CSR Inconsistency and the Consumer-Brand Relationship. A Self-Expansion Perspective.

Sammanfattning

The growing misconduct within corporate social responsibility (CSR) reflects a persistent pattern of inconsistency between brands' communicated values and actual practices. Prior research primarily examines various attitudinal outcomes of CSR inconsistencies, leaving the psychological mechanisms insufficiently understood. This paper draws on self-expansion theory to test whether a CSR inconsistency negatively affects repurchase intentions, and whether inclusion of brand in self (IBIS) and brand relationship quality (BRQ) serially mediate this effect. A between subjects experiment (N = 295) exposed participants to a fictitious fashion brand exhibiting either consistent or inconsistent environmental CSR behavior. The results confirmed the proposed serial mediation model: a CSR inconsistency reduced IBIS, which predicted lower BRQ, which in turn predicted lower repurchase intentions. A substantial direct effect also remained, revealing a partial mediation. Managerial implications discuss the risk, response strategies and relationship repair. Further, theoretical contributions, limitations and future research are presented.