What drives retail entrepreneurs’ intentions to engage in CSR? The effects of societal concern, social pressure and state anxiety

ABSTRACT

In this study, we investigate what drives retail entrepreneurs' intentions to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) across environmental, economic, and social domains. To be more specific, we aim to explore the extent to which retail entrepreneurs’ societal concern and perceived social pressure are related to their CSR intentions both directly and indirectly through state anxiety. State anxiety refers to retail entrepreneurs’ general and potentially excessive worry over societal problems. By applying the theory of reasoned action (TRA), we develop and test five hypotheses with structural equation modeling on a sample of 324 independent retail entrepreneurs. Our study showed that societal concern and social pressure have a direct effect on CSR intentions across all three studied domains. Furthermore, the results indicate that greater the anxiety, the stronger the impact of societal concern and social pressure on CSR intentions. Thus, state anxiety positively mediates the relationship between societal concern and CSR intentions and the relationship between social pressure and CSR intentions. However, our study revealed that the relationship between state anxiety and CSR intentions is non-linear, indicating that high levels of state anxiety can deter retail entrepreneurs from engaging in CSR. This is a significant finding that calls for further research.

KEYWORDS:

• Corporate social responsibility
• retailing
• SEM
• state anxiety
• entrepreneurs

Introduction and purpose

Today’s world is facing serious problems and one could say that we are in a state of planetary emergency. Our challenges seem endless: from climate change and biodiversity loss to poverty and inequality and from increasing unemployment and dept to corruption and organized crime (e.g. Zaman et al., 2022; Naidoo and Fisher 2020; von Braun et al. 2021). The world has become increasingly uncertain and complex, and most of all, very fragile. Thus, it is not surprising that many of us experience anxiety about the societal problems that we have faced (Coffey et al. 2021; Hickman 2020; Hogg et al. 2021). Although anxiety refers to unpleasant feelings, it can be also something that drives us to look for practices that can help to us to fight for healthier society and planet.

For numerous companies, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a way to improve well-being of our society (Ben Youssef et al., 2018; Oduro, Bruno, and Maccario 2021; Tiba et al. 2019). Typically, the media associates CSR with large, high-profile companies such as Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Company and Johnson & Johnson and therefore, the public attention is focused on their CSR undertakings. Similarly, CSR research has largely focused on large corporations in relation to environmental issues, human rights, and their business practices in less developed nations (Blombäck and Wigren-Kristoferson 2014) or CSR practices and organizational-level performance (Aguinis and Glavas 2019). While previous studies have examined CSR at the individual level, they mostly focused on how customers or employees respond to an organisation’s CSR initiative (Gond et al. 2017).

In turn, two important gaps remain. First, although their specificities are acknowledged (Soundararajan, Jamali, and Spence 2017; Tilley 2000), CSR concerns in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is still largely unexplored (Wen et al. 2022). Second, while a dense literature exists on the person-centric perspective of CSR, but little is known about how entrepreneurs and their individual sense-making of CSR (Ashman and Winstanley 2007; Blombäck and Wigren-Kristoferson 2014). Yet these issues are important as CSR is becoming a significant approach for many SME entrepreneurs who are now taking concrete actions to tackle larger societal challenges (Ben Youssef et al., 2018; Oduro, Bruno, and Maccario 2021; Schramm-Klein et al. 2016; Yáñez-Araque et al. 2021). Prior research also show that SMEs do not employ formal or structured CSR systems (Murillo and Lozano 2006; Wen et al. 2022). Instead, the entrepreneurs, themselves are the primary forces behind the creation and execution of CSR activities (Jenkins 2004). To fill these gaps, our study intends to investigate the role of several entrepreneurs’ drivers on their CSR intentions, focusing on retail entrepreneurs.

In the retail sector, trying to remain competitive while implementing and communicating CSR practices to customers present substantial challenges for organizations (Dal Mas et al. 2022). CSR practices in retail need a concerted effort along the entire supply chain. Evidence shows that despite the CSR commitment of retailers and major producers, the pressure on prices and productivity in retail-dominated value chains can engender heavy strains on local workers, particularly in developing countries (Robinson 2010). In contrast to other industries, retailers buy goods from other suppliers without necessarily having control over products’ sustainability (Ma, Lee, and Goerlitz 2016).

