IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i6p3604-d774582.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

CSR, CSA, or CPA? Examining Corporate Climate Change Communication Strategies, Motives, and Effects on Consumer Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Rosalynn Vasquez

    (Department of Mass Communication, Advertising, and Public Relations, College of Communication, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA)

Abstract

In response to the current social–political landscape, consumers’ expectations are changing. There is an increased need for companies to communicate about social issues such as climate change. This study is among the first to examine the differentiated and mediated effects of three messaging strategies: corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate social advocacy (CSA), and corporate political activism (CPA), in the context of corporations communicating about climate change, which currently lacks scholarly attention. An online-survey experiment ( N = 1048) compared the messaging strategies’ effects on three consumer responses: perceived credibility, perceived reputation, and positive word-of-mouth intention. Results from a structural equation model indicate that the type of corporate climate change communication (CCCC) has a differential effect on consumer responses. The differences are magnified by the mediation of consumers’ attribution of corporate climate motives in the relationship between the climate change message and consumer responses. This study advances scholarship on CSR, CSA, and CPA, and provides theoretical and practical implications for how a corporation communicates about climate change using different communication and engagement strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosalynn Vasquez, 2022. "CSR, CSA, or CPA? Examining Corporate Climate Change Communication Strategies, Motives, and Effects on Consumer Outcomes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-16, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:6:p:3604-:d:774582
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3604/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3604/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cristina Besio & Andrea Pronzini, 2014. "Morality, Ethics, and Values Outside and Inside Organizations: An Example of the Discourse on Climate Change," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 287-300, February.
    2. Öberseder, Magdalena & Schlegelmilch, Bodo B. & Murphy, Patrick E., 2013. "CSR practices and consumer perceptions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1839-1851.
    3. Elena Rivo-López & Mónica Villanueva-Villar & Miguel Michinel-Álvarez & Francisco Reyes-Santías, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Family Business in the Time of COVID-19: Changing Strategy?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-13, February.
    4. Carroll, Archie B., 1991. "The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 39-48.
    5. Frederik Dahlmann & Layla Branicki & Stephen Brammer, 2019. "Managing Carbon Aspirations: The Influence of Corporate Climate Change Targets on Environmental Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 1-24, August.
    6. Cohen, Maurie J., 2016. "The Future of Consumer Society: Prospects for Sustainability in the New Economy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198768555.
    7. Kolk, Ans & Pinkse, Jonatan, 2004. "Market Strategies for Climate Change," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 304-314, June.
    8. Weinzimmer, Laurence G. & Esken, Candace A., 2016. "Risky business: Taking a stand on social issues," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 331-337.
    9. Stefan Markovic & Oriol Iglesias & Jatinder Jit Singh & Vicenta Sierra, 2018. "How does the Perceived Ethicality of Corporate Services Brands Influence Loyalty and Positive Word-of-Mouth? Analyzing the Roles of Empathy, Affective Commitment, and Perceived Quality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(4), pages 721-740, April.
    10. Bernays, Edward L., 1971. "Emergence of the Public Relations Counsel: Principles and Recollections," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 296-316, October.
    11. Myria W. Allen & Christopher A. Craig, 2016. "Rethinking corporate social responsibility in the age of climate change: a communication perspective," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-11, December.
    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. Naveed Ahmad & Aqeel Ahmad & Irfan Siddique, 2024. "Beyond self‐interest: how altruistic values and human emotions drive brand advocacy in hospitality consumers through corporate social responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 2439-2453, May.

    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. Hildegunn Mellesmo Aslaksen & Clare Hildebrandt & Hans Chr. Garmann Johnsen, 2021. "The long-term transformation of the concept of CSR: towards a more comprehensive emphasis on sustainability," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Asif Mahmood & Rana Tahir Naveed & Naveed Ahmad & Miklas Scholz & Muhammad Khalique & Mohammad Adnan, 2021. "Unleashing the Barriers to CSR Implementation in the SME Sector of a Developing Economy: A Thematic Analysis Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-20, November.
    3. Camélia Radu & Nadia Smaili, 2022. "Alignment Versus Monitoring: An Examination of the Effect of the CSR Committee and CSR-Linked Executive Compensation on CSR Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 145-163, September.
    4. Jeremy Galbreath & Daniel Tisch, 2022. "Sustainable development in the wine industry: The impact of the natural environment and gender‐diverse leadership," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1869-1881, December.
    5. Dustin Smith & Eric Rhiney, 2020. "CSR commitments, perceptions of hypocrisy, and recovery," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Esra Alniacik & Charefeddine Moumen & Umit Alniacik, 2020. "The moderating role of personal value orientation on the links between perceived corporate social performance and purchase intentions," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2724-2734, November.
    7. RAMLUGUN Vidisha Gunesh & RABOUTE Wendy Geraldine, 2015. "Do Csr Practices Of Banks In Mauritius Lead To Satisfaction And Loyalty?," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 10(2), pages 128-144, August.
    8. Matthew P. Johnson & Theresa S. Rötzel & Brigitte Frank, 2023. "Beyond conventional corporate responses to climate change towards deep decarbonization: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 921-954, June.
    9. Dong Ding & Bin Liu & Millicent Chang, 2023. "Carbon Emissions and TCFD Aligned Climate-Related Information Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 967-1001, February.
    10. 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.
    11. Kyung-Min Kim & Benjamin Nobi & Taewan Kim, 2020. "CSR and Brand Resonance: The Mediating Role of Brand Love and Involvement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-12, May.
    12. Ghi-Feng Yen & Hui-Chun Tsao, 2020. "Reexamining Consumers’ Cognition and Evaluation of Corporate Social Responsibility via a DANP and IPA Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-26, January.
    13. Abreu, Mônica Cavalcanti Sá de & Webb, Kernaghan & Araújo, Francisco Sávio Maurício & Cavalcante, Jaime Phasquinel Lopes, 2021. "From “business as usual” to tackling climate change: Exploring factors affecting low-carbon decision-making in the canadian oil and gas sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).
    14. Henri Kuokkanen & William Sun, 2020. "Companies, Meet Ethical Consumers: Strategic CSR Management to Impact Consumer Choice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(2), pages 403-423, October.
    15. Cagla Pinar Utkutug, 2024. "The mediating effect of consumers’ perceived ethicality in the relationship between consumer cynicism/material values and affective commitment," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(3), pages 583-598, September.
    16. Jamshed Raza & Abdul Majid, 2016. "Perceptions and practices of corporate social responsibility among SMEs in Pakistan," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 2625-2650, November.
    17. Ziyu Chen & Shouming Chen & Talib Hussain, 2019. "The Perception of Corporate Social Responsibility in Muslim Society: A Survey in Pakistan and Sudan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-16, November.
    18. Lirong Liu & Shiyou Li & Michael Opara, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility and strategic company behaviour: CVS Health's discontinuation of tobacco products," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1293-1305, November.
    19. Alejandro Alvarado-Herrera & Enrique Bigne & Joaquín Aldas-Manzano & Rafael Curras-Perez, 2017. "A Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility Following the Sustainable Development Paradigm," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 243-262, January.
    20. Miriam Jankalová & Radoslav Jankal, 2020. "Self-assessment of the corporate social responsibility in the area of postal company," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 7(3), pages 1872-1886, 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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:6:p:3604-:d:774582. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.