Prior research in the brand management realm has broadly captured passion for a brand through brand‐related factors. However, to the authors’ knowledge, how the fit between a brand and its corporate social responsibility efforts (strategic CSR‐brand fit) drive brand passion has been surprisingly ignored. Drawing on congruence theory, basic psychological needs theory, and social identity theory, we argue that strategic CSR‐brand fit can significantly influence customers’ sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which in turn leads to brand passion. Furthermore, we hypothesize customer–company identification (CCI) as a key boundary condition for the indirect positive effect of strategic CSR‐brand fit on brand passion through customers’ satisfaction of psychological needs. Structural equation modeling results from a survey conducted with telecom customers (N = 1,059) supported a positive indirect effect of strategic CSR‐brand fit on brand passion through the satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs. Moreover, the indirect effect was statistically significant through competence and relatedness needs satisfaction for customers with high CCI but it was not significant through competence satisfaction for customers with low CCI. CCI trivially facilitates brand passion formation through autonomy needs satisfaction. Implications of these findings for shaping brand passion among customers are discussed.

中文翻译：

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战略性CSR品牌契合度和客户品牌热情：理论延伸和分析

品牌管理领域的先前研究已通过与品牌相关的因素广泛地吸引了对品牌的热情。然而，据作者所知，令人惊讶地忽略了品牌与其企业社会责任努力之间的契合度（战略性CSR-品牌契合度）如何驱动品牌热情。借鉴一致性理论，基本的心理需求理论和社会认同理论，我们认为战略性企业社会责任与品牌的契合度可以显着影响客户的自主意识，能力和亲和力，从而导致品牌热情。此外，我们假设客户公司识别（CCI）是通过客户对心理需求的满足而对战略CSR品牌契合度对品牌热情产生间接积极影响的关键边界条件。N  = 1,059）通过满足自主权，能力和相关性需求，支持战略CSR品牌契合度对品牌热情的积极间接影响。此外，间接影响在能力和相关性对CCI高的客户的满意度中具有统计学意义，但在竞争能力对CCI较低的客户的满意度不显着。CCI通过自治需求的满足来轻松促进品牌激情的形成。讨论了这些发现对在客户中塑造品牌热情的含义。