explicit and Implicit Reliance on the Lay Theory Affects Consumption Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 659-677, September.
    10. Blasi, Silvia & Caporin, Massimiliano & Fontini, Fulvio, 2018. "A Multidimensional Analysis of the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Firms' Economic Performance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 218-229.
    11. Wicker, Pamela & Becken, Susanne, 2013. "Conscientious vs. ambivalent consumers: Do concerns about energy availability and climate change influence consumer behaviour?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 41-48.
    12. Nils Christian Hoffmann & Juelin Yin & Stefan Hoffmann, 2020. "Chain of Blame: A Multi-country Study of Consumer Reactions Towards Supplier Hypocrisy in Global Supply Chains," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 247-286, April.
    13. Lasarov, Wassili & Mai, Robert & García de Frutos, Nieves & Egea, José Manuel Ortega & Hoffmann, Stefan, 2019. "Counter-arguing as barriers to environmentally motivated consumption reduction: A multi-country study," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 281-305.
    14. David P. Baron, 2001. "Private Politics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Integrated Strategy," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 7-45, March.
    15. Gerard J. Tellis & Stefan Stremersch & Eden Yin, 2003. "The International Takeoff of New Products: The Role of Economics, Culture, and Country Innovativeness," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(2), pages 188-208, October.
    16. Constantinos N. Leonidou & Dionysis Skarmeas, 2017. "Gray Shades of Green: Causes and Consequences of Green Skepticism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 401-415, August.
    17. Kimberly D. Elsbach & C. B. Bhattacharya, 2001. "Defining Who You Are By What You're Not: Organizational Disidentification and The National Rifle Association," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 393-413, August.
    18. Umit Alniacik & Esra Alniacik & Nurullah Genc, 2011. "How corporate social responsibility information influences stakeholders' intentions," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(4), pages 234-245, July.
    19. Hoffmann, Stefan & Mai, Robert & Lasarov, Wassili & Krause, Jan S. & Schmidt, Ulrich, 2019. "Hungry bellies have no ears. How and why hunger inhibits sustainable consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 96-104.
    20. Joëlle Vanhamme & Bas Grobben, 2009. "“Too Good to be True!”. The Effectiveness of CSR History in Countering Negative Publicity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(2), pages 273-283, April.
    21. Yue Wu & Kaifu Zhang & Jinhong Xie, 2020. "Bad Greenwashing, Good Greenwashing: Corporate Social Responsibility and Information Transparency," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(7), pages 3095-3112, July.
    22. Andrea Stanaland & May Lwin & Patrick Murphy, 2011. "Consumer Perceptions of the Antecedents and Consequences of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 47-55, August.
    23. Sora Kim, 2019. "The Process Model of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Communication: CSR Communication and its Relationship with Consumers’ CSR Knowledge, Trust, and Corporate Reputation Perception," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 1143-1159, February.
    24. Gerdien de Vries & Bart W. Terwel & Naomi Ellemers & Dancker D. L. Daamen, 2015. "Sustainability or Profitability? How Communicated Motives for Environmental Policy Affect Public Perceptions of Corporate Greenwashing," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(3), pages 142-154, May.
    25. Becker-Olsen, Karen L. & Cudmore, B. Andrew & Hill, Ronald Paul, 2006. "The impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on consumer behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 46-53, January.
    26. Joshi, Yatish & Rahman, Zillur, 2019. "Consumers' Sustainable Purchase Behaviour: Modeling the Impact of Psychological Factors," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 235-243.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nguyen, Nga & Priporas, Constantinos-Vasilios & McPherson, Mark & Manyiwa, Simon, 2023. "CSR-related consumer scepticism: A review of the literature and future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    2. Kountouris, Yiannis, 2022. "Awareness days and environmental attitudes: The case of the “Earth Hour”," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    3. M. Trabandt & W. Lasarov & G. Viglia, 2024. "It's a pleasure to stay sustainably: Leveraging hedonic appeals in tourism and hospitality," Post-Print hal-04464032, HAL.
    4. Krause, Jan S. & Brandt, Gerrit & Schmidt, Ulrich & Schunk, Daniel, 2023. "Don’t sweat it: Ambient temperature does not affect social behavior and perception," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    5. Wassili Lasarov & Stefan Hoffmann & Ulrich Orth, 2023. "Vanishing Boycott Impetus: Why and How Consumer Participation in a Boycott Decreases Over Time," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 1129-1154, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Skarmeas, Dionysis & Leonidou, Constantinos N., 2013. "When consumers doubt, Watch out! The role of CSR skepticism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1831-1838.
