Effects of the Type of CSR Discourse for Utilitarian and Hedonic Services

Andrea Pérez, María del Mar García de los Salmones and Elisa Baraibar-Diez
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Andrea Pérez: Business Administration Department, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain
María del Mar García de los Salmones: Business Administration Department, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain
Elisa Baraibar-Diez: Business Administration Department, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-22

Abstract: In a context of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication, we explore whether the use of expositive versus narrative discourses interacts with the type of service commercialized by the company (utilitarian vs. hedonic) to determine consumer perceptions and responses to corporate communication. Our main proposal is that, as representative examples of utilitarian services, banking companies would benefit significantly from communicating their CSR efforts with expositive discourses, whereas narrative discourses would be more adequate for hedonic services (e.g., catering). To test the research hypotheses, we use a 2 (expositive/narrative discourse) x 2 (utilitarian/hedonic service) between-subjects experimental design where we expose 302 consumers to different combinations of CSR messages and we evaluate changes in their message attributions and internal and external responses to them. The findings show that the interaction effect is significant and it works in the expected direction for issue importance, CSR fit, and CSR attributions. However, for CSR impact, attitude, trust, purchase, and advocacy intentions, the findings suggest that narrative discourses work better than expositive discourses both for utilitarian and hedonic services. No significant differences between types of discourses are observed for CSR motives, CSR commitment, and C-C identification and the interaction effect is also not significant for these variables.

Keywords: CSR; communication; discourse; exposition; narrative; storytelling; banking; catering; utilitarian service; hedonic service (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 (2)

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