Paper Title
The Influence of Motivated Reasoning on the Processing of Corporate Social Responsibility Information
Start Date
16-7-2010 10:15 AM
End Date
16-7-2010 11:45 AM
Description
Past research examining the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumer product evaluations has produced an equivocal set of findings. One stream of research finds that information pertaining to CSR activities indirectly impacts perceptions of products through the way in which firms are perceived. In contrast, another stream of research finds that the relationship between CSR activities and product evaluations is a direct one. The research at hand uses the theoretical framework of motivated reasoning to parsimoniously integrate the various findings relating to the impact of CSR on product evaluations.
Research within a variety of domains suggests that the manner in which people process information is influenced by activated motivations. Specifically, when consumers are influenced by accuracy motives, they are likely to rely upon the most relevant information available. On the other hand, impression and defense motives may encourage people to rely upon less relevant information. If consumers consider CSR information to be of reduced relevance, compared functional attributes, its usage in evaluations may be affected by active motives. We set about exploring this possibility in a series of three studies.
The first study investigates how consumers’ ability to be accuracy in their judgments influences the impact that information pertaining to CSR associations has on product evaluations. The second study compares the influence of accuracy motives to that of impression motives. The third study considers the impact of CSR under the influence of defense motives. Our results indicate that CSR activities are not influential under accuracy motives, but that they do influence evaluations under the influence of both impression and defense motives. In an unexpected finding, across all three studies, the impact of CSR was dependent upon product quality.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has recently been the center of much attention in both the popular and academic media. It’s possible that interest in the phenomenon is being prompted by the increasing number of firms participating in socially responsible programs. In 2006, U.S. charitable giving reached a record high of an estimated $295.02 billion in donations (Giving USA Foundation 2007). Corporations and corporate foundations were responsible for 12.72 billion of those dollars. Some of the more popular causes enjoy unparalleled support: (RED), an organization created to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria through its work in conjunction with the Global Fund, is supported by a network of companies and raised $140 million since its inception in 2006 (Impact, 2010); meanwhile, Susan G. Komen for the Cure lists more than 100 corporate sponsors that were responsible for raising approximately $55 million in the fight against breast cancer in 2008 (Annual Report, 2008). A glimpse at recent headlines suggests that CSR is being embraced across a wide range of industries in a number of permutations: guitar manufacturers, including Gibson and Fender, partnered with Greenpeace to reduce the logging of old growth forests (Rifkin, 2007); Microsoft pledged $50 million to community colleges (Brown, 2006); and Target sponsored National Volunteer Week (Points of Light Foundation, 2007).
Complementing its popularity with the media and consumers, there has been a recent surge of academic interest in CSR. Researchers have considered topics including the potential for CSR campaigns to be profitable (Luo & Bhattcharya, 2006), the type of products best equipped to be associated with CSR (Strahilevitz & Myers, 1996), how CSR information transfers between products in a firm’s portfolio (Biehal & Sheinin, 2007), and the relationship between CSR activities and perceptions of corporate hypocrisy (Wagner, Lutz & Weitz, 2009). A large portion of the literature on corporate social responsibility examines the impact that CSR has on evaluations of the firm and the product (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001) and ways in which CSR differs from other corporate associations (Gurhan-Canli & Batra, 2004). The literature, however, has neglected to consider the role that external circumstances, particularly activated motivations, play in the usage and processing of CSR information. As far as we can tell, with two notable exceptions (Wagner, Lutz & Weitz 2009, Pomering & Johnson, 2009), all previous research on corporate social responsibility operates under the implicit assumption that if CSR information is available to consumers, they will use it uniformly across all situations. The studies contained herein attempt to debunk this assumption and provide evidence of the influence of circumstance, specifically activated motives, in how CSR information is used in the formulation of evaluations.
Our investigation offers a twofold contribution to the marketing literature. First, we provide resolution to the mixed findings related to the effect of CSR with empirical support for the direct impact of corporate social responsibility on product evaluation. Second, we establish that different activated motives can bear differential influence on the use of CSR information in determining product evaluations. In summary, it is demonstrated that the information that consumers have regarding a firm’s corporate social responsibility can directly influence their evaluations of products produced by that firm; this influence varies with active motivations and the relative quality of the firm’s products.
The remainder of this paper is devoted to examining and understanding how activated motivations influence the use and impact of CSR information on product evaluations. The first section contains a literature review that covers extant research on the influence of CSR information and the impact that active motives have on the processing of information. Research hypotheses are then developed and presented. In the second section a series of three experiments that examine these research hypotheses are described and discussed. The paper concludes with a general discussion, managerial and theoretical implications, and suggestions for future research.
