CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.

uk
Provided by University of Lincoln Institutional Repository

Journal of Business Ethics

Submitted on January 20, 2007

“Too good to be true!”

The Effectiveness of CSR History in Countering

Negative Publicity

Joëlle Vanhamme*

Bas Grobben**

*
Corresponding author: Joëlle Vanhamme, RSM Erasmus University (Department of Marketing); address
for correspondence: Erasmus University Rotterdam, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The
Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]. Telephone + 31 10 408 1194. Fax + 31 10 408 9011
**
Joëlle Vanhamme is assistant professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam and member of ERIM
Research Institute, the Netherlands. Bas Grobben is Trade Marketeer at Henkel Benelux B.V, the
Netherlands.

1
 “Too good to be true!”

The Effectiveness of CSR History in Countering Negative Publicity

Corporate crises call for effective communication to shelter or restore a

company’s reputation. The use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) claims may

provide an effective tool to counter the negative impact of a crisis, but knowledge on the

effectiveness of CSR crisis communication is scarce and studies on the implementation of

CSR communication during crises are lacking. To help fill this gap, this study

investigates whether the length of a company’s involvement in CSR matters when it uses

CSR claims in its crisis communication as a means to counter negative publicity. We

show that the use of CSR claims in crisis communication is more effective for companies

with a long CSR history than for those with a short CSR history, and that consumer

skepticism about claims lies at the heart of this phenomenon.

2
 “Too good to be true!”

The Effectiveness of CSR History in Countering Negative Publicity

Many real-life examples (e.g., IKEA, The Body Shop, Texaco, Nike) serve to show how

fragile company image can be when a corporation is accused publicly of misbehavior.

Whether the accusations are true or not, the resulting negative publicity causes particular

damage to how consumers perceive the company and its products (e.g., Dean, 2004; De

Raaf, 2000; Riezebos, 1996; Rossiter and Percy, 1998). A damaged reputation can impact

on the company’s sales and profits, especially if it fails to respond adequately to the

crisis. For example, Texaco lost up to $1.1 billion after being subject to allegations of

discrimination (Bollen, 2004); Nutricia, a Dutch food company that recalled more than 10

million contaminated jars of its baby food, suffered $20 million in losses, lost substantial

market share in the Dutch market, and experienced a 7.5% stock price decrease after

announcing the contamination (De Raaf, 2000).

In crises such as these, companies must engage in effective communication to

shelter or restore their reputation, which has been jeopardized by the negative publicity

(e.g., Benoit, 1997; De Raaf, 2000; Sturges, 1994). However, knowledge about effective

crisis communication strategies and how consumers react to these efforts remains rather

limited in practice (Mitroff, 2001).

A decade ago, crisis scholars argued that corporate social responsibility (CSR)

communication might be an effective tool to counter the negative impact of a crisis

(Coombs, 1995). Similar to Maignan et al. (1999), we define CSR as the extent to which

organizations meet the legal, economic, ethical, and discretionary responsibilities placed

3
on them by various stakeholders. Since the mid-1990s, business experts increasingly have

stressed the importance of social initiatives to build strong company reputations. Several

polls also highlight that consumers consider such corporate activities very important (e.g.,

Cone Corporate Citizenship Study, 2004; MORI CSR Research, 2002). And, academic

literature has established that CSR influences consumer evaluations of a company and its

products positively (e.g., Brown and Dacin, 1997).

Consumer support for CSR suggests that corporate communication about social

efforts could help a company build a reputation that might protect its image against

negative publicity or help restore it. Business practices seem to confirm this belief.

Varadarajan and Menon (1988), in their survey of case histories, find that companies use

cause-related marketing, a specific aspect of CSR, to realize various objectives; including

thwarting negative publicity. However, studies that examine the effectiveness of CSR

communication during corporate crises have been scarce and investigate only its

influence in the context of a product-harm crisis. For example, CSR reduces the risk of

brand damage in a product-harm crisis, and consumers tend to hold a company less

responsible for a crisis when it possesses a strong CSR reputation (Klein and Dawar,

2004). With just limited studies of the effectiveness of CSR crisis communication, we

lack clear information about the effective implementation of proper CSR communication

during crises. This study attempts to fill that gap.

Specifically, we determine whether the length of company involvement in CSR

matters when using CSR claims as a means of countering negative publicity. Using CSR

communication during a crisis represents a type of defense of company legitimacy, but in

defending themselves, companies may protest too much, which makes their attempts

4
seem suspicious to consumers and therefore produces the opposite effects rather than

those desired (Ashforth and Gibbs, 1990). Moreover, the existence of a vested interest

and the lack of a strong reputation are known to undermine the credibility of legitimation

attempts (McGuire, 1985). CSR communication is ultimately a persuasion attempt of the

company to create positive consumer perceptions. Thus, we suggest that companies

involved for a long time in CSR activities when the crisis breaks out should be seen as

less opportunistic, and should enjoy a stronger reputation in terms of CSR than

companies with shorter-term CSR involvement. As a result, the CSR crisis

communication should be more effective for companies with a long CSR history than for

those with a short CSR history. We also propose that consumer skepticism about CSR

claims determines this phenomenon. Therefore, we build our theoretical framework and

hypotheses on the basis of the concepts of organizational legitimation and consumer

skepticism.

