Editorial: a call for more research on authenticity in corporate social responsibility programs

As evidenced by the Business Roundtable’s (2019) revised ‘Statement of the Purpose of a Corporation,’ which commits to companies serving a broader set of stakeholders than just shareholders – including customers, employees, suppliers, and the community – companies are putting more emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR). There is little doubt that around much of the globe, there are more expectations from consumers for companies to follow responsible practices (see Taylor 2018).

Research has been conducted on promoting corporate social responsibility in advertising for many decades and much has been learned about what drives consumer reaction to such campaigns (e.g., Bergkvist and Zhou 2019; Chen 2020). Key variables in terms of length of commitment to a program (Ellen et al. 2006), fit between the program and the company (Ellen et al. 2006; Elving 2013; Kim and Choi 2020; Lee et al. 2020; Schaefer et al. 2020), and perceived authenticity (Schaefer et al. 2019; Kim and Lee 2019) to a CSR program have been found to be associated with higher effectiveness of ads for to a CSR initiative. In general, it has been found that length and size of commitment, fit between the company and the initiative, and perceived authenticity of the company’s commitment to the program are positively correlated with consumer reaction to communications pertaining to the CSR initiative (Bergkvist and Taylor 2016; Bergkvist and Zhou 2019).

From an ethics standpoint, an issue that persists in doing research on promotion of CSR initiatives is that authenticity of a program is difficult to measure objectively. As a result, researchers have generally relied on consumer perceptions of the authenticity of a CSR program (Lee et al. 2012; Öberseder et al. 2014), and perceptions may not always match reality. Indeed, it would take considerable effort for a typical consumer to be able to effectively gauge the degree to which a company’s commitment to a CSR program is primarily profit motivated versus being based on a sincere desire to contribute to a cause. Without doubt, there can sometimes be ‘win-win’ situations in which CSR initiatives help people and/or society, but it is highly likely there are others where the company gains more than the cause. Such concerns are not new, as in the past some firms have even been accused of spending more promoting a CSR program than on the CSR program itself. Indeed, some ‘old hands’ in the marketing field believe that a shorter-term profit motive still underlies many CSR initiatives.

The complexity of being able to decipher corporate motives leave an odd situation where consumer perceptions of authenticity help a company regardless of whether the company’s commitment to the cause is sincere and/or altruistic or not. Moreover, there is a history of some companies who are effective at promoting themselves as good corporate citizens scoring high on consumer perceptions of being socially responsible in spite of not being rated especially high by independent evaluators of CSR. This gap between performance and consumer perceptions of CSR is difficult to grapple with from a research standpoint, but efforts to research how companies can effectively who do have an authentic commitment can effectively communicate this aspect of their program is needed. A recent example of where such a broader perspective to authenticity is taken is found in d’Astous et al. (2020) who examined perceptions of sincerity and legitimacy of CSR program. More research building on these ideas is needed.

A recent joint initiative by Procter and Gamble’s Tide brand in conjunction with the National Football League is representative of a case where an investment made by a company is demonstrative of a deep and authentic commitment to a program (Taylor 2021). In Tide’s case, Procter and Gamble took a risk and invested millions in improving the performance of cold-washing versions of the detergent. As cold washing consumes less energy than using warm or hot water, the advantage is reduced energy consumption, which simultaneously reduces greenhouse gas emissions and saves consumers money. The ‘Turn to Cold’ campaign will reach 80 million consumers weekly, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 5.5 million metric tons every year. Cleaning performance is important to many consumers buying laundry detergent, so the improved formula was critical to the success of the initiative—for it to work, more consumers much switch to cold washing. Via partnering with the National Football League, the joint investment of Tide and the NFL in the program is sizable, particularly as ads on NFL football games are unique in terms of their ability consistently high reach such high levels of viewership.

In a sense, the ‘Turn to Cold’ campaign is a win-win-win-win, with consumers, the environment, Tide, and the NFL all benefiting. From a CSR standpoint, however, a key point is the Procter and Gamble made a risky investment in the initiative and is not putting the onus on consumers to reduce energy consumption by paying more. In fact, consumers will save money. This ability to take risk and not put all of the onus on the consumer for the environmental objective is something we should be more of. As alluded to above, in encouraging these types of programs, research on how companies can effectively communicate dimensions of CSR programs related to legitimate commitment and sincerity in an effort to produce stronger authenticity measures would be helpful. Clearly, it would be more ideal if companies who make investments in CSR efforts in an authentic manner are rewarded for doing so, while those simply doing a profit calculation are not rewarded in the eyes of public opinion. No doubt, closing the gap between perceptions of how socially responsible a company is, and its actual level of social responsibility is very challenging. However, efforts to facilitate closing that gap on the part of research are needed. As a result, the International Journal of Advertising would like to encourage submissions that focus on the broadly defined issue of authenticity of CSR initiatives.