Abstract
The aim of this research is to develop and validate a measurement scale for consumer’s perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSRConsPerScale) using the three-dimensional social, environmental and economic conceptual approach as a theoretical basis. Based on the stages of measurement scale creation and validation suggested by DeVellis (Scale development: theory and applications, 1991) and supported by Churchill Jr.’s (J Mark Res 16(1):64–73, 1979) suggestions, five different empirical studies are developed expressly and applied to consumers of tourist services. This research involves 1147 real tourists from 24 countries in two different cultural and geographical contexts. A three-dimensional 18-item scale is proposed for measuring consumer perceptions of corporate social, environmental and economic responsibilities. This paper presents the complete development of the scale, as well as the implications and limitations of the main findings and the managerial implications.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- CSR:
-
Corporate social responsibility
- SD:
-
Sustainable development
References
Alvarado, A., & Shlesinger, W. (2008). Dimensionality of perceived business social responsibility and its effects on firm’s image and reputation: a Carroll’s model based approach. Estudios Gerenciales, 24(108), 37–59.
Anderson, W. T, Jr, & Cunningham, W. H. (1972). The socially conscious consumer. Journal of Marketing, 36, 23–31.
Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411–423.
Auger, P., Devinney, T., Louviere, J., & Burke, P. (2010). The importance of social product attributes in consumer purchasing decisions: A multi-country comparative study. International Business Review, 19(2), 140–159.
Aupperle, K. (1984). An empirical measure of corporate social orientation. Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy, 6, 27–54.
Bagozzi, R. P. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error: A comment. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(3), 375–381.
Berens, G., Van Riel, C., & van Rekom, J. (2007). The CSR-quality trade-off: When can corporate social responsibility and corporate ability compensate each other? Journal of Business Ethics, 74(3), 233–252.
Bigne, E., Aldas-Manzano, J., Küster, I., & Vila, N. (2002). The concept mapping approach in marketing: An application in the travel agencies sector. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 5(2), 87–95.
Bigne, E., Chumpitaz, R., Andreu, L., & Swaen, V. (2005). Percepción de la responsabilidad social corporativa: un análisis cross-cultural. Universia Business Review, 5, 14–27.
Bowen, H. R. (1953). Social responsibilities of the businessman. New York: Harper & Row.
Brammer, S., & Millington, A. (2005). Corporate reputation and philanthropy: An empirical analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 61, 29–44.
Brown, T. J., & Dacin, P. A. (1997). The company and the product: Corporate associations and consumer product responses. Journal of Marketing, 61(1), 68–84.
Cadogan, J. W., Diamantopoulos, A., & de Mortanges, C. P. (1999). A measure of export market orientation: Scale development and cross-cultural validation. Journal of International Business Studies, 30(4), 689–707.
Carroll, A. (1979). A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate social performance. Academy of Management Review, 4, 497–505.
Carroll, A. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders. Business Horizons, 34, 39–48.
Carroll, A. (1999). Corporate social responsibility: Evolution of a definitional construct. Business and Society, 38(3), 268–295.
Choi, S., & Ng, N. (2011). Environmental and economic dimensions of sustainability and price effects on consumer responses. Journal of Business Ethics, 104, 269–282.
Chow, Y., & Chen, Y. (2011). Corporate sustainable development testing a new scale based on the Mainland Chinese context. Journal of Business Ethics, 105(4), 519–533.
Churchill, G. A, Jr. (1979). A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of Marketing Research, 16(1), 64–73.
Churchill, G. A, Jr. (1999). Marketing research: Methodological foundations. Forth Worth: The Dryden Press, Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
Churchill, G. A, Jr, & Peter, J. P. (1984). Research design effects on the reliability of rating scales: A meta-analysis. Journal of Marketing Research, 21(4), 360–375.
Coles, T., Fenclova, E., & Dinan, C. (2013). Tourism and corporate social responsibility: A critical review and research agenda. Tourism Management Perspectives, 6, 122–141.
Cox, E. P, I. I. I. (1980). The optimal number of response alternatives for a scale: A review. Journal of Marketing Research, 17(4), 407–422.
David, P., Kline, S., & Dai, Y. (2005). Corporate social responsibility practices, corporate identity, and purchase intention: A dual-process model. Journal of Public Relations Research, 17(3), 291–313.
Davis, K. (1960). Can business afford to ignore social responsibilities? California Management Review, 2(3), 70–76.