Hypotheses

CSR and company legitimacy

Using Suchman’s (1995, p. 574) framework, which states that “Legitimacy is a

generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or

appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and

definitions,” Handelman and Arnold (1999) distinguish two types of legitimation relevant

for our present study: pragmatic and social. A firm gains pragmatic legitimacy through

performative actions, which demonstrate the “company’s congruence with the norms of

the task environment” (Handelman and Arnold, 1999, p. 35), and include decisions about

functional attributes, such as price, location, and assortment (e.g., offer products at the

5
right price and quality). However, pragmatic legitimacy is not sufficient for a company’s

long-run survival. In the short-term, shifts in consumer tastes and direct competitive

threats can change the norms of the competitive environment, so that legitimacy must be

earned constantly (Suchman, 1995). To enjoy consumer support in the long run,

companies must achieve social legitimacy, which ensues if the company’s institutional

actions are compatible with the broader social norms of the community, as when it

engages in CSR initiatives to donate to charities (Handelman and Arnold, 1999). Social

legitimacy is stronger than pragmatic legitimacy in protecting a company against short-

run changes in the competitive environment (i.e., because of its CSR associations, the

company maintains a positive image even if consumers change their attitudes about the

functional benefits of its products). Furthermore, institutional actions strengthen the

effectiveness of the performative initiatives, because CSR associations can cause

consumers to make positive inferences about unknown functional company benefits.

When a crisis about a company’s responsibility arises, the company must defend

its social legitimacy. Case evidence shows that companies communicate about their CSR

initiatives as a means to defend their reputation (Varadarajan and Menon, 1988), so a

company’s past performance provides an important piece of information in a crisis.

Consumers retain more positive attitudes toward companies with good reputations than

toward those with bad reputations (Coombs and Holladay, 1996; Dawar and Pillutla,

2000; Dean, 2004) and the general public seems more willing to forgive a company with

a positive performance history than one with a history of problems (e.g., Barton, 1993).

That is, a positive performance history results in a halo effect by projecting a positive

company image and thereby creating credibility and trustworthiness among the general

6
public. Referring to a positive CSR history therefore should be an effective means to

defend company legitimacy in a crisis situation, but its overall effectiveness likely

depends on the length of the CSR history. As Suchman (1995, p. 574) states, “an

organization may occasionally depart from societal norms yet retain legitimacy because

the departures are dismissed as unique.”

Companies with a long history of CSR involvement have earned the trust and

goodwill of their stakeholders. This goodwill becomes corporate credit, such that the firm

can deviate occasionally from social norms without seriously damaging its reputation

(Ashforth and Gibbs, 1990; Suchman, 1995). In other words, a long history of “good”

actions should provide leverage for defending the company against challenges to its

legitimacy. Companies with only recent involvement in CSR initiatives, in contrast, do

not enjoy this buffer of goodwill earned over the years. Hence:

H1: Consumer perceptions of a company and its products during a crisis are lower

for companies with a short CSR history than for companies with a long CSR

history.

Consumer skepticism and company legitimacy

Using CSR history as a buffer against the effects of a crisis can be perceived as an

attempt to compensate for illegitimacy in one area by displaying legitimate behavior in

another. In trying to defend their threatened legitimacy however, companies can “protest

too much,” which may trigger a vicious dynamic (Ashforth and Gibbs, 1990).

Legitimation involves a process of social construction, negotiation, and labeling

(Ashforth and Gibbs, 1990); it is a “collective making of meaning” (Neilsen and Rao

7
1987, p. 524). Therefore, consumers probably are aware of the vested interest the

company has in attempting to defend its legitimacy (Ashford and Gibbs 1990), which

undermines the company’s credibility in claiming legitimacy (McGuire, 1985). Ashford

and Gibbs (1990) suggest that the greater the need for legitimation, the more skeptical

consumers are of legitimation attempts, a phenomenon also known as the “self-

promotor’s paradox” (Jones and Pittman, 1982), which represents a crucial caveat to

legitimacy management (Suchman, 1995). That is, people tend to discount attempts to

defend the self if they perceive the defender as manipulative (e.g., the defense is a ploy to

gain acceptance) or self-serving (Baumeister and Scher, 1988).

