Consumers’ Corporate Social Responsibility Perception and Anti-Consumer Awareness: Roles of Compassion and Corporate Social Responsibility Authenticity in South Korea

This study examines the effect of consumers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on their anti-consumer awareness. Specifically, this study aims to uncover the mechanisms through which the consumer’s CSR perception relates to their formation of anti-consumer awareness. A survey design was adopted to test this study’s hypotheses. We collected data from 310 consumers in South Korea and used path analysis and bootstrapping to test the hypotheses. Our results showed that consumers’ CSR perception is negatively related to their anti-consumer awareness. Notably, consumers’ perception of CSR activities is positively related to their perceptions of compassion toward organizations, which, in turn, is also positively associated with their perception of CSR authenticity. Furthermore, compassion and CSR authenticity serially mediate the negative relationship between CSR perception and anti-consumer awareness. Our findings shed light on the importance of engaging in CSR activities from consumers’ perspectives. Specifically, our findings suggest that organizations need to proactively engage in CSR activities with authenticity to maintain and even further their reputation among consumers. Furthermore, by demonstrating the psychological processes of how CSR activities translate into consumers’ attitudes toward the organizations, our study provides fruitful avenues for future research.