The impact of CSR on brand equity: the moderating role of consumer involvement in CSR

Abstract: While pursuing profits, modern firms begin to undertake corporate social responsibility (CSR). Different ways for firms to implement CSR have diverse impacts on consumer-based brand equity that reflects the meaning of the brand in consumers’ minds and is of considerable significance to corporate marketing strategy. However, previous research on CSR rarely uses signaling theory to explain the internal mechanism of generating consumer-based brand equity. It is also a gap of existing literature to study how to strengthen the impact of a firm’s CSR on consumer-based brand equity. This thesis, based on stakeholder theory and signaling theory, analyzes the effects of the degree of a firms’ CSR on consumer-based brand equity, including brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand loyalty, and how these effects are moderated by consumer involvement in CSR. This study adopts the quantitative approach and receives 201 valid questionnaires by taking Alipay (a Chinese firm providing online financial services) as the target of the survey. The results indicate that the degree of a firm’s CSR positively impacts brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand loyalty through empirical analysis. Meanwhile, as a moderator, consumer involvement in CSR positively moderates the relationship between the degree of a firm’s CSR and perceived quality but shows no significant moderating effects on the other two associations. By uncovering the relationship between CSR and consumer-based brand equity through the signaling theory and by introducing the variable of consumer involvement in CSR, this study advances CSR research. It extends the application of signaling theory in a new research area as well.