Marketing literature further substantiates consumer skepticism about companies’

use of CSR activities as a tool to attain legitimacy. Skepticism about companies’ true

motivation to engage in CSR emerges in several consumer surveys; for example, Webb

and Mohr (1998) find that consumers are more skeptical about the cause-related

marketing efforts of for-profit companies than of the same efforts by nongovernmental

organizations because they perceive the for-profit companies’ motivations as mainly self-

serving. Overall, consumers fear that CSR is just a “gimmick” that firms use to

manipulate them (Webb and Mohr, 1998, p. 234), which results in negative attitudes

toward such firms (e.g., Ellen et al., 2002; Mohr et al., 2001). Corroborating work by

Webb and colleagues, Forehand and Grier (2003) show that consumers react negatively

to CSR communications when they feel they are being deceived. The belief that CSR is

mostly for show or motivated by profit interests rather than altruism also appears in the

business press (The Economist, 2005).

8
 In connection with the legitimacy approach, consumer skepticism can be

explained according to the persuasion knowledge model (PKM) developed by Friestad

and Wright (1994). This model integrates theories about attitude change (e.g., Petty and

Ciacoppo, 1986) to explain how consumers react to marketing persuasion attempts. It

posits that consumers hold and develop knowledge about marketers’ persuasion attempts

(e.g., advertisements), which influences their responses to these attempts. In addition, the

PKM suggests consumers have opinions about the appropriateness and effectiveness of

marketing tactics, and their skepticism relates to the amount of persuasion knowledge

they use to develop judgments about the persuasive marketing communication (Friestad

and Wright, 1994). Increased skepticism regarding the “true” underlying motives of a

persuasive message inhibits its effectiveness (Campbell and Kirmani, 2000; Holt, 2002;

Lafferty and Goldsmith, 1999; Vonk, 1998. 1999).

On the basis of the legitimacy approach and PKM, we expect the length of CSR

history to serve as a cue that consumers use to derive their perceptions of the motivations

companies have to engage in CSR initiatives. Because consumers probably perceive

companies with short CSR histories as more accountable for the crisis (i.e., they lack the

kind of goodwill that companies with longer CSR histories have), they also likely infer

more self-serving and less altruistic motivations for these companies. That is, when

companies with a short history use CSR claims in crisis communication, consumers

probably view it as a “quick fix” or trick to restore their image. Consumers thus might be

more skeptical about the altruistic intent of these companies’ CSR, which creates more

negative perceptions about the company and its products. In this sense, we expect the

9
effect of CSR history length on consumers’ perceptions to be mediated by the level of

skepticism that consumers develop.

H2: Communicating about CSR involvement to defend the company against

negative publicity leads to more consumer skepticism when the company has a

short CSR history than when the company has a long CSR history.

H3: In a crisis context, skepticism mediates the impact of the length of CSR history

on consumers’ perceptions of the company and its products.

We present our research model in Figure 1, which includes the length of CSR

history, skepticism, and consumers’ perceptions, as well as consumer support of CSR as a

covariate. This for the reason that consumers vary in their stance toward CSR actions by

firms, which influences their responses to these initiatives (Webb and Mohr, 1998). As

Sen and Bhattacharya (2001) find, consumers who are more supportive of CSR efforts

embrace more positive perceptions of companies involved in CSR than those who do not

support CSR efforts, because the former perceive a greater identity overlap with CSR

companies than the latter.

INSERT FIGURE 1

Methodology

Procedure and stimuli

To test the hypotheses, we used a between-subject experimental design with two

conditions (long versus short CSR history). In both conditions, respondents first read two

texts. The first text consists of an official press release from a fictive foreign cosmetic

10
company planning to open a point of sales in the Netherlands, describing the company, its

products, and its CSR activities (i.e., responsible human resources, environmental

protection, and charitable contributions to cancer-related organizations). We adapted the

content of the text from Swaen and Vanhamme (2004) to the purposes of our study by

including a manipulation of CSR history length. These authors showed that the company

description is realistic and believable. We used this fictive foreign company to ensure the

absence of any a priori knowledge of the company among respondents, which could

influence the results.

The second text consists of a newspaper article discussing the issue of animal

testing and accusing the fictive foreign company of using animal testing to develop its

products. We borrowed this text from Swaen and Vanhamme (2004), who demonstrate

that the newspaper article significantly and negatively influences consumer perceptions.

We counterbalanced the order of the two texts across conditions and manipulated

the length of the company’s CSR history (long versus short) by including three

statements in the press release (heading, text itself, and text box in the middle of the press

release with a quote from the company’s CEO). These statements depict the company’s

CSR involvement as either long or short. In the long history condition, the three

statements indicate the company has been involved in social responsibility activities for

10 years, whereas in the short history condition, they note that the company started to be

active in CSR this year.

After reading the two texts, respondents filled in a questionnaire that measures the

dependent and independent variables (company and product perceptions, perceived

company integrity, skepticism, and support for CSR causes, including protection of

11
human, consumer, animal, and employee rights and the environment) and includes

questions related to demographics, the perceived purpose of the study (no respondent

guessed the actual purpose), and room for any additional comments.

