The interplay of social responsibility consciousness and evaluation mode in consumers’ response toward cause-related marketing-enhanced product

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper demonstrate that purchase intention toward a cause-related marketing (CRM)-enhanced product can be positively correlated with consumers’ social responsibility consciousness (SRC) and can be increased or decreased merely by changing the evaluation mode.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conduct three experimental studies with two levels of SRC (high vs low) × two evaluation modes (joint evaluation (JE) vs separate evaluation (SE)) between-subjects design. The dependent variable is purchase intent toward the CRM-enhanced product.

Findings

The results indicate that consumers with high SRC are more likely than those with low SRC to purchase a CRM-enhanced product when two products are presented side by side (JE). However, consumers’ SRC level does not impact purchase intention when they see only one product (SE) independently (Study 1). The authors confirm that the proposed effect is mediated by perceived price fairness toward the product (Studies 2 and 3).

Research limitations/implications

Future research on CRM-enhanced products should carefully consider that the impact of individuals’ SRC level was in very different directions depending on the evaluation mode. In addition, further investigation is needed to address generalizability issues regarding samples and hypothetical stimuli.

Practical implications

These findings offer recommendations to help practitioners design effective marketing communications about CRM practice for target markets.

Originality/value

To the authors best knowledge, the current study is the first attempt to explore the crucial role of SRC, presentation mode and their interaction on purchase intention toward CRM-enhanced products.

Citation

Park, E.Y. and Jang, J.M. (2020), "The interplay of social responsibility consciousness and evaluation mode in consumers’ response toward cause-related marketing-enhanced product", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 32 No. 8, pp. 1651-1674. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-06-2019-0413