Journal of Business Ethics
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
programs are increasingly popular corporate marketing
strategies. This paper argues that CSR programs can fall
along a continuum between two endpoints: Institutionalized
programs and Promotional programs. This classification
is based on an exploratory study examining the
variance of four responses from the consumer stakeholder
group toward these two categories of CSR. Institutionalized
CSR programs are argued to be most effective at
increasing customer loyalty, enhancing attitude toward
the company, and decreasing consumer skepticism. Promotional
CSR programs are argued to be more effective
at generating purchase intent. Ethical and managerial
implications of these preliminary findings are discussed.