Measures

To measure perceived integrity, we used Gurviez and Korchia’s (2002) items—

the company is sincere towards its customers, honest towards its customers, and clearly

shows interest towards its customers—measured on 10-point scales (1 = totally disagree,

10 = totally agree). Similar to Sen and Bhattacharya (2001), we measured consumers’

perception of the company as their overall impression rating (1 = very unfavorable; 10 =

very favorable). The product perception measure is similar but measure the overall

impression of the products on a 10-point scale. To measure consumers’ support for CSR,

we asked respondents to state their degree of support for various CSR activities (e.g.,

environmental protection, animal rights), similar to Sen and Bhattacharya’s (2001)

approach. Finally, to assess the degree of skepticism consumers hold with respect to

claims made by companies, we included Obermiller and Spangenberg’s (1998) scale of

ad skepticism (9 items, 10-point scales, 1 = totally disagree, 10 = totally agree) in the

questionnaire.

Respondents and data collection

A convenience sample of 125 Dutch consumers participated in the study and were

randomly assigned to the different conditions. Respondents include owners, volunteers,

and employees working for various companies and stores located in major cities in the

12
Netherlands, as well as acquaintances of the researchers who were not aware of the

purpose of the study. We approached potential respondents at home or on company/store

premises and asked them to take the questionnaire home and return it within a week. The

composition of respondents in this study represents a fairly representative spectrum of the

Dutch population in terms of age, gender, education level, and household status (see

Table 1).

INSERT TABLE 1

Pretests

Before conducting the experiment, we used a small-scale pretest with 10 non-student

respondents surveyed on a train to check our manipulation of the length of the company’s

CSR history. The respondents viewed either the short or long history version of the press

release. All respondents accurately answered a question about the length of the CSR

involvement of the company after having read the text.

In addition, we back-translated the stimuli and questionnaires from English to

Dutch or French to Dutch and then pretested each for clarity and the absence of

ambiguities.

Results

We conducted the usual checks for unidimensionality and reliability for the multi-items

scales. Two of the skepticism and one of the integrity items were discarded because they

reduced the reliability of their respective measure. We provide descriptive statistics of the

study variables in Table 2. Cronbach alphas are .92 for skepticism and .85 for integrity

(the Pearson correlation between the two integrity items is .74).

13
 INSERT TABLE 2

As we expected and in support of our first hypothesis, perceived integrity is

significantly greater for companies with a long CSR history than for those with a short

CSR history (t(123) = 2.079, p1-tail = .020). Company and product perceptions also are

significantly higher but at α = 0.10 (company: t(123) = 1.427, p1-tail = .078; product:

t(123) = 1.350, p1-tail = .090). In Figure 2, we provide the magnitudes of the respective

means.

INSERT FIGURE 2

In addition, the level of consumer skepticism is higher for companies with a short

history than for companies with a long history (t(120) = -2.332, p1-tail = .011), in support

of H2; we again provide the magnitude of the mean in Figure 2.

Finally, the data provide full support to H3. Specifically, to test for full mediation,

we conducted three regressions and checked four conditions (Baron and Kenny, 1986,

Chumpitaz and Vanhamme, 2003). First, the influence of the independent variable

(mediated variable) on the dependant variable must be significant when the mediator is

excluded from the regression (see Regression 1, Table 3). The data show a significant

impact of the length of CSR history on company perceptions, product perceptions, and

perceived integrity, so the first condition is satisfied.

INSERT TABLE 3

14
 Second, the independent variable must significantly influence the potential

mediator. This condition is also met; the length of CSR history has a significant effect on

skepticism (see Regression 2, Table 4). Third, for full mediation, the influence of the

independent variable on the dependant variable must become not significant when the

mediator is included in the regression, and fourth, the mediator must have a significant

influence on the dependant variable. As we show in Table 3 (Regression 3), the influence

of the length of CSR history on company perceptions, product perceptions, and perceived

integrity is not significant, whereas that of skepticism is significant. Thus, all four

conditions pertaining to full mediation are satisfied. Further corroborating this result, we

find that the Sobel test for mediation (Baron and Kenny, 1986) is significant for product

perceptions and perceived integrity at α = .05 (Sobel test value = 1.968, p = .049) and for

company perceptions at α = .06 (Sobel test value = 1.908; p = .056).

INSERT TABLE 4

Discussion

From a marketing communication perspective, crisis accusations are critical because they

can have a deleterious impact on consumers’ perceptions of the incriminated company

and its products. Years of work invested in building a strong company reputation can be

annihilated virtually overnight by an article published or broadcast in the media because

of the vast attention crises usually attract. The media tend to emphasize crises, especially

when their impact makes them newsworthy events for journalists (Heath, 1998).

Therefore, companies absolutely must react properly to crises. As is evident from the

15
literature, CSR involvement might offer an adequate tool to counter the negative impact

induced by crises, because consumer awareness of a company’s CSR involvement

usually leads to positive evaluations (e.g., Brown and Dacin, 1997; Sen and

Bhattacharya, 2001). However, the influence of CSR in crisis situations has been studied

only sporadically, so the literature lacks clear guidelines that companies can use to

determine their CSR claims in communication strategies and thereby limit the deleterious

impact of a crisis. We provide a first step in filling this gap.

