The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Globