A transformative approach to corporate social responsibility: an antidote to corporate hypocrisy

ABSTRACT

Despite the substantial budgets spent on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), customers’ reactions toward companies’ socially responsible strategies are not always in line with companies’ goals. This is mainly due to the rising CSR-related-hypocrisy occurring as a customer response to a common concern that companies are investing in symbolic CSR. These perceptions not only limit the sought-after outcomes of CSR but could result in a worsening of reputation and financial loss for services. As such, the key research question in this paper is: ‘From a customers’ perspective, what factors can help reduce the perception of CSR-related-hypocrisy within banking services?’. In addressing this question, this paper adopts a transdisciplinary approach bridging the gap between CSR and Transformative Service Research (TSR) literature. Findings suggest that when CSR-related-activities positively affect the wellbeing of customers, it is less likely that they judge a firm CSR activity as a hypocrite. In the retail banking sector, this paper shows higher perceived bank information transparency results in lower levels of perceived CSR-related-hypocrisy, especially when CSR activities improve the financial self-efficacy of customers. By bridging TSR and CSR lenses, this paper posits CSR activities offer service companies a unique opportunity for creating ‘uplifting changes’ in the life of customers.

摘要:

對公司而言，儘管於企業社會責任 (CSR)已投入了持續的關注及預算，但客戶對於其企業社會責任策略的反應卻不一定完全相符於公司的目標．主要的原因是，企業社會責任的偽善日益嚴重. 令客戶普遍認為公司只是投資在象徵性的企業社會責任．這種觀點不僅僅限制了企業社會責任廣受認同的表現，甚至導致其服務名聲的惡化及經濟損失．因此，此篇論文重點在探討 ‘那些因素可以降低企業社會責任的偽善現象之於銀行服務的影響?’．鑒於探討此問題，本論文採用了 跨學科的方式以彌合企業社會責任(CSR)與變革服務研究(TSR) 之間的差異．研究發現，當企業社會責任的相關活動有益於客戶的福祉時，客戶較少認定其企業社會責任的活動為偽善．本文顯示出，之於銀行業，高度的訊息透明度導致企業社會責任的偽善程度較低．尤其當企業社會責任活動有助益於增進客戶的財務自我效能時．藉由連結TSR 與 CSR的觀點，本文認為，企業社會責任的相關活動為服務類別的公司提供了一個獨特的機會，令其為客戶的生活創造 ‘充滿展望的變化’．

KEYWORDS:

• Transformative service research
• corporate social responsibility
• well-being
• banking sector
• corporate hypocrisy

关键词:

• 關鍵詞：變革服務研究
• 企業社會責任
• 福祉
• 銀行業
• 企業偽善。

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In this paper the terms banking services and retail banking are used interchangeably.

2 CFI = Comparative Fit Index; GFI = Goodness-of-fit index; RMSEA = Root Mean Square Error of Approximation.