earticle

영어

In this study, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is categorized into philanthropy and cause related marketing (CRM), which would be investigated in terms of similarity and consistency. To enhance the low fit due to lack of consistency, explanatory link would be employed as a marketing technique. Philanthropy means corporate activities supporting social issues coupled with corporate philosophy or mission, and entrepreneurship in the long-term perspective. These activities are thought to be more philanthropic in the sense that they are spontaneously performed for social welfare. On the other hand, cause-related marketing is more profit-oriented than philanthropic, since CSR is performed under the condition that consumers purchase campaigned products. We expect that, if philanthropic and CRM activities are executed together, consumers’ evaluation on the CSR would be affected by the degree of a fit between the firm and its CSR activities. The fit is a perceived link between two objects and be supposed to consist of similarity and consistency. Similarity is the level of a perceived congruity between corporate characteristics and its CSR activities, and consistency is the degree that consumers perceive upon corporate intention and purpose in common. In study 1, consumers evaluated philanthropic activities more positively in the case of low similarity than in the case of high similarity, and on the other hand they evaluated CRM activities more positively in the case of high similarity than in the case of low similarity. In study 2, some level of the ordering effect was detected for both of the philanthropic and CRM activities executed together in the same social issues. If philanthropic activities were precedently executed before CRM activities, consumer evaluation was found to be negative regardless of the level of similarity. Whereas if CRM activities were executed before philanthropic activities, consumer evaluation was found not to change. However, in the case that philanthropic and CRM activities were executed on different social issues, consumer evaluation did not significantly change. In study 3, in the case of high similarity, if the survey respondents were exposed to relational communication messages rather than to elaborational communication messages, those were positively affected, which led to an improvement in consumer evaluation. On the same token, in the case of low similarity, there was no differential improvement in consumer evaluation by means of either relational communication messages or elaborational communication messages. We investigated how consumers’ perception changes by means of corporate intention and its purpose of executing philanthropic and CRM activities, respectively. And furthermore we attempted to uncover how consumers evaluate CSR activities in terms of similarity and consistency. Finally, study results in detail are reported along with implications derived and discussed. Limitations and future directions of the study are also addressed.

한국어

본 연구는 기업의 사회적 책임(CSR)을 자선활동과 공익연계마케팅으로 구분하고, 유사성과 일관성 수준에 따른 소비자의 CSR 평가의 차이를 살펴보았다. 더 나아가 일관성을 개선하기 위한 방안으로 설명고리의 역할을 살펴보았다. 기업의 특성(기업능력; 이미지)과 CSR 활동 간의 유사성이 높은 경우, 자선활동은 기업의 사회공헌의도에 대한 의구심을 일으키고, 반면에 공익연계활동은 기업의 수익목적과 부합함으로 긍정적으로 평가하는 것으로 나왔다. 반면에 유사성이 낮은 경우, 자선활동은 기업의 의도와 부합하고, 공익연계활동은 기업의 의도와 일치하지 않아 소비자의 의구심을 일으키는 것으로 나왔다. 일관성을 중심으로 살펴본 결과, 같은 사회적 이슈에 대해 자선활동과 공익연계마케팅을 함께 수행한 경우, 소비자는 일관성을 지각하지 못하여 CSR에 대한 평가는 부정적으로 변화하였다. 기업이 같은 사회적 이슈에 대해 자선활동과 공익연계마케팅을 함께 수행할 경우 발생하는 일관성의 문제를 개선하기 위해 설명고리를 사용한 결과, 자선활동과 공익연계 마케팅의 순서에 따라 설명고리의 효과는 다르게 나타났다. 본 연구는 자선활동과 공익연계마케팅에 대한 기업의 의도를 소비자가 유사성과 일관성에 따라 어떻게 지각하고 CSR 평가에 어떤 영향을 미치는지 살펴보았다. 이는 유사성을 중심으로 적합성을 살펴본 기존의 연구에서 더 나아가 일관성을 고려하였다는 점에서 CSR 연구에서 사용되는 적합성 개념을 보다 정교화한 이론적 시사점과 기업이 CSR 전략을 수립할 때 고려해야 할 실무적 시사점을 함께 제공한다.