Investing In CSR Pays You Back in Many Ways! The Case of Perceptual, Attitudinal and Behavioral Outcomes of Customers

Ishfaq Ahmed, Mian Sajid Nazir, Imran Ali, Mohammad Nurunnabi, Arooj Khalid and Muhammad Zeeshan Shaukat
Additional contact information
Ishfaq Ahmed: Hailey College of Commerce, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Punjab 54000, Pakistan
Mian Sajid Nazir: Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, Punjab 54000, Pakistan
Imran Ali: Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Administration, King Abdulaziz University, P.O Box 80201, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Mohammad Nurunnabi: Department of Accounting, Prince Sultan University, P.O. Box 66833, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia
Arooj Khalid: Institute of Quality & Technology Management, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Punjab 54000, Pakistan
Muhammad Zeeshan Shaukat: Institute of Business & Management, University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore, Punjab 39161, Pakistan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: Researchers and scholars have widely attributed corporate social responsibility (CSR) to enormous outcomes. However, the customer-specific outcomes are either less investigated or lack clarity. By focusing on perceptual, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes of CSR, this study entails that CSR influences customers’ citizenship behavior (behavioral outcome) both directly and indirectly (through service quality and affective commitment—perceptual and attitudinal outcomes). Survey data collected from 669 fast-food restaurant customers were analyzed through the structural equation modeling technique. The results revealed a positive and significant relationship between restaurants’ CSR efforts and customers’ behavioral responses in terms of citizenship behavior. Findings also highlight that CSR does not only have a direct relation but the sequential mediation mechanism also exists. The study extends the existing literature by focusing on the ignored causal link of CSR and customer citizenship behavior (CCB) by considering the service quality and affective commitment as an explanatory mechanism, and provides certain practical implications which could also be useful for managers of the restaurant industry to devise their socially responsible practices.

Keywords: affective commitment; corporate social responsibility; customer citizenship behavior; developing country; fast-food restaurants; service quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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