Although the direct relationship between CSR and business performance is described as complex and uncertain (Dang, Nguyen, and Pervan 2020; Nyame-Asiamah and Ghulam, 2019; Oduro, Bruno, and Maccario 2021; Yáñez-Araque et al. 2021), some show that consumers are more likely to favor, identify themselves, and develop stronger loyalty to retailers that are socially responsible (Ailawadi et al. 2014; Dang, Nguyen, and Pervan 2020). Within this context, retail entrepreneurs have shown increased interest to engage in CSR (Abdelmoety, Aboul-Dahab, and Agag 2022; Dang, Nguyen, and Pervan 2020). This is not surprising because CSR is seen to have a positive effect on the performance of retail entrepreneurs (e.g. Kumar and Singh 2022). Evidence also shows that CSR-related activities have advantages for retail entrepreneurs in terms of creating a positive image and enhancing the social involvement of employees and other communities (e.g. Loussaïef et al. 2014).

CSR, defined as a firms’ commitment to improve economic, social and environmental welfare through their business operations (Baskentli et al. 2019), is a holistic approach that can cover various domains such as employee relations, human rights, diversity, community issues, corporate governance, and product issues (Baskentli et al. 2019; Sharma and Singh 2021; Yáñez-Araque et al. 2021). CSR-related actions and initiatives driven by entrepreneurs can have significant impacts in our society (Schramm-Klein et al. 2016; Yáñez-Araque et al. 2021), not only in terms of the jobs entrepreneurs can create or by taxes that they pay, but also in terms of responsible sourcing, improvements in working conditions, or sustainable innovations.

By adopting a CSR approach, retail entrepreneurs take into account not only economic (profit) related matters but also environmental (planet) and social (people) issues in their business decisions. These three domains are coined in the CSR literature as the Triple Bottom Line (for review, see e.g. Dahlsrud 2008) and defends that firm performance should not be measured solely in the terms of financial profits (Elkington 1997). The most comprehensive CSR approach would ideally entail all possible dimensions – economic, social and environmental issues. However, retail entrepreneurs may vary greatly regarding to what extent they are engaging in CSR across different domains of their business operations. While some entrepreneurs may opt to prioritize their responsibilities and fully concentrate on the fulfilment of only one or two types of responsibility at the expense of others whereas some entrepreneurs might engage in CSR more fully across all domains. Those will tend to be more proactive than their counterparts (Baskentli et al. 2019; Jamali and Mirshak 2007).

While retail entrepreneurs can have a critical role in a transition to a more sustainable society, there are still gaps in our knowledge about the microfoundation of entrepreneurs’ intentions to engage in these three dimensions of CSR-related practices. In this study, drawing on the theory of reasoned action (TRA, Ajzen and Fishbein 1980) and the microfoundations of CSR (Gond et al. 2017), we distinguish moral drivers (societal concerns), relational drivers (social pressure), and emotional drivers (anxiety) to investigate what drives retail entrepreneurs' intentions to engage in CSR. To be more specific, we explore the extent to which retail entrepreneurs’ societal concern and social pressure are related to their CSR intentions directly and indirectly through state anxiety, and across environmental, economic, and social domains based on a sample of 324 independent retail entrepreneurs (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Theoretical model of the study.

Note. (*) Environmental, economic, and social dimensions

Theoretical background and key constructs

Our study is based on TRA (see Ajzen 1991). TRA is a well-established social cognitive theory (see Fishbein and Ajzen 1975) that has been widely applied to explain volitional human behavior (Hale, Householder, and Greene 2002). In short, TRA assumes that intentions determine our actual behavior and that our attitudes towards the behavior and subjective norms (i.e. whether we think others want us to perform the behavior) have an impact on our behavior through the mediation of intentions (Sutton 1998). To put it simply: our intentions to perform a given behavior is strong if we evaluate it favorably and if we believe that others think we should perform it (Hale, Householder, and Greene 2002). From the viewpoint of our study, TRA can predict and explain participation in sustainable activities. In addition to the studies explaining consumers’ pro-environmental intentions and behavior (e.g. Coleman et al. 2011; Trumbo and Keefe 2005), research shows that TRA provides a strong theoretical basis for investigating the motivations for environmental decision-making (Marshall et al. 2010), intention to implement CSR (Mi et al. 2018), or the determinants of eco-innovation adoption of SMEs (Han and Chen 2021). As we develop below, we utilize TRA in explaining retail entrepreneurs’ CSR intentions.

