Are you helping your firm or our community? : investigating the relationship between perceived firm motivation for CSR, "CSR-Covid 19 Fit," and consumer re-visit intention

This paper investigates how consumers' perceived motivations for corporate social responsibility (CSR) influence retail store re-visit intentions, and how consumers' cultural beliefs influence consumers' perception of CSR activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Two studies were conducted, the first one was in 2021 when the pandemic was severe and the second was in early 2023 when the pandemic was less severe. Regression results suggest community-motivated (vs. firm-motivated) policy has a substantial positive impact on customers' re-visit intentions. Moderated mediation models suggest perceived "fit" between CSR policy and Covid-19 mediates the impact of perceived motivation on re-visit intention. Further, results suggest that consumer collectivism and uncertainty avoidance negatively moderate the indirect effect of perceived motivation on customers' re-visit intention when the pandemic was most severe (study 1). Moreover, the negative moderation effects on consumer revisit intention disappeared when the pandemic became less of a concern (study 2). Summarily, our results indicate consumers favored community-motivated (vs. firm-motivated) CSR policy, and as consumers' collectivism and uncertainty avoidance increased, re-visit intention was negatively impacted, suggesting this consumer group favors social norms of reducing virus spread and avoiding potential risks by reducing store re-visits under the severe pandemic condition. Overall, the results suggest that regardless of the motivations for adopting CSR activities, managers should focus on improving the relevance and contribution of their CSR policies to help communities cope with a crisis. Other theoretical and practical implications are discussed.