The Effects of Message Specificity on Outcomes of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Communication: Testing Perceived Social Distance as a Mediator
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Message Specificity in CSR Communication
2.2. The Role of Perceived Social Distance as a Mediator
2.3. Geographic Proximity: Location of a CSR Campaign
- RQ. Do the effects of message specificity through perceived social distance differ depending on the geographic proximity of a CSR campaign?
3. Methods
3.1. Experimental Design and Procedure
3.2. Participants
3.3. Stimuli
3.4. Measures
3.5. Manipulation Checks
4. Results
5. Discussion
5.1. Discussion of Results
5.2. Practical Implications
5.3. Limitations and Future Directions
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
List of Abbreviations
CSR | Corporate social responsibility |
CLT | Construal level theory |
CRM | Cause-related marketing |
CCI | Consumer-company identification |
WOM intention | Word-of-mouth intention |
References
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Measurement Items | α | M | SD |
---|---|---|---|
Perceived social distance | 0.92 | ||
I feel familiar with NauB’s ‘Eco Challenge’ campaign. | 4.45 | 1.25 | |
I feel close to NauB’s ‘Eco Challenge’ campaign. | 4.34 | 1.29 | |
NauB’s ‘Eco Challenge’ campaign seems like a close friend to me. | 4.05 | 1.35 | |
Consumer-company identification | 0.90 | ||
I strongly identify with NauB. | 4.19 | 1.26 | |
NauB fits my personality. | 4.47 | 1.23 | |
I feel closely linked to NauB. | 3.98 | 1.29 | |
I have a strong feeling of attachment to NauB. | 3.69 | 1.34 | |
WOM intention | 0.93 | ||
I will encourage my friends and relatives to use NauB’s products. | 4.37 | 1.27 | |
I will say positive things about NauB. | 4.72 | 1.29 | |
I am glad to recommend NauB to others. | 4.51 | 1.33 | |
CSR participation intention | 0.94 | ||
I would be willing to participate in this CSR campaign. | 4.29 | 1.28 | |
I would consider taking actions in order to meet this CSR campaign goal. | 4.64 | 1.27 | |
It is likely that I would contribute to this CSR campaign by getting involved. | 4.39 | 1.20 |
Correlations between Constructs of Dependent Variables | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Construct | CR | AVE | CCI | WOM Intention | CSR Participation Intention |
CCI | 0.93 | 0.77 | 0.88 * | ||
WOM intention | 0.95 | 0.87 | 0.691 | 0.93 * | |
CSR participation intention | 0.96 | 0.88 | 0.724 | 0.791 | 0.94 * |
Message Specificity | CCI | WOM Intention | CSR Participation Intention | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
M | SD | M | SD | M | SD | |
Specific | 4.26 | 1.06 | 4.70 | 1.14 | 4.62 | 1.08 |
Abstract | 3.73 | 1.17 | 4.20 | 1.29 | 4.08 | 1.28 |
B | SE | 95% CI | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
LL | UL | |||
Message specificity → PSD → CCI | 0.34 | 0.11 | 0.13 | 0.55 |
Message specificity → PSD → WOM intention | 0.31 | 0.10 | 0.12 | 0.51 |
Message specificity → PSD → CSR participation intention | 0.29 | 0.10 | 0.11 | 0.48 |
B | SE | 95% CI | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
LL | UL | |||
Close proximity | ||||
Message specificity → PSD → CCI | 0.34 | 0.18 | 0.02 | 0.71 |
Message specificity → PSD → WOM intention | 0.33 | 0.16 | 0.03 | 0.66 |
Message specificity → PSD → CSR participation intention | 0.29 | 0.15 | 0.01 | 0.60 |
Remote proximity | ||||
Message specificity → PSD → CCI | 0.33 | 0.13 | 0.08 | 0.59 |
Message specificity → PSD → WOM intention | 0.30 | 0.12 | 0.06 | 0.55 |
Message specificity → PSD → CSR participation intention | 0.30 | 0.13 | 0.06 | 0.58 |
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Kim, J.; Lee, S.Y.; Oh, H.J. The Effects of Message Specificity on Outcomes of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Communication: Testing Perceived Social Distance as a Mediator. Sustainability 2023, 15, 16795. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152416795
Kim J, Lee SY, Oh HJ. The Effects of Message Specificity on Outcomes of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Communication: Testing Perceived Social Distance as a Mediator. Sustainability. 2023; 15(24):16795. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152416795
Chicago/Turabian StyleKim, Jeesun, Sun Young Lee, and Hyun Jee Oh. 2023. "The Effects of Message Specificity on Outcomes of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Communication: Testing Perceived Social Distance as a Mediator" Sustainability 15, no. 24: 16795. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152416795