CSR intentions

Our study focuses on retail entrepreneurs’ CSR intentions, which is their willingness to act in a responsible manner, based on Elkington’s, 1997 Triple Bottom Line builds on Carroll’s framework and links CSR to economic, social and environmental dimensions. In short, intentions that are related to the environmental domain indicate entrepreneurs’ motivation to act in an environmentally responsible manner (e.g. willingness to reduce energy consumption). Intentions related to economic domain indicate the motivation to act in a financially responsible manner (e.g. willingness to sustain economic growth), whereas intentions related to social domain refer to entrepreneurs’ motivation to act in a socially responsible manner (e.g. willingness to provide good working conditions). Regardless of the domain, the hallmark of CSR-related intentions and activities is that retail entrepreneurs engage in them voluntarily to contribute to sustainable development (e.g. Ashrafi et al. 2018). By relying on the TRA and the microfoundations of CSR distinguishing moral drivers, relational drivers, we argue that two significant forces drive entrepreneurs’ CSR intentions: retail entrepreneurs’ societal concern and perceived social pressure.

Societal concern

First, we focus on the moral drivers of retail entrepreneurs’ intention to engage in CSR (Gond et al. 2017). Broadly, it captures people’s care-based concerns and relates individual higher concerns such as concerns for the environment or for society, seen as their active contribution to society (Rupp and Mallory 2015; Tongo 2015). Societal concern refers toretail entrepreneurs’ general concern of larger, even global societal challenges that can affect daily life. Among these challenges are social inequality, poverty or climate change (e.g. von Braun et al. 2021). Societal concern is similar to environmental concern but has a larger meaning. Whereas environmental concern refers to the knowledge and understanding of environmental issues (Chan et al. 2014; Kennedy and Givens 2019), societal concern is a more general awareness that covers issues not only related to environmental but also economic, and social matters.

In this study, we perceive societal concern as a cognitive factor that is similar to the attitude in TRA model. Attitudes are considered to be one of the most significant drivers of our behavior (Ajzen. and Fishbein 2000). However, whereas an attitude is an opinion about something or someone, societal concern is a more holistic evaluation about the societal matters and therefore is not necessarily explicitly directed at a particular object. Societal concern is most of all being aware of what is happening in the society and what kind of larger challenges there exist (cf. Kennedy and Givens 2019). In turn, societal concern involves some sort of knowledge and belief about societal matters (e.g. Ajzen and Cote 2008) and retail entrepreneurs’ attention to various issues in a society may vary greatly. In a line with TRA, we therefore argue that high concern with societal issues is likely to lead to higher CSR intentions. In other words, we assume that those retail entrepreneurs who are highly aware of societal challenges and care about these matters, are more prone to take CSR-related actions. Convergent findings have been found in relation to awareness and environmental concern and practices (Chan et al. 2014; Gadenne, Kennedy, and McKeiver 2009; Tilley 1999). We therefore predict:

H1:

In the context of retail entrepreneurship, societal concern is positively related to CSR intentions across environmental, economic, and social domains.

Social pressure

In addition to societal concern, we examine social pressure as relational driver of retail entrepreneurs’ intention to engage in CSR activities. This dimension reflects a different set of drivers so that people gain interest in CSR also because they are attached to their social bonds with specific networks or institutions (Gond et al. 2017). In our case, the perceived social pressure is seen as a retail entrepreneur’s subjective perception of the extent to which other people, or even entire society, would like that entrepreneur to engage in CSR. In fact, retailers often face pressure from stakeholders to tackle various social and environmental issues. The pressure can come, for instance, from consumers who demand more eco-friendly products or from a society that is expects retailers to give more back to their local communities (Abdelmoety, Aboul-Dahab, and Agag 2022; Dang, Nguyen, and Pervan 2020). Theoretically speaking, subjective norms and normative beliefs are the key elements of TRA (e.g. Paul, Modi, and Patel 2016). In our case, perceived social pressure refers to normative beliefs that constitute the underlying determinants of subjective norms (Ajzen 1991). It sits as relational driver as entrepreneurs’ behaviors will be approved or disapproved by important referent stakeholders creating a subjective norm affecting their intentions and behaviors.

