When CSR gives positive signals to stakeholders: The mediated-moderation model of CSR communication
Usman Ahmad Qadri, Dr. Mazuri Binti Abd Ghani, Ulfat Abbas
This paper adds to extant research by examining the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and brand equity during natural disasters. Specifically, this study investigates the moderating effect of CSR-framed news articles in the indirect relationship between CSR and brand equity via consumer satisfaction. This study used disproportionate stratified sampling to collect the data from 448 telecom subscribers in Pakistan. For analyses, we used AMOS in SPSS v24 and Process Macro v3.5. This study has several findings. 1) The analysis of the results has shown that consumer satisfaction mediates the relationship between CSR and brand equity. 2) CSR-framed news article was found to moderate the positive association between consumer satisfaction and brand equity. 3) Mediated-moderation analysis has shown that CSR-framed news articles moderate the indirect relationship between CSR and brand equity via consumer satisfaction, such that the mediating effect will be stronger when CSR-framed news article credibility is high. The theoretical and practical implications of these outcomes are discussed.
Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Consumer Satisfaction, Brand Equity, News Articles, Natural Disasters in Pakistan
