The Effect Of Customers’ Perceptions Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Customer Extra-role Behaviors

The interaction between enterprises and customers has different interpretations and results in different eras.In a market-oriented economy,customers respond to enterprises’ corporate social responsibility(CSR)in a diversified,heterogeneous,and interactive manner,whose impact on the development of enterprises are becoming increasingly significant.Hence,issues regarding such interaction between enterprises and customers has always been the focus of research in the field of consumer behavior.Against the backdrop of China’s economy shifted from high-speed development to high-quality development in the early 2020 s,the “BYD Mask Manufacturing”,the “Erke Flood-relief donation”,and the “Baixiang Hiring People with Disabilities” occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.It once again reminds the “economic” men in the market to ponder:whether the interaction of enterprises’ non-profit CSR behaviors and customer extra-role behaviors,is the “catalyst” for realizing enterprises to high-quality development.The key to answering the above questions is to unveil the multiple mediation mechanism and boundary conditions in the relationship between customers’ perceptions of CSR practices and customer extra-role behaviors.Extant research has examined and presents certain results,but still has limitations and indicates the existence of certain trends.First,the extant literature on the categorization of CSR perception cannot reflect the contribution of CSR practices which in turn cannot identify the heterogeneity effect of different CSR perceptions on customer extra-role behaviors.Second,the existing literature on the mechanism of CSR perceptions affecting customer extra-role behaviors remain underexplored resulting in insufficient interpretation and implications for research and management practices.Third,moral foundations,as one of customers’ key personal traits representing the customers moral orientation and views on ethical issues.It plays a crucial role in understanding the heterogeneous responses towards moral events,the moderating mechanism of moral foundation in the study of CSR and consumer behavior have been paid less attention.In view of the limitations,this research categorizes customers’ perception of CSR into two types: individual-oriented CSR perception which focuses on the strengthening rights and welfare of individuals and group-oriented CSR perceptions which focuses on strengthening rights and welfare of individuals.Based on the Cognitive-Affective Processing System Theory,Stakeholder Theory,Social Exchange Theory and Social Identity Theory,this research builds a theoretical model of the mechanism between customers’ CSR perceptions and customer extra-role behaviors,integrates structural equation modeling(SEM)into the experimental research method,and jointly explores the sequential mediation mechanism between customers’ CSR perceptions and customer extra-role behaviors under different moral foundations.The research findings are in the following:(1)Customers’ CSR perceptions lead to customer extra-role behaviors;customers will have more extra-role behaviors when perceive CSR practices is group-oriented than individual-oriented.(2)Customers’ CSR perceptions lead to customer-company identification and emotional attachment toward,in turn lead to customer extra-role behaviors.In general,the relationship between customers’ CSR perceptions and customer extra-role behaviors is sequentially mediated by customer-company identification and emotional attachment.(3)Customers’ CSR perceptions will trigger the complex mechanism of the effect on customer extra-role behavior,such effect is intervened by customers’ moral foundations.Customers’ moral foundations play a moderating role in the relationship between Customers’ CSR perceptions and customer-company identification,which in turn,moderate the sequetial mediation mechanism of customers’ CSR perceptions customer extra-role behaviors.The findings have implications for business practices:(1)Companies should invest more resources in group-oriented CSR practices,focusing on the interests and welfare of the public and society at large,which will lead to more customer extra-role behaviors,in turn building a high-quality reciprocal partnership with their customers.(2)Companies should also attach more attention to the cognitive and emotional evaluation of their customers,adopt targeted CSR communication strategies to highlights their efforts to tap into customers identity and attachment,further increasing the chances of customers positive reactions and customer “stickiness”.(3)Companies should concern about the moral foundations of their customers based on individualizing and binding that provides guidance for companies to tailor its CSR practices accordingly,help companies gaining positive reputation and moral capitals.This research have certain contributions:(1)The categorization of CSR according to the degree of social responsibility contribution in this research is a refinement of the research on customers’ CSR perceptions in Chinese context.(2)The exploration of sequential mediation mechanism of customer extra-role behaviors is a supplement to the extant literature that only explored cognitive mediation or emotional mediation and expands the research framework of customers’ CSR perceptions and customer extra-role behaviors.(3)The unveiling of the boundary conditions of the mechanism,uncovered the heterogeneous effects of moral foundations on the mechanism of customers’ CSR perceptions and customer extra-role behaviors.It provides guidance for companies to segment the moral foundations of their customers,optimize the reactions of customers’ CSR perceptions and obtain moral capitals.