Similarly to societal concern, we assume that the higher the perceived social pressure to engage in CSR-related activities, the stronger a retailentrepreneur’s CSR intentions should be. This is supported by several studies notably in relation to farmers’ intention to adopt animal friendly practices (Borges et al., 2019) or entrepreneurs’ intention to adopt green practices (Brammer et al., 2012; Rezaei et al., 2019; Uhlaner et al. 2012). These previous studies suggest that the perceived social pressure affects our intentions to engage in activities that contribute to sustainable development. We therefore predict:

H2:

Among retail entrepreneurs, perceived social pressure is positively related to CSR intentions across environmental, economic and social domains.

State anxiety

After integrating, the moral and relational drivers of retail entrepreneurs’ intention to engage in CSR, we now turn to the individual evaluations of CSR, in particular, the emotional drivers (Gond et al. 2017). As stated above, societal concern and social pressure can affect retail entrepreneurs' CSR intentions. However, both societal concern and social pressure are cognitive determinants of CSR intentions and their ability to explain entrepreneurs’ willingness to engage in CSR-related activities is therefore rather limited. It is widely argued that non-rational and emotional aspects of behavior should be taken into account in order to better predict and explain our decision making and behavior (Rivis, Sheeran, and Armitage 2009). Therefore, getting a more comprehensive answer to the question what drives entrepreneurs’ CSR intentions, affect and emotional aspects should be taken into account as well. In fact, TRA has been widely criticized for being too ‘rational’ and ignoring affect and emotional determinants of our intentions (e.g. Conner and Armitage 1998; Sniehotta, Presseau, and Araújo-Soares 2014).

In this study, we investigate whether entrepreneurs’ state anxiety acts as a potential psychological mechanism that mediates the impact of societal concern and social pressure on CSR intentions. We define state anxiety here as a mental state encompassing feelings of tension, fear, worry, doubt, or apprehension in relation to a future event (e.g. Endler and Kocovski 2001; Pihkala 2020; Thompson et al. 2020). Similar to environmental anxiety (e.g. Coffey et al. 2021; Hickman 2020; Hogg et al., 2021), here state anxiety refers to retail entrepreneurs’ general and even excessive worry over societal problems.

Again, like societal concern and perceived social pressure, state anxiety can vary in intensity (Hickman 2020). This means that entrepreneur can be very worried or nervous about the societal challenges or the tension regarding societal issues can be very slight. From our viewpoint, the interesting question is whether higher anxiety increases the impact of societal concern and subjective norms on entrepreneurs’ CSR intentions. One could assume that higher anxiety increases entrepreneurs’ CSR intentions when there are high levels of societal concern and/or social pressure (e.g. Ojala et al. 2021).

However, before we can move on with our assumption on that societal concern and social pressure truly influence CSR intentions through state anxiety, two requirements must be fulfilled. The first is that anxiety must be related to societal concern and social pressure. Indeed, some studies seem to suggest that anxiety with societal concern and social pressure are related. On that front, prior research show evidence that environmental knowledge, awareness, experience, and concerns engender feelings of worry and fear (Clayton 2020; Pihkala 2020; Verplanken, Marks, and Dobromir 2020; Wang et al. 2018). Furthermore, according to Pihkala (2020), anxiety is affected by and can even be an outcome of social pressure.The second requirement is that anxiety must be linked to CSR intentions. Prior research also show that anxiety can affect pro-environmental intentions (Gao et al. 2021), climate action (Geiger et al. 2021), or more broadly entrepreneurs’behavioral and cognitive functioning (Thompson, van Gelderen, and Keppler 2020). Moreover, as explained above, entrepreneurs differ from larger companies (Thompson and Hood 1993) and retail entrepreneurs are especially exposed to CSR-related issues due to their central position in the community. Based on the above, we predict:

H3:

In the context of retail entrepreneurship, state anxiety acts as a positive mediator in the relationship between societal concern and CSR intentions across environmental, economic, and social domains.

