Effects of corporate social responsibility on consumer credibility perception and attitude toward luxury brands

We examined the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumer behavior in relation to luxury brands. We adopted a 2 × 3 factorial design to examine 2 product types (rational and emotional) and 3 types of CSR activities (donations, employee volunteering, and nonperformance of CSR) to examine the effects of the CSR activities of a company manufacturing a luxury brand on consumers' perceptions of that company's credibility and the consumers' brand attitudes. The results showed that after CSR exposure there was no significant difference for the three measures, regardless of product type or CSR activity. However, we found statistically significant differences in brand attitude and perception of credibility when companies did not engage in CSR activities.