Because of the advantages companies can gain from CSR involvement, they

largely have embraced CSR initiatives through donations or community programs.

Nevertheless, we clearly show that companies facing a crisis should be cautious when

using CSR as a tool to defend their reputations. Companies with a long history of

involvement in CSR activities have earned the right to mention their good deeds without

raising the suspicion of the consumers. However, companies that only recently have

started a CSR program have not earned that right. Should these companies give in to

temptation and communicate publicly about their newly initiated CSR activities, they will

face consumer skepticism, disbelief, and, in turn, negative company and product

perceptions, as well as doubts about the company’s integrity.

Short-term company CSR involvement seems to act as a cue that triggers

skepticism about its underlying motivation, which leads to more negative perceptions of

the company, its products, and its integrity. Thus, using the company’s brief CSR history

as a means to defend its maligned reputation seems to be a gimmick or a quick fix. In

contrast, companies with a long CSR track record can dismiss a crisis as a one-time

incident, and consumers will tend to believe their more credible CSR claims.

16
 Our study further highlights that consumer skepticism helps clarify the effect of

CSR history in crisis communication and thus extends existing knowledge about the

influence of consumer skepticism in marketing communication, a topic that deserves

further research attention (Forehand and Grier, 2003). Academic research indicates that

consumers tend to be increasingly critical and skeptical about influences by marketers

(Eisend, 2004), possibly as a result of the changes that have accompanied the societal

transition from modernism to postmodernism. In a postmodern period, society is

characterized by pluralism and fragmentation, which creates liberalism in choices and

increased insecurity in consumption contexts (Firat and Venkatesh, 1995). In this setting,

consumers adhere to a variety of values, adopt various lifestyles, and reject the authorities

of modernity, making them more experienced, more critical, and more skeptical about

marketing influences (Eisend, 2004; Elliot et al., 1993). This general consumer

skepticism appears in various CSR surveys, such as the 2004 Cone Corporate Citizenship

Study, which reported that a majority of Americans surveyed considered information

about CSR activities that they gain from third-party sources (i.e., friends, relatives,

government, news organizations, Internet) far more credible than that communicated by

sources controlled by the company itself.

If the trend of increased skepticism continues in the future, it might become

increasingly difficult and precarious to use CSR involvement in communication

campaigns to counter the deleterious effects of a crisis. Companies therefore should avoid

falling into the pitfall of being perceived as protesting too much. Practitioners should be

aware of the powerful impact of cues that decrease the credibility of their claims;

bragging about a short CSR track record is one of them. Companies should also keep in

17
mind that some demographic variables influence the level of consumer skepticism. For

example, consumers are usually more knowledgeable about marketing tactics as they

grow older or gain more education (Friestad and Wright, 1994; Obermiller and

Spangenberg, 1998), which makes older, more educated consumers difficult targets to

persuade with marketing tactics. A thorough understanding of the factors that increase

consumers skepticism and thorough knowledge of the characteristics of the target market

therefore seem essential in crisis situations, because with them, marketers can adapt and

fine-tune their crisis communication for specific target markets.

This study investigates only one type of crisis (animal testing accusations) and

uses a fictive cosmetic company. Although we have no reason to believe that the

phenomenon we discover will not hold in different settings, to increase the external

validity of our findings, further research should replicate our study with different types of

crises, CSR activities, and companies.

Moreover, additional research might define the minimum length of CSR

involvement that will not raise consumers’ suspicions, because instead of studying the

influence of CSR history as a continuum, we simply contrasted the influence of a short

versus long history.

In addition, our recommendations are based on the reactions of consumers; we do

not investigate other stakeholders’ points of view (e.g., employees, shareholders). The

implications of our study are thus confined to external, as opposed to internal, marketing

communication practices. It would be interesting to test whether our model also applies to

other stakeholders, which would extend its generalizability as well.

18
 Overall, we do not claim that companies should not invest in social activities.

Rather, we suggest it is better not to mention such good deeds in a crisis communication

strategy when it is likely that the claims will generate disbelief among consumers, such as

when the company’s involvement in CSR activities has been relatively short. This

knowledge should prove helpful for marketing practitioners when they must craft CSR

communication strategies for consumers.

19
References

Ashforth, B.E. and Gibbs, B.W.: 1990, ‘The Double-Edge of Organizational

Legitimation’, Organization Science, 1(2), 177-194.

Baron, R.M. and Kenny, D.A.: 1986, ‘The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in

Social Psychological Research: Conceptual, Strategic and Statistical Considerations’,

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173 – 1182.

Barton, L.: 1993, Crisis in Organizations: Managing and Communicating in the Heat of

Chaos (College Divisions South-Western Publishing, Cincinnati, OH).

Baumeister, R.F. and Scher, S.J.: 1988, ‘Self-Defeating Behavior Patterns among Normal

Individuals: Review and Analysis of Common Self-Destructive Tendencies,

Psychological Bulletin, 104(1), 3-22.