    2. Wassili Lasarov & Stefan Hoffmann & Ulrich Orth, 2023. "Vanishing Boycott Impetus: Why and How Consumer Participation in a Boycott Decreases Over Time," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 1129-1154, February.
    3. Kyle D. Turner, 2022. "Actions in the spotlight: Differential effects of corporate social responsibility actions on organizational celebrity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 860-870, July.
    4. Su‐Jung Nam & Hyesun Hwang, 2019. "What makes consumers respond to creating shared value strategy? Considering consumers as stakeholders in sustainable development," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(2), pages 388-395, March.
    5. Mahrinasari MS, 2019. "Determinants of Brand Equity: Communication of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) versus CSR itself and Company Credibility," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 13(3), September.
    6. Wintschnig, Bea Alexandra, 2021. "The Attitude-Behavior Gap – Drivers and Barriers of Sustainable Consumption," Junior Management Science (JUMS), Junior Management Science e. V., vol. 6(2), pages 324-346.
    7. Nguyen, Nga & Priporas, Constantinos-Vasilios & McPherson, Mark & Manyiwa, Simon, 2023. "CSR-related consumer scepticism: A review of the literature and future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    8. Won‐Moo Hur & Yeonshin Kim, 2017. "How Does Culture Improve Consumer Engagement in CSR Initiatives? the Mediating Role of Motivational Attributions," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(6), pages 620-633, November.
    9. Santhiya Ramasamy & Karpal S. Dara Singh & Azlan Amran & Mehran Nejati, 2020. "Linking human values to consumer CSR perception: The moderating role of consumer skepticism," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1958-1971, July.
    10. Chang-Dae Ham & Jeesun Kim, 2019. "The Role of CSR in Crises: Integration of Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the Persuasion Knowledge Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 353-372, August.
    11. Varsha Singh & Sakshi Kathuria & Deepika Puri & Bharat Kapoor, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and behavioral intentions: A mediating mechanism of Brand Recognition," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1698-1711, July.
    12. Arli, Denni & Grace, Anthony & Palmer, Janet & Pham, Cuong, 2017. "Investigating the direct and indirect effects of corporate hypocrisy and perceived corporate reputation on consumers’ attitudes toward the company," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 139-145.
    13. Ali Raza & Amer Saeed & Muhammad Khalid Iqbal & Umair Saeed & Imran Sadiq & Naveed Ahmad Faraz, 2020. "Linking Corporate Social Responsibility to Customer Loyalty through Co-Creation and Customer Company Identification: Exploring Sequential Mediation Mechanism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-19, March.
    14. Reimer, Thomas & Benkenstein, Martin, 2018. "Not just for the recommender: How eWOM incentives influence the recommendation audience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 11-21.
    15. Heejung Byun & Tae-Hyun Kim, 2017. "Identity Claims and Diffusion of Sustainability Report: Evidence from Korean Listed Companies, 2003–2010," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 551-565, February.
    16. Anran Zhang & Alex Scodellaro & Bo Pang & Hui-Yi Lo & Zhengliang Xu, 2020. "Attribution and Effectiveness of Cause-Related Marketing: The Interplay between Cause–Brand Fit and Corporate Reputation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-17, October.
    17. Mercedes Rubio‐Andrés & María del Mar Ramos‐González & Miguel Ángel Sastre‐Castillo & Ignacio Danvila‐del‐Valle, 2020. "Exploring sustainability, good governance, and social responsibility in small and medium enterprises," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 852-869, March.
    18. Jahn, Johannes & Brühl, Rolf, 2019. "Can bad news be good? On the positive and negative effects of including moderately negative information in CSR disclosures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 117-128.
    19. Ko, Kuan-Cheng & Nie, Jun & Ran, Rong & Gu, Yuan, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility, social identity, and innovation performance in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    20. Mario A. Morales-Parragué & Rodrigo A. Varela-Laso & Luis Araya-Castillo & Fidel Molina-Luque, 2023. "Corporate Social Responsibility: Where Does It Come from, and Where Does It Go? Evolution of the Conceptual Structure from 1975 to 2021," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-23, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:183:y:2021:i:c:s092180092100001x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.