H4:

Among retail entrepreneurs, state anxiety positively mediates the relationship between perceived social pressure and CSR intentions across environmental, economic, and social domains.

Interestingly, some also note that strong anxiety might paralyze and prevent to take action (e.g. Hogg et al., 2021). For example, Joshua et al. (2023) found that strong eco-anxiety attenuates employees’ voluntary actions against climate change. Hickman (2020) states that severe eco-anxiety may block us to think and concentrate.In other words, when entrepreneurs’ anxiety increases, they might experience a ‘paralyzing effect’ that hinders them from taking CSR-related actions. Thus, CSR intentions are not likely to be maximized when entrepreneurs feel excessive anxiety over societal issues. In other words, there is presumably a non-linear relationship between state anxiety and CSR intentions meaning that high levels of state anxiety can decrease entrepreneurs’ willingness to engage in CSR. Figure 2 depicts this non-linear relationship as an inverted U-shaped curve. We therefore predict:

Figure 2. Inverse U-shaped relationship.

Note. (*) Environmental, economic, and socialdimensions

H5:

Among retail entrepreneurs, the relationship between state anxiety and CSR intentions across environmental, economic, and social domains follows an inverse U-shaped curve.

Methodology

Sample

Our study was conducted as an online survey in September 2021. It comprised 324 Nordic retail entrepreneurs. Although studied retail entrepreneurs are part of a large retail group in the Nordic countries, they all are legally independent retail entrepreneurs who own and manage their retail businesses.For example, entrepreneurs are responsible for the business idea of their stores and they make decisions about the local selection and pricing. Entrepreneurs also take care of their personnel and they collaborate with other stakeholders such as local suppliers and make also various investments at the store level. Entrepreneurs are also responsible for the CSR-related activities in their stores although they receive help and support from the group and there are some joint CSR initiatives. Because of the sensitive nature of this study, we have agreed to not to publish the name of the retail group.

Measures

Retail entrepreneurs’ societal concern refers to a general concern or awareness about the societal issues (cf. Kennedy and Givens 2019) and it was measured by asking the extent to which retail entrepreneurs perceive these societal issues and responsibilities as important and integral to their firm’s sustainability efforts. It is primarily a cognitive process involving awareness and evaluation of societal issues, reflecting an entrepreneur’s understanding and prioritization of these concerns within their business context. In the questionnaire, above these two questions, a short text described typical societal issues such as climate change and social inequality. The scale for both items was 7-point Likert (1 = not at all; 7 = to a great extent).

Social pressure perceived by retail entrepreneurs was measured by asking whether retail entrepreneurs believe that they have faced increased stakeholder expectations related to CSR, and whether they believe that they are under significantly greater external pressure related to CSR. The scale for both items was 7-point Likert (1 = totally disagree; 7 = totally agree). The perceived social pressure was measured separately across each of the three domains.

Retail entrepreneurs’ state anxiety is an emotional state that refers to a general and potentially excessive worry over societal problems. It was measured based on the STAIS-5 scale developed by Zsido et al. (2020). To measure state anxiety regarding societal issues, we asked retail entrepreneurs to evaluate how they feel at the moment regarding the challenges that the society is facing currently. We also gave few concrete examples of societal challenges. According to STAIS-5, the items to measure anxiety were: I feel upset, I feel frightened, I feel nervous, I feel jittery, and I feel confused. The scale was 4-point as proposed by Zsido et al. (2020) (1 = not at all; 2 = somewhat; 3 = moderately so; 4 = very much so).

Retail entrepreneurs’ CSR intention was measured by one item: whether or not retail entrepreneurs have a clear aim to implement CSR in the near future. A 7-point Likert scale was used (1 = totally disagree; 7 = totally agree). CSR intention was measured separately across each domain. Each domain was explained, and we gave examples of CSR-related activities of each domain.

