Differentiated consumer forgiveness for different corporate social irresponsibility domains: The moderating role of corporate reputation and patriotism

Jinhua Li, Li Liu and Qiankai Qing

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2022, vol. 69, issue C

Abstract: The extant literature has generally overlooked the differentiated consumer forgiveness regarding corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). Motivated by this, we introduce the construct of patriotism and propose a model (applicable to domestic enterprises in China) to investigate the moderating effect of patriotism and corporate reputation on the relationship between CSI domains (must-be and attractive) and consumer forgiveness; and such effect is mediated by moral judgment. An experiment that uses 483 actual consumers in China as participants was conducted. We find that the must-be CSI has a greater negative impact on consumers than the attractive CSI, and consumers are less likely to forgive the must-be CSI. Meanwhile, moral judgment plays a mediating role in the differential effects of different CSI domains on consumer forgiveness. In addition, high corporate reputation has a buffer effect on both CSI domains for consumers with high patriotism, and has a boomerang effect on the must-be CSI and a buffer effect on the attractive CSI for consumers with low patriotism.

Keywords: Corporate social irresponsibility; Consumer forgiveness; Patriotism; Corporate reputation; Moral judgment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:69:y:2022:i:c:s0969698922002156

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103122

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