Benoit, W.L.: 1997, ‘Image Repair Discourse and Crisis Communication’, Public

Relations Review, 23(2), 177 – 186.

Bollen, A.: 2004, ‘The Rise and Rise of Non-Financial Reporting: How to Use Research

to Measure Your Reputation’, MORI White Paper, January, available at

www.mori.com.

Brown, T.J. and Dacin, P.A.: 1997, ‘The Company and the Product: Corporate

Associations and Consumer Product Responses’, Journal of Marketing, 61 (1), 68 –

84.

Campbell, M.C. and Kirmani, A.: 2000, ‘Consumers’ Use of Persuasion Knowledge: The

Effects of Accessibility and Cognitive Capacity on Perceptions of an Influence Agent’,

Journal of Consumer Research, 27(1), 69 - 83

20
Chumpitaz, R., and Vanhamme, J.: 2003, ‘Les Processus Modérateurs et Médiateurs :

Distinction Conceptuelle, Aspects Analytiques et Illustrations’, Recherches et

Applications en Marketing, 18(2), 67-100.

Cone Corporate Citizenship Study: 2004, available at

http://www.mybizwarehouse.com/2ndbusiness/2004ConeCorporateCitizenshipStudy.pdf.

Coombs, W.T.: 1995, ‘Choosing the Right Words: The Development of Guidelines for

the Selection of ‘Appropriate’ Crisis-Response Strategies’, Management

Communication Quarterly, 8(4), 447 – 476.

Coombs, W.T. and Holladay, S.J.: 1996, ‘Communication and Attributions in a Crisis:

An Experimental Study of Crisis Communication’, Journal of Public Relations

Research, 8(2), 279 – 295.

Dawar, N. and Pillutla, M.M.: 2000, ‘Impact of Product-Harm Crises on Brand Equity:

The Moderating Role of Consumer Expectations’, Journal of Marketing Research,

37(2), 215 – 226.

Dean, D.H.: 2004, ‘Consumer Reaction to Negative Publicity: Effects of Corporate

Reputation, Response, and Responsibility for a Crisis Event’, Journal of Business

Communication, 41(2), 192 – 211.

De Raaf, D.I.: 2000, Protecting Brands: How to Respond on Adverse Brand Publicity

(Van Spaenendonck Drukkerij B.V, Tilburg).

The Economist: 2005, ‘The Good Company: A Survey of Corporate Social

Responsibility’, January 22, 3-8.

Eisend, M.: 2004. ‘Is it Still Worth to be Credible? A Meta-Analysis of Temporal Patterns of

Source Credibility Effects in Marketing’, in B. E. Kahn and M. F. Luce (eds.), Advances

21
 in Consumer Research, Vol. 31 (Association for Consumer Research, Valdosta, GA), pp.

352-357.

Ellen, P.S., Mohr, L.A., and Webb, D.J.: 2002. ‘Pure or Mixed Motives: Consumer

Attributions for Corporate Pro-Social Marketing Programs’, in Punam Anand Keller

and Dennis W. Rook (eds.), Advances in Consumer Research (Association for

Consumer Research: Valdosta, GA), pp. 322-324. (Full paper obtained from the

authors).

Elliot, R., Eccles, S. and Hodgson, M.: 1993, ‘Re-Coding Gender Representations:

Women, Cleaning Products, and Advertising's 'New Man’’, International Journal of

Research in Marketing, 10(3), 311-24.

Firat, A. Fuat and Venkatesh, A.: 1995, ‘Liberatory Postmodernism and the

Reenchantment of Consumption’, Journal of Consumer Research, 22(3), 239-267.

Forehand, M.R. and Grier, S.: 2003, ‘When Is Honesty the Best Policy? The Effect of

Stated Company Intent on Consumer Skepticism’, Journal of Consumer Psychology,

13(3), 349 - 356.

Friestad, M. and Wright, P.: 1994, ‘The Persuasion Knowledge Model: How People Cope

with Persuasion Attempts’, Journal of Consumer Research, 21(1), 1-31.

Gurviez, P., and Korchia, M.: 2002, ‘Proposition d’une Echelle de Mesure

Multidimensionnelle de la Confiance dans la Marque’, Recherche et Applications en

Marketing, 17(3), 41-62.

Handelman, J.M. and Arnold, S.T.: 1999, ‘The Role of Marketing Actions with a Social

Dimension: Appeals to the Institutional Environment’, Journal of Marketing, 63(3),

33-48.

22
Heath, R.: 1998, Crisis Management for Managers and Executives: Business Crises – the

Definitive Handbook to Reduction, Readiness, Responses and Recovery (Financial

Times Professional Limited, London).

Holt, D.B.: 2002, ‘Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer

Culture and Branding’, Journal of Consumer Research, 29(1), 70 – 91.

Jones, E.E. and Pitman, T.S.: 1982. ‘Toward a General Theory of Strategic Self-

Presentation’, in J. Suls (ed), Psychological Perspectives on the Self, Vol. 1 (Erlbaum,

Hillsdale, NJ), pp. 231-262.