DeVellis, R. (1991). Scale development: Theory and applications. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Diamantopoulos, A., & Winklhofer, H. M. (2001). Index construction with formative indicators: An alternative to scale development. Journal of Marketing Research, 38(2), 269–277.
Drexhage, J., & Murphy, D. (2010). Sustainable development: From Brundtland to Rio 2012. Background Paper for the High Level Panel on Global Sustainability. New York: United Nations.
Du, S., Bhattacharya, C. B., & Sen, S. (2010). Maximizing business returns to corporate social responsibility (CSR): The role of CSR communication. International Journal of Management Reviews, 12(1), 8–19.
Du, S., Bhattacharya, C. B., & Sen, S. (2011). Corporate social responsibility and competitive advantage: Overcoming the trust barrier. Management Science, 57(9), 1528–1545.
Eberhard-Harribey, L. (2006). CSR as a new paradigm in the European policy: How CSR comes to legitimate the European regulation process. Corporate Governance, 6(4), 358–368.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. (1981). Evaluating structural equations models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18, 39–50.
Frederick, W. C. (1960). The growing concern over business responsibility. California Management Review, 2(4), 54–61.
Friedman, M. (1962). Capitalism and freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
García de los Salmones, M., Herrero Crespo, A., & Rodríguez del Bosque, I. (2005). Influence of corporate social responsibility on loyalty and valuation of services. Journal of Business Ethics, 61, 369–385.
Garriga, E., & Melé, D. (2004). Corporate social responsibility theories: Mapping the territory. Journal of Business Ethics, 53(1–2), 51–71.
Green, T., & Peloza, J. (2011). How does corporate social responsibility create value for consumers? Journal of Consumer Research, 28(1), 48–56.
Hardesty, D. M., & Bearden, W. O. (2004). The use of expert judges in scale development: Implications for improving face validity of measures of unobservable constructs. Journal of Business Research, 57(2), 98–107.
John, D. R., Loken, B., Kim, K., & Monga, A. B. (2006). Brand concept maps: A methodology for identifying brand association networks. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(4), 549–563.
Joiner, C. (1998). Concept mapping in marketing: A research tool for uncovering consumers’ knowledge structure associations. In J. E. Alba & W. Hutchinson (Eds.), NA—Advances in consumer research (Vol. 25, pp. 311–322). Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.
Jones, T. M. (1980). Corporate social responsibility revisited, redefined. California Management Review, 22(3), 59–67.
Kakabadse, N. K., & Rozuel, C. (2006). Meaning of corporate social responsibility in a local French hospital: A case study. Society and Business Review, 1(1), 77–96.
Kinnear, T. C., Taylor, J. R., & Ahmed, S. (1974). Ecologically concerned consumers: Who are they? Journal of Marketing, 38, 20–34.
Kruskal, J. B. (1964). Multidimensional scaling by optimizing goodness of fit to a nonmetric hypothesis. Psychometrika, 29(1), 1–27.
Lafferty, B. (2007). The relevance of fit in a cause-brand alliance when consumers evaluate corporate credibility. Journal of Business Research, 60, 447–453.
Lichtenstein, D., Drumwright, M., & Braig, B. (2004). The effect of corporate social responsibility on customer donations to corporate-supported nonprofits. Journal of Marketing, 68, 16–32.
Luo, X., & Bhattacharya, C. B. (2006). Corporate social responsibility, customer satisfaction, and market value. Journal of Marketing, 70(4), 1–18.
Maignan, I. (2001). Consumer perceptions of corporate social responsibility: A cross cultural comparison. Journal of Business Ethics, 30(1), 57–73.
Maignan, I., & Ferrell, O. C. (2003). Nature of corporate responsibilities: Perspectives from American, French, and German consumers. Journal of Business Research, 56(1), 55–67.
Maignan, I., Ferrell, O., & Ferrell, L. (2005). A stakeholder model for implementing social responsibility in marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 39(9/10), 956–977.
Malhotra, N. K., & Birks, D. F. (2007). Marketing research: An applied approach. Harlow: Prentice Hall.
Maon, F., Lindgreen, A., & Swaen, V. (2010). Organizational stages and cultural phases: A critical review and a consolidative model of corporate social responsibility development. International Journal of Management Review, 12(1), 20–38.
Marín, L., & Ruiz, S. (2007). “I need you too!”—Corporate identity attractiveness for consumers and the role of social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 71(3), 245–260.
Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). The halo effect: Evidence for unconscious alteration of judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35(4), 250–256.
