Corporate social performance as antecedent of consumer's brand perception

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to develop a model that closely examines the consequences of social and environmental corporate action. This is suggested by an increasing need for accomplishing an integrative view on business activities and social aims – the so-called corporate social responsibility – especially in the current environmentally turbulent time and a rising socially conscious consumer population. But doing business is often associated with brand- or corporate misconduct as well. Hence, corporate social responsibility forms the positive component of corporate social performance (CSP), consequently a favorable brand- or company behavior. Corresponding, corporate social irresponsibility or misconduct forms the negative part of such performance. Considering this definition a model is conceptualized to analyze the integrative effect of CSP on consumer perception of brands in terms of brand personality. This study examines how CSP as a whole, and social responsible behavior and brand misconduct individually, affect the brand personality. Furthermore, the investigation scrutinizes the causal connections between brand personality and behavior-oriented brand equity to consider the economic relevance of our case.