How CSR Influences Consumer Behavior: Mechanisms and Moderating Variables

A positive relationship between CSR and financial performance represents a strong motivator for companies to engage in CSR. One potential source of improved financial performance is consumers’ willingness to buy from the company and to prefer it to its competitors that are less advanced in the CSR sphere. Understanding consumer behavior is key to strategically implementing CSR and leveraging it to generate economic benefits and create competitive advantage. In this article, by synthesizing insights from the extensive literature on the impact of CSR on consumer behavior, we show that this impact is indirect and requires consideration of a large number of factors. We propose a multi-stage model that explains the mechanism underlying consumers’ behavioral response to a company’s CSR performance. The stages in the model include: 1) the actual performance of a company in the CSR sphere; 2) the communication of this performance to consumers; 3) the perception of the company’s CSR performance by consumers, 4) the alignment of consumers’ values with what the company does; 5) the formation of consumers’ behavioral intention and 6) actual consumer behavior. Drawing on research findings reported in the literature, we examine each stage in depth and discuss related phenomena that may take place at these stages, such as consumer skepticism, the intention-behavior gap, and implicit and explicit attitudes. In addition, the relationship between CSR and consumer behavior is moderated by a wide spectrum of heterogeneous variables, such as consumer demographics, industry bias, company characteristics, socioeconomic context, brand trust, and others. We demonstrate that some of these variables, for example, brand trust, can also function as mediators, depending on the context and on whether their value changes as a result of CSR performance. We not only summarize the moderating variables identified in the literature but also associate them with different stages in our model. This provides deeper and more granular insight into the pathway between CSR and consumer behavior, allowing for more accurate prediction of the relationship between the two.