Are all CSR Activities in Your SNS Authentic? The Antecedents and Outcomes of Consumer Perceived Authenticity of CSR

Abstract

Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities appear active on social networking sites (SNS), consumers increasingly suspect their authenticity. Based on attribution theory, this study examines consumers’ responses to SNS-based corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities by analyzing the impact of their perceptions of CSR attributes on their perceived authenticity of CSR (CPACSR) and participation intention (PI). We conducted a between-subjects experiment on a sample of 480 Korean undergraduate students to test all the hypotheses. Our findings suggest that the three CSR attributes positively affect CPACSR, partially moderated by the type of message source and CSR activity. These findings suggest several opportunities for future research that may further benefit marketers in CSR marketing decisions.