The Relationship between CSR Communication on Social Media, Purchase Intention, and E-WOM in the Banking Sector of an Emerging Economy

• Main Authors: Guping Cheng, Jacob Cherian, Muhammad Safdar Sial, Grzegorz Mentel, Peng Wan, Susana Álvarez-Otero, Usama Saleem
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
• Series: Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research
• Subjects: sustainability; social media strategy; CSR communication; brand attitude; E-word of mouth
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/16/4/58

Modern businesses in the present digital age are facing different challenges for survival and growth due to the stiff competitive environment that prevails almost in every sector. Technology, especially digital technology, has changed the way of doing business around the globe. Marketers need to develop new strategies by incorporating the element of digital technology to overrun their competitors, as conventional competitive strategies will not produce extraordinaryresults. The rise of social media, in this regard, is a game-changer in the context of marketing as it provides a strategic touchpoint to the marketers to involve the customers with a brand. Prior research has largely ignored the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of a brand and positive customer experiences. Hence the present study aims to test the relationship of customer-related CSR activities on social media on behavioral consequences of customers, such as their purchase likelihood and electronic word of mouth (E-WOM). The data were collected from the banking customers of a developing economy and were analyzed through structural equation modeling in AMOS software. The results revealed that customer-related CSR activitieson social mediainfluence customer behavioral outcomes like E-WOM and purchase intentions. The result also revealed that brand attitude mediates the relationship between customer-related CSR, E-WOM, and purchase intentions. The findings of the present study can help policymakers to understand the importance of CSRpractices from the perspective of marketing, which is largely ignored by contemporary CSR researchers.