Executive Summary
Although firms are developing and communicating more information about their socially responsible policies and practices, reported incidents of irresponsible behaviors are bound to increase as firms’ operations globalize and policies are implemented by a wide variety of employees in different locations. Increasing amounts of negative corporate social responsibility (CSR) information are widely available due to the rise of Internet-based information sources, aggressive consumer advocacy groups, rising numbers of anticorporate Web sites, and popular movie documentaries. Thus, consumers often confront both favorable CSR policy statements made by firms on the one hand and reports of firms’ socially irresponsible behaviors on the other hand. When consumers are exposed to such inconsistent CSR information, they may develop perceptions of the firm as being hypocritical in that its actions do not match its words.
This research examines three communication strategies that firms can use to mitigate the negative effects of unfavorable CSR information on a firm’s reputation and sales revenues: (1) proactive versus reactive strategies (i.e., publicizing CSR policies before versus after negative CSR behavior is reported), (2) abstract versus concrete statements of CSR policies, and (3) inoculation (messages providing moderately negative CSR information along with a refutation).
The results of three experiments suggest that inconsistent CSR information indeed triggers consumers’ perceptions of corporate hypocrisy. Both proactive (i.e., messages preceding revelations of behavior) and reactive (i.e., messages following revealed behavior) strategies result in negative consumer evaluations. Thus, reactive CSR strategies, which are frequently employed in the corporate world to combat the negative consequences of initially reported negative CSR behaviors, can be counterproductive to their desired effects, potentially leading to substantial negative consumer reactions.
Companies can dampen the potential negative effects of proactive strategies by providing more abstract information, such as promoting core ethical guiding principles at a more general level, rather than listing specific behavioral standards. The effectiveness of reactive CSR strategies can be improved by framing CSR statements as specific in nature, such as using “real-life” testimonials to showcase various concrete examples. Finally, this research suggests that for both proactive and reactive CSR message strategies, hypocrisy perceptions can be reduced through inoculation treatments—that is, when firms release statements with moderately negative CSR information that has already been reported or is anticipated to emerge and provide accompanying refutational counterarguments.
Biography
Tillmann Wagner is Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University, where he received the New Faculty Award. Professor Wagner holds a PhD in Marketing from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and also graduated from the University of Applied Sciences in Lüneburg (Germany), the University of Portsmouth (England), and the University of Texas–Pan American. He was previously a visiting scholar in the University of Florida’s marketing department. His research has appeared in outlets such as Journal of Marketing and concentrates on the areas of consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility as well as customer relationships and loyalty.
Richard J. Lutz is J.C. Penney Professor of Marketing in the Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Florida and has been a faculty member there since 1982. Previously, he was on the faculty of the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his BS, MS, and PhD in Marketing from the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign. Professor Lutz specializes in the areas of consumer behavior and marketing communications and has authored more than 80 articles and books on those and related topics. He is a past president of the Association for Consumer Research and a past editor of Journal of Consumer Research. Currently, he is the vice president of publications of the American Marketing Association. His previous research has won the Louis Stern Award, the Journal of Consumer Research Best Article Award, and the Marketing Science Institute/Paul H. Root Award.
Barton A. Weitz is J.C. Penney Eminent Scholar Chair and executive director of the Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research in the Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Florida. Before joining the faculty at the University of Florida, he was a professor in the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, and in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. His educational background includes a BSEE from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA and a PhD from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Professor Weitz’s research interests focus on the development of long-term relationships between firms in distribution channels, firms and their employees, and salespeople and their customers, as well as other retailing and sales force management issues. He is a recipient of the American Marketing Association/Irwin Distinguished Marketing Educator Award for lifetime contribution to the marketing discipline, a past chair of the American Marketing Association, and former editor of Journal of Marketing Research.
Journal of Marketing, Volume 73, Number 6, November 2009
View Table of Contents