COinS
The Influence of Motivated Reasoning on the Processing of Corporate Social Responsibility Information
Past research examining the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumer product evaluations has produced an equivocal set of findings. One stream of research finds that information pertaining to CSR activities indirectly impacts perceptions of products through the way in which firms are perceived. In contrast, another stream of research finds that the relationship between CSR activities and product evaluations is a direct one. The research at hand uses the theoretical framework of motivated reasoning to parsimoniously integrate the various findings relating to the impact of CSR on product evaluations.
Research within a variety of domains suggests that the manner in which people process information is influenced by activated motivations. Specifically, when consumers are influenced by accuracy motives, they are likely to rely upon the most relevant information available. On the other hand, impression and defense motives may encourage people to rely upon less relevant information. If consumers consider CSR information to be of reduced relevance, compared functional attributes, its usage in evaluations may be affected by active motives. We set about exploring this possibility in a series of three studies.
The first study investigates how consumers’ ability to be accuracy in their judgments influences the impact that information pertaining to CSR associations has on product evaluations. The second study compares the influence of accuracy motives to that of impression motives. The third study considers the impact of CSR under the influence of defense motives. Our results indicate that CSR activities are not influential under accuracy motives, but that they do influence evaluations under the influence of both impression and defense motives. In an unexpected finding, across all three studies, the impact of CSR was dependent upon product quality.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has recently been the center of much attention in both the popular and academic media. It’s possible that interest in the phenomenon is being prompted by the increasing number of firms participating in socially responsible programs. In 2006, U.S. charitable giving reached a record high of an estimated $295.02 billion in donations (Giving USA Foundation 2007). Corporations and corporate foundations were responsible for 12.72 billion of those dollars. Some of the more popular causes enjoy unparalleled support: (RED), an organization created to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria through its work in conjunction with the Global Fund, is supported by a network of companies and raised $140 million since its inception in 2006 (Impact, 2010); meanwhile, Susan G. Komen for the Cure lists more than 100 corporate sponsors that were responsible for raising approximately $55 million in the fight against breast cancer in 2008 (Annual Report, 2008). A glimpse at recent headlines suggests that CSR is being embraced across a wide range of industries in a number of permutations: guitar manufacturers, including Gibson and Fender, partnered with Greenpeace to reduce the logging of old growth forests (Rifkin, 2007); Microsoft pledged $50 million to community colleges (Brown, 2006); and Target sponsored National Volunteer Week (Points of Light Foundation, 2007).
Complementing its popularity with the media and consumers, there has been a recent surge of academic interest in CSR. Researchers have considered topics including the potential for CSR campaigns to be profitable (Luo & Bhattcharya, 2006), the type of products best equipped to be associated with CSR (Strahilevitz & Myers, 1996), how CSR information transfers between products in a firm’s portfolio (Biehal & Sheinin, 2007), and the relationship between CSR activities and perceptions of corporate hypocrisy (Wagner, Lutz & Weitz, 2009). A large portion of the literature on corporate social responsibility examines the impact that CSR has on evaluations of the firm and the product (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001) and ways in which CSR differs from other corporate associations (Gurhan-Canli & Batra, 2004). The literature, however, has neglected to consider the role that external circumstances, particularly activated motivations, play in the usage and processing of CSR information. As far as we can tell, with two notable exceptions (Wagner, Lutz & Weitz 2009, Pomering & Johnson, 2009), all previous research on corporate social responsibility operates under the implicit assumption that if CSR information is available to consumers, they will use it uniformly across all situations. The studies contained herein attempt to debunk this assumption and provide evidence of the influence of circumstance, specifically activated motives, in how CSR information is used in the formulation of evaluations.
Our investigation offers a twofold contribution to the marketing literature. First, we provide resolution to the mixed findings related to the effect of CSR with empirical support for the direct impact of corporate social responsibility on product evaluation. Second, we establish that different activated motives can bear differential influence on the use of CSR information in determining product evaluations. In summary, it is demonstrated that the information that consumers have regarding a firm’s corporate social responsibility can directly influence their evaluations of products produced by that firm; this influence varies with active motivations and the relative quality of the firm’s products.
The remainder of this paper is devoted to examining and understanding how activated motivations influence the use and impact of CSR information on product evaluations. The first section contains a literature review that covers extant research on the influence of CSR information and the impact that active motives have on the processing of information. Research hypotheses are then developed and presented. In the second section a series of three experiments that examine these research hypotheses are described and discussed. The paper concludes with a general discussion, managerial and theoretical implications, and suggestions for future research.
Comments
Cooresponding author: Aronté Bennett