Findings

Correlations and Cronbach’s alphas are presented in Table 1. We tested our model by specifying our structural equations model using SAS V9.2. Our results (see Table 2) indicate that societal concerns and social pressure are, in our sample, significantly and positively associated with state anxiety across environmental, economic, and social domains. Testing our hypotheses, our models show that societal concern was positively related to CSR intentions across environmental (β = 0.151, p = 0.008), economic (β = 0.248, p < 0.001), and social (β = 0.174, p = 0.010) domains. Perceived social pressure was also positively related to environmental (β = 0.234, p < 0.001), economic (β = 0.256, p < 0.001), and social (β = 0.152, p = 0.023) CSR intentions. Therefore, H1 and H2 were confirmed.

Table 1. Correlations

	1.	2.	3.	4.	5.	6.	7.
1. Anxiety	(0.835)
2. Societal concerns	0.190	(0.834)
3. Environmental CSR social pressure	0.362	0.114	(0.916)
4. Economic CSR social pressure	0.407	0.180	0.669	(0.890)
5. Social CSR social pressure	0.359	0.060	0.759	0.624	(0.941)
6. Environmental CSR intentions	0.381	0.039	0.752	0.554	0.633
7. Economic CSR intentions	0.352	0.043	0.643	0.621	0.543	0.662
8. Social CSR intentions	0.344	0.043	0.670	0.495	0.732	0.734	0.639

Note. N = 324. Pearson correlations. Cronbach’s alphas in brackets. Correlations above 0.10 significant at the 5% level.

Table 2. SEM estimations.

Relationships	Environmental CSR		Economic CSR		Social CSR
	Est.	p	Est.	p	Est.	p
State anxiety (R-square)	0.342		0.359		0.353
Societal concerns → State anxiety	0.543	0.000	0.478	0.000	0.505	0.000
Perceived CSR* social pressure → State anxiety	0.115	0.022	0.204	0.000	0.175	0.001
CSR intentions (R-square)	0.613		0.481		0.570
Societal concerns → CSR** intentions (H1)	0.151	0.008	0.248	0.000	0.174	0.010
Perceived CSR social pressure → CSR intentions (H2)	0.234	0.000	0.256	0.000	0.152	0.023
Mediation effects
Societal concerns → State anxiety → CSR intentions (H3)	0.075	0.039	0.128	0.000	0.144	0.000
Perceived CSR social pressure → State anxiety → CSR intentions (H4)	0.017	0.202	0.056	0.022	0.051	0.023
Quadratic effects
State anxiety → CSR intentions	0.136	0.030	0.268	0.000	0.285	0.000
State anxiety quadratic term → CSR intentions (H5)	−0.167	0.000	−0.209	0.000	−0.155	0.000

Note. N = 324; (*) Environmental CSR social pressure, Economic CSR social pressure, Social CSR social pressure; (**) Environmental CSR intentions, Economic CSR intentions, Social CSR intentions; Est. estimate..

Looking at the mediation effects, we demonstrate that state anxiety mediated positively the relationship between societal concern and CSR intentions across environmental (β = 0.075, p = 0.039), economic (β = 0.128, p < 0.001), and social (β = 0.144, p < 0.001) domains, while state anxiety mediated positively the relationship between the perceived social pressure and economic (β = 0.056, p = 0.022), and social (β = 0.052, p = 0.023) CSR intentions but not significantly environmental CSR intentions (β = 0.017, p = 0.202). Therefore, H3 was confirmed and H4 partially confirmed.

We also tested the non-linear relationship between state anxiety and CSR intentions. Our results indicate an inverted U-curve relationship across the three dimensions of CSR with a significant and negative quadratic term (environment: β = −0.167, p < 0.001; economic: β = −0.209, p < 0.001; social: β = −0.155, p < 0.001). Therefore, H5 was confirmed.

Discussion and implications

In this study, we have advanced the understanding of what drives retail entrepreneurs’ intentions to engage in CSR across environmental, economic, and social domains. Our research offers several novel contributions to the literature.

