Measuring brand social responsibility: a new scale

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate the brand social responsibility (BSR) construct, and to develop a scale to measure this construct. Design/methodology/approach – Using corporate social responsibility scales and the existing literature, a pre‐test to establish an initial list of items is followed by exploratory factor analysis in order to obtain a list of descriptors and statements to measure brand social responsibility. Then, the retained items of the BSR scale and existing CSR scales are tested on a panel of 248 participants. Findings – The brand social responsibility scale tested in this research was more focused on a brand's trustworthiness, awareness, and the brand's philanthropic activities from a consumer's perspective. The descriptors used in the scale more accurately measure consumers' perceptions of a brand's social responsibility than CSR scales, and also take into consideration the possible differences between a parent brand's SR and its subsidiary's SR. Research limitations/implications – This study, while investigating the brand social responsibility construct and developing a scale to measure it, compares existing CSR scales and emphasizes the possible differences between a parent brand's SR and its subsidiary's SR. Originality/value – The brand social responsibility scale in this study is important as it is one of the few scales in the field that takes into consideration the consumer's perspective as well as the possible effects of a parent brand and its subsidiaries.