Effect of CSR activities on customers’ purchase intention: The mediating role of trust

  • Received December 22, 2022;
    Accepted May 14, 2023;
    Published May 30, 2023
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.19(2).2023.13
  • Article Info
    Volume 19 2023, Issue #2, pp. 155-169
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the belief that businesses must consider ethical, social, and environmental issues when making decisions. Several studies have found that CSR improves corporate performance. Moreover, CSR is thought to increase consumer trust and purchase intention. This study investigates the effect of CSR activities on customers’ purchase intentions and the mediating role of trust. It draws linkages and establishes that businesses can improve their bottom lines while positively affecting society by acting responsibly.
The present study selected two independent variables (ethical corporate social responsibility and legal corporate social responsibility) alongside one dependent variable (purchase intention) and one intervening variable (trust). The sample comprises two hundred and thirty respondents from India’s National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi, and nearby regions. The data were examined using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that CSR activities significantly positively affected customers’ purchase intention. Furthermore, trust mediated the linkages between CSR activities and customers’ purchase intention. The findings suggest that CSR activities can increase customers’ purchase intention by fostering trust. In other words, when customers trust a firm, they are more likely to intend to purchase its products or services. CSR managers should therefore focus on creating and maintaining trust with their customers. In addition, findings suggest that firms should be conscious of their social image. This study offers significant insights because they show that any business can be successful and socially responsible.

Acknowledgment
This study is supported via funding from Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University project number (PSAU/2023/R/1444).

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    • Figure 1. Proposed research model
    • Figure 2. Model fit
    • Figure 3. Structural model
    • Table 1. Demographics
    • Table 2. KMO and Bartlett’s test
    • Table 3. Construct reliability and validity
    • Table 4. Discriminant validity (Fornell-Larcker criterion)
    • Table 5. Fit indices of confirmatory factor analysis
    • Table 6. Hypotheses conclusions
    • Table 7. Mediation analysis
    • Data curation
      Imran Ali, Hadeel Jaafar Alasmri
    • Investigation
      Imran Ali
    • Methodology
      Imran Ali
    • Software
      Imran Ali
    • Writing – original draft
      Imran Ali
    • Conceptualization
      Mohammad Naushad, Hadeel Jaafar Alasmri
    • Formal Analysis
      Mohammad Naushad
    • Funding acquisition
      Mohammad Naushad
    • Project administration
      Mohammad Naushad
    • Resources
      Mohammad Naushad
    • Supervision
      Mohammad Naushad
    • Validation
      Mohammad Naushad
    • Visualization
      Mohammad Naushad, Hadeel Jaafar Alasmri
    • Writing – review & editing
      Mohammad Naushad, Hadeel Jaafar Alasmri