Corporate Past and Attitude towards Corporate Social Responsibility: Impact on Brand Identity

Corporate past and attitude can play an important role in corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications as a trust and credibility factor especially in todays’ world where the technology revolutionized the communication models and many companies are shaken with corporate scandals. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the effect of corporate heritage on the consumers' perception of company’s socially and environmentally responsible image. Three hypotheses are tested using linear multiple regression analysis, using data from 86 brands. The data is obtained from a web-based consumer survey on these brands (n=6.988). and through content analyses of the brands’ web pages. The results indicated that the consumers perceive a company more responsible if the past and the attitude of the company is linked to CSR activities. This result draws attention to new combined factors for effective CSR communication and adds to the extent CSR literature corporate past and attitude. Further research can cover different national and cultural contexts to elucidate differences and improve generalizability.