Firstly, while previous studies have established the influence of environmental concern and awareness on CSR intentions (e.g. Chan et al. 2014; Gadenne, Kennedy, and McKeiver 2009), our research extends this understanding by demonstrating that societal concern has a direct and significant effect across all domains of CSR, not just environmental matters. This broadens the scope of existing knowledge by linking general societal awareness, encompassing issues like climate change and poverty, to a proactive stance in sustainable development across multiple dimensions. This finding underscores the importance of a holistic societal perspective in shaping CSR initiatives in retail entrepreneurship.

Secondly, our study enriches the understanding of retail entrepreneurs’ subjective perceptions of social pressure influences CSR intentions. While previous research (Mi et al. 2018, Rezaei et al., 2019; Uhlaner et al. 2012) has highlighted the broad role of social pressure in CSR engagement, our findings offer a more comprehensive view by demonstrating its impact across various CSR domains in the context of retail entrepreneurship. This indicates that retail entrepreneurs’ perceptions of stakeholder expectations are pivotal in shaping their CSR commitment, reinforcing the need to consider a wide range of societal expectations in CSR strategy formulation.

Thirdly, addressing the criticism of the TRA’s neglect of affective elements (e.g. Conner and Armitage 1998; Sniehotta, Presseau, and Araújo-Soares 2014), our study integrates state anxiety as a mediating variable within the TRA framework. By doing so, we provide a more nuanced understanding of how cognitive factors, such as societal concern and social pressure, indirectly influence CSR intentions through emotional responses. This integration of affect into the TRA model represents a significant theoretical advancement, offering a more comprehensive explanation of CSR intentions and addressing a notable gap in the literature. While previous studies have emphasized meaning of anxiety in CSR-related decision-making (e.g. Gao et al. 2021; Ojala et al. 2021; Thompson, van Gelderen, and Keppler 2020), we show that state anxiety mediates both the effects of societal concern and social pressure on CSR intentions. This is an important finding that enhances our understanding of how cognitive factors i.e. societal concern and social pressure affect indirectly entrepreneurs’ willingness to engage in CSR. In other words, based on our findings, it seems that state anxiety elevates entrepreneurs’ motivation to take CSR-related actions. One could say that in order to implement CSR, it is not enough to be simply concerned with society or feel social pressure; an entrepreneur must also feel worried about societal issues. The more worried an entrepreneur is, the more willing he or she is to engage in CSR-related behavior. Therefore, our study contributes to the discourse on the role of emotions in decision-making by highlighting the complex interplay between cognitive and emotional factors in CSR decision-making and substantiating the argument for a more emotion-inclusive TRA model.

Fourth, we reveal a non-linear relationship between state anxiety and CSR intentions, characterized by an inverted U-shaped curve across all domains. This finding adds a new dimension to our understanding of the impact of anxiety on CSR intentions, suggesting that while moderate anxiety can motivate CSR actions, excessive anxiety might lead to a ‘paralyzing effect,’ reducing willingness to engage in CSR. This nuanced understanding of the anxiety-CSR intention relationship is a novel contribution to the literature, indicating the need for balanced emotional engagement in CSR decision-making processes.

For policymakers, this study offers insights into how to motivate retail entrepreneurs to implement CSR. By enhancing entrepreneurs’ awareness of societal challenges and by communicating general expectations toward CSR, policymakers can ‘push’ retail entrepreneurs to take CSR-related actions without setting any formal obligations or threatening entrepreneurs with sanctions. However to make sure that CSR truly advances, there should be a sense of real worry among entrepreneurs. If retail entrepreneurs do not personally experience any anxiety or negative feelings about social issues, CSR actions might be half-hearted. The question of how to get retail entrepreneurs worried ‘enough’ about societal matters is very difficult. Increasing entrepreneurs’ anxiety can produce negative mental health outcomes (e.g. Clayton 2020; Hickman 2020) or a paralyzing effect as our study has indicated. Thus, CSR-related policy actions and emergency calls should be planned with care and in a way that takes potential negative outcomes are into account.

Limitations and further research

The study was conducted among retail entrepreneurs that are part of larger retail group. Although studied retail entrepreneurs are legally independent entrepreneurs that take care of their retail businesses, the group might have an influence how CSR related matters are seen by retailers and how various societal challenges are taken into account in the business operations at the store level. It is left for further research to study whether the found associations are also viable for entrepreneurs working in other fields.