Klein, J. and Dawar, N.: 2004, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumers’

Attributions and Brand Evaluations in a Product-Harm Crisis’, International Journal of

Research in Marketing, 21, 203 – 217.

Lafferty, B.A. and Goldsmith, R.E.: 1999, ‘Corporate Credibility’s Role in Consumers

Attitudes and Purchase Intentions when a High versus Low Credibility Endorser Is

Used in the Ad’, Journal of Business Research, 44(2), 109 – 116.

Maignan, I., Ferrell, O.C., and Hult, G.T.: 1999, ‘Corporate Citizenship: Cultural

Antecedents and Business Benefits’, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, 27(4),

455 – 469.

McGuire, W.J.: 1985. ‘Attitudes and Attitude Change’, in G. Lindsey and E. Aronson

(eds.), Handbook of Social Psychology, 3d ed., Vol. 2. (Random House, New York),

pp. 233-246.

Mitroff, I.I.: 2001, Managing Crises Before They Happen: What Every Executive and

Manager Needs to Know about Crisis Management (Amacom, New York).

23
Mohr, L.A., Webb, D.J., and Harris, K.E.: 2001, ‘Do Consumers Expect Companies to be

Socially Responsible? The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Buying

Behavior’, Journal of Consumer Affairs, 35(1), 45 – 72.

MORI CSR Research: 2002, available at http://www.mori.com/csr/.

Neilsen, E.H., and Rao M.V.H.: 1987, ‘The Strategy-Legitimacy Nexus: A Thick

Description’. The Academy of Management Review, 12(3), 523-533.

Petty, R.E. and Ciacoppo, J.T.: 1986. ‘The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion’,

in H.A.M. Wilke (ed.), Oriëntatie in de Sociale Psychologie, Vol. 6 (Bohn, Stafleu,

van Loghum, Houten), pp. 135-140.

Obermiller, C. and Spangenberg, E.R.: 1998, ‘Development of a Scale to Measure

Consumer Skepticism toward Advertising’, Journal of Consumer Psychology, 72(2),

159 - 186

Riezebos, H.J.: 1996, Merkenmanagement (Wolters-Noordhof, Groningen).

Rossiter, J.R. and Percy, L.: 1998, Advertising Communications and Promotion

Management, 2d ed. (McGraw-Hill, Singapore).

Sen, S. and Bhattacharya C.B.: 2001, ‘Does Doing Good Always Lead to Doing Better?

Consumer Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility’, Journal of Marketing

Research, 38(2), 225 – 243.

Sturges, D.L.: 1994, ‘Communicating through Crisis: A Strategy for Organizational

Survival’, Management Communication Quarterly, 7 (3), 297 – 316.

Suchman, M.C.: 1995, ‘Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches’,

Academy of Management Review, 20(July), 571 – 610.

24
Swaen, V. and Vanhamme, J.: 2004, ‘See How 'Good' We Are: The Dangers of Using

Corporate Social Activities in Communication Campaigns’, in: B. Kahn and M.F. Luce

(eds.), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 31 (Association for Consumer Research,

Valdosta, GA), pp. 302-303.

Varadarajan, P.R. and Menon, A.: 1988, ‘Cause-Related Marketing: A Coalignment of

Marketing Strategy and Corporate Philanthropy’, Journal of Marketing, 52(3), 58-74.

Vonk, R.: 1998, ‘Impression Formation and Impression Management: Motives, Traits,

and Likeability Inferred from Self-Promoting and Self-Depreciating Behavior’, Social

Cognition, 17(4), 390-412.

Vonk, R.: 1999, ‘The Slime Effect: Suspicion and Dislike of Likeable Behavior towards

Superiors’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(4), 849-864.

Webb, D.J. and Mohr, L.A.: 1998, ‘A Typology of Consumer Responses to Cause-

Related Marketing: From Skeptics to Socially Concerned’, Journal of Public Policy &

Marketing, 17(2), 226-238.

25
 Figure 1. Research model

Covariate: Consumer
Support of CSR

Consumer Perceptions:
Length Consumer - Company
of CSR Skepticism - Product
History - Company integrity

Notes: Although we use text order counterbalancing as an additional covariate in the model, we do not
depict it, because its purpose is statistical rather than theoretical.

26
Figure 2. Means for short and long CSR histories

5
Short CSR history
4
Long CSR history
3

0
Company Product Perceived Skepticism
perception perception integrity

27
Table 1. Respondent demographics

Variable
Civil status Married: 47%; Divorced: 4%; Widowed: 2%; Single: 29%;
Living together: 18%
Education Elementary school: 4%; Professional education: 9%; Secondary
school: 50%; Higher education: 37%
Gender Male: 48%; Female: 52%
Age Mean: 39 years old; standard deviation: 13 years; range: 19–83
years
Children Mean: 1; standard deviation: 1; range: 0–3

28
Table 2. Descriptive statistics for model variables

N Minimum Maximum Mean Standard

Deviation

Company 125 1.000 9.000 5.76 1.873

perception
Product perception 125 1.000 9.000 6.43 1.889

Perceived integrity 125 1.000 10.000 4.896 1.826

Skepticism 122 2.860 10.000 7.032 1.443

Environment 123 1.000 10.000 6.690 1.955

Human rights 125 2.000 10.000 7.310 1.820

Animal rights 125 1.000 10.000 7.290 1.913

Consumer rights 125 1.000 10.000 6.460 2.157

Employee rights 125 1.000 10.000 6.940 1.872

29
Table 3. Results of regressions 1 and 3 (H3)
Company perception Product perception Perceived integrity

B S.E. Beta t Sig. B S.E. Beta t Sig. B S.E. Beta t Sig.

Regression 1:

(Constant) 9.041 0.768 11.768 0.000 9.035 0.821 11.004 0.000 5.874 0.854 6.878 0.000
Length CSR history1 -0.253 0.147 -0.137 -1.726 0.044 -0.264 0.157 -0.143 -1.686 0.047 -0.324 0.163 -0.179 -1.991 0.025
Covariates:
Environment 0.011 0.090 0.011 0.118 0.906 0.116 0.097 0.122 1.198 0.233 -0.173 0.100 -0.186 -1.718 0.088
Human rights 0.062 0.115 0.057 0.537 0.593 0.000 0.123 0.000 0.003 0.997 0.025 0.128 0.024 0.197 0.844
Animal rights -0.497 0.105 -0.511 -4.736 0.000 -0.453 0.112 -0.466 -4.040 0.000 -0.066 0.117 -0.069 -0.565 0.573
Consumer rights 0.181 0.120 0.205 1.508 0.134 0.086 0.129 0.098 0.672 0.503 0.279 0.134 0.322 2.085 0.039
Employee rights -0.188 0.120 -0.189 -1.565 0.120 -0.082 0.128 -0.082 -0.636 0.526 -0.187 0.133 -0.193 -1.402 0.164
Counterbalancing 0.403 0.148 0.218 2.720 0.008 0.244 0.159 0.132 1.536 0.127 -0.096 0.165 -0.053 -0.583 0.561

Regression 3

(Constant) 11.958 1.058 11.297 0.000 12.624 1.107 11.406 0.000 11.085 1.029 10.769 0.000
Length CSR history1 -0.124 0.145 -0.066 -0.851 0.199 -0.112 0.152 -0.061 -0.739 0.231 -0.114 0.141 -0.062 -0.803 0.214
Skepticism -0.388 0.102 -0.296 -3.813 0.000 -0.453 0.106 -0.349 -4.264 0.000 -0.720 0.099 -0.562 -7.285 0.000
Covariates:
Environment 0.009 0.089 0.009 0.097 0.923 0.087 0.093 0.089 0.939 0.350 -0.164 0.086 -0.171 -1.901 0.060
Human rights 0.094 0.113 0.084 0.835 0.405 0.028 0.118 0.025 0.238 0.812 0.108 0.110 0.098 0.982 0.328
Animal rights -0.557 0.102 -0.564 -5.439 0.000 -0.507 0.107 -0.517 -4.739 0.000 -0.182 0.100 -0.188 -1.826 0.071
Consumer rights 0.171 0.115 0.191 1.484 0.141 0.076 0.121 0.085 0.629 0.531 0.261 0.112 0.298 2.328 0.022
Employee rights -0.175 0.115 -0.175 -1.524 0.130 -0.076 0.120 -0.076 -0.629 0.530 -0.169 0.112 -0.172 -1.512 0.133
Counterbalancing 0.363 0.146 0.195 2.491 0.014 0.176 0.153 0.095 1.152 0.252 -0.142 0.142 -0.078 -1.004 0.317
1
Dummy variable coded -1 for long CSR history and 1 for short CSR history.
2
R² are .383, .317, and .393 for company perception, product perception, and perceived integrity, respectively.
Notes: p-values in bold are one-tailed; all hypotheses are directional hypotheses.

30
Table 4. Results of regression 2 (H3)

B S.E. Beta t Sig.

(Constant) 7.063 0.723 9.770 0.000

Length CSR history 1 0.301 0.132 0.211 2.278 0.013
Covariates:
Environment 0.012 0.082 0.017 0.150 0.881
Human rights 0.128 0.104 0.148 1.224 0.223
Animal rights -0.150 0.094 -0.199 -1.599 0.113
Consumer rights -0.035 0.107 -0.052 -0.329 0.743
Employee rights 0.035 0.107 0.045 0.326 0.745
Counterbalancing -0.039 0.136 -0.027 -0.288 0.774

1
Dummy variable coded -1 for long CSR history and 1 for short CSR history.
Notes: p-values in bold are one-tailed; all hypotheses are directional hypotheses; dependant variable:
skepticism.

31