ABSTRACT

This study proposes a theoretical model that provides a segmentation method of publics based on their cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses toward corporate social advocacy (CSA). As one of the initial efforts in building a theory of CSA in public relations scholarship, the model segments consumers based on three outcome variables – boycott intention, purchase intention, and corporate reputation. This model also incorporates consumer-company congruence, company-cause fit, consumer-cause fit, and issue involvement as antecedent variables. A survey of 482 adult consumers found that consumer-company congruence and company-cause fit had significant negative impacts on boycott intention, but positive influences on purchase intention. Consumer-company congruence, company-cause fit, and consumer-cause fit all had significant positive impacts on corporate reputation. Moreover, interaction effects between company-cause fit and consumers’ involvement with the specific CSA issue were found significant on both boycott intention and purchase intention. How these findings help advance the understanding of publics in a CSA context is discussed.

摘要

本研究提出了一种理论模型，该模型提供了一种基于公众对企业社会倡导 (CSA) 的认知、情感和行为反应的细分方法。作为在公共关系学术中建立 CSA 理论的初步努力之一，该模型根据三个结果变量——抵制意愿、购买意愿和企业声誉来细分消费者。该模型还结合了消费者-公司一致性、公司-原因契合度、消费者-原因契合度和问题参与度作为前因变量。一项对 482 名成年消费者的调查发现，消费者-公司一致性和公司-原因匹配对抵制意愿有显着的负面影响，但对购买意愿有积极的影响。消费者与公司的一致性，公司与事业的契合，和消费者因缘匹配对企业声誉产生了显着的积极影响。此外，公司原因匹配和消费者参与特定 CSA 问题之间的交互效应对抵制意愿和购买意愿都有显着影响。讨论了这些发现如何帮助提高公众对 CSA 背景下的理解。