While our study provides insights into the general influence of social pressure and societal concerns on CSR intentions among retail entrepreneurs, we acknowledge that a more nuanced approach to defining contextualized constructs, for instance through qualitative exploration, could yield additional valuable insights. Specifically, tailoring the measurement of social pressure and societal concerns to the unique context of retail entrepreneurship might reveal more detailed and context-specific dynamics that influence these entrepreneurs’ CSR intentions. This recognition points to an avenue for future research where a more refined and multifaceted exploration of social pressure and concerns, considering the specificities of retail entrepreneurs’ activities, objectives, and constraints, could enhance our understanding of the varied and complex ways in which these pressures manifest and impact decision-making in different retail contexts.

In addition, in reflecting on the scope of our research, we recognize that while our study provides valuable insights into the microfoundations of CSR intentions among retail entrepreneurs, it does not explicitly address the potential influence of cultural, attitudinal, and ideological factors. These factors, such as cultural norms, personal attitudes, and ideological beliefs, are linked to the social and economic roles of retail entrepreneurs and their decision-making activities and represent significant dimensions that could further elucidate the motivations behind CSR intentions.

For further research, we also call for more research on anxiety and its role in entrepreneurs’ behaviour and intentions, particularly on matters related to CSR. As our study has revealed, anxiety has a significant and potentially complex role in CSR-related decision-making and thus, more research is needed on it. For example, we hope that further studies explore in more detail what is the level of anxiety that turns its motivational power into a situation where it deters retail entrepreneurs from engaging in CSR. Furthermore, besides anxiety, there is a need to understand other kinds of feelings or emotions in decision-making about CSR. In particular, instead of exploring only unpleasant feelings, it would be interesting to explore the role of more positive affective elements such as hope and its effects on actions related to CSR. In fact, one could ask whether hope has a more significant effect on CSR intentions than anxiety.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heidi Wechtler

Heidi Wechtler (PhD) works as a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle Business School, Australia. Her research interests focus on human resources topics, in particular workforce resilience including wellbeing, engagement, happiness, and emotions. Her research has appeared in such outlets as Journal of World Business, Journal of Applied Psychology, Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Business Research, International Business Review, Management International Review, Management and Organization Review, and Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.

Arto Lindblom

Arto Lindblom (PhD) is a Professor of Retailing in the Department of Marketing at the Aalto University School of Business in Finland. His research interests are related to retail entrepreneurship, retail business models, retail marketing and supplier-retailer relationships. His research has been published in journals such as Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, the International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, and Industrial Marketing Management.

Taru Lindblom

Taru Lindblom (PhD) is a Professor in Food Culture at the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Her recent research interests regard culinary taste, political eating and changes in cultural orientations and taste. She is also interested in topics related to consumption and sustainability. Her research has been published in journals such as Poetics, Journal of Consumer Culture, and Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.

Appendix

Table

Items
Societal concern Economic
In my opinion, economic responsibility is an essential part of our firm’s sustainability work.
For me, it is very important that our firm is able to promote economic responsibility.
Environment
In my opinion, environmental responsibility is an essential part of our firm’s sustainability work.
For me, it is very important that our firm is able to promote environmental responsibility.
Social
In my opinion, social responsibility is an essential part of our firm’s sustainability work.
For me, it is very important that our firm is able to promote social responsibility.
Social pressure
Economic
In my opinion, our firm has faced increased expectations towards economic responsibility.
I feel that public pressure regarding economic responsibility has increased significantly.
Environment
In my opinion, our firm has faced increased expectations towards environmental responsibility.
I feel that public pressure regarding environmental responsibility has increased significantly.
Social
In my opinion, our firm has faced increased expectations towards social responsibility.
I feel that public pressure regarding social responsibility has increased significantly.
CSR Intentions
Economic: Our firm has a clear aim to promote economic responsibility in the near future.
Environment:Our firm has a clear aim to promote environmental responsibility in the near future.
Social: Our firm has a clear aim to promote social responsibility in the near future.
State anxiety At the moment regarding the challenges that the society is facing currently …
I feel upset; I feel frightened; I feel nervous; I feel jittery; I feel confused.