The effect of corporate social responsibility on brand loyalty: the mediating role of brand image

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is regarded as a good strategic marketing tool and it has significant influence on consumers’ behaviours. The purpose of this study is to explore the indirect effects of different dimensions of CSR on brand loyalty in a real business context. This study focuses on legal and ethical responsibilities as two dimensions of social responsibility. The empirical results indicate that consumers’ perceived legal and ethical responsibilities of brands may improve brand loyalty through enhancing positive functional and symbolic images. Moreover, corporate legally responsible behaviour helps to enhance a more functional image perceived by consumers than a symbolic image, while ethically responsible action impacts a symbolic image more than a functional image. These results suggest firms should focus on key dimensions of social responsibility based on the expectations of consumers in their marketing programmes.

Keywords:

• corporate social responsibility
• ethical responsibility
• legal responsibility
• functional image
• symbolic image
• brand loyalty

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (70702011, 71172088), Social Science Fund of Chinese Ministry of Education (10YJC630025) and Huazhong University of Science and Technology Research Fund for Innovation (2011WA004).