Nunnally, J., & Bernstein, I. (1994). Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw Hill.
Öberseder, M., Schlegelmilch, B. B., & Gruber, V. (2011). Why don’t consumers care about CSR? A qualitative study exploring the role of CSR in consumption decisions. Journal of Business Ethics, 104(4), 449–460.
Öberseder, M., Schlegelmilch, B., & Murphy, P. E. (2013). CSR practices and consumer perceptions. Journal of Business Research, 66(10), 1839–1851.
Öberseder, M., Schlegelmilch, B. B., Murphy, P. E., & Gruber, V. (2014). Consumers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility: Scale development and validation. Journal of Business Ethics, 1–15.
Ouellet, J. F. (2007). Consumer racism and its effects on domestic cross-ethnic product purchase: An empirical test in the United States, Canada, and France. Journal of Marketing, 71(1), 113–128.
Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V., & Berry, L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12–40.
Peloza, J., & Shang, J. (2011). How can corporate social responsibility activities create value for stakeholders? A systematic review. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39(1), 117–135.
Pérez, A., Martínez, P., & Rodríguez del Bosque, I. (2013). The development of a stakeholder-based scale for measuring corporate social responsibility in the banking industry. Service Business, 7(3), 459–481.
Pomering, A., & Dolnicar, S. (2009). Assessing the prerequisite of successful CSR implementation: Are consumers aware of CSR initiatives? Journal of Business Ethics, 85(2), 285–301.
Quazi, A. M., & O’Brien, D. (2000). An empirical test of a cross-national model of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 25(1), 33–51.
Schiffman, S. S., Reynolds, M. L., & Young, F. W. (1981). Introduction to multidimensional scaling: Theory, methods and applications. Orlando: Academic Press Inc.
Sen, S., & Bhattacharya, C. (2001). Does doing good always lead to doing better? Consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility. Journal of Marketing Research, 38(2), 225–243.
Sethi, S. P. (1975). Dimensions of corporate social performance—An analytical framework. California Management Review, 17(3), 58–64.
Sheldon, P. J., & Park, S. Y. (2011). An exploratory study of corporate social responsibility in the US travel industry. Journal of Travel Research, 50(4), 392–407.
Shimp, T. A., & Sharma, S. (1987). Consumer ethnocentrism: Construction and validation of the CETSCALE. Journal of Marketing Research, 24(3), 280–289.
Singh, J., García de los Salmones, M. M., & Rodríguez del Bosque, I. (2007). Understanding corporate social responsibility and product perceptions in consumer markets: A cross-cultural evaluation. Journal of Business Ethics, 80(3), 597–611.
Takane, Y., Young, F., & de Leeuw, J. (1977). Nonmetric individual differences multidimensional scaling: An alternating least squares method with optimal scaling features. Psychometrika, 42(1), 7–67.
Trochim, W. M. (1989). An introduction to concept mapping for planning and evaluation. Evaluation and Program Planning, 12(1), 1–16.
Trudel, R., & Cotte, J. (2009). Does it pay to be good? MIT Sloan Management Review, 50(2), 61–68.
Turker, D. (2009a). How corporate social responsibility influences organizational commitment. Journal of Business Ethics, 89(2), 189–204.
Turker, D. (2009b). Measuring corporate social responsibility: A scale development study. Journal of Business Ethics, 85(4), 411–427.
UNWTO. (2015). UNWTO World Tourism Barometer and Statistical Annex, January 2015. Madrid: United Nations World Tourism Organization.
van Marrewijk, M. (2003). Concepts and definitions of CSR and corporate sustainability: Between agency and communion. Journal of Business Ethics, 44(2/3), 95–105.
Vlachos, P., Tsamakos, A., Vrechopoulos, A., & Avramidis, P. (2009). Corporate social responsibility: Attributions, loyalty, and the mediating role of trust. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37, 170–180.
Walsh, G., & Beatty, S. E. (2007). Customer-based corporate reputation of a service firm: Scale development and validation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 35(1), 127–143.
WCED. (1987). Our common future. World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zaichkowsky, J. L. (1985). Measuring the involvement construct. Journal of Consumer Research, 12(3), 341–352.
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the research project of the Generalitat Valenciana (GV/2013-055).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Alvarado-Herrera, A., Bigne, E., Aldas-Manzano, J. et al. A Scale for Measuring Consumer Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility Following the Sustainable Development Paradigm. J Bus Ethics 140, 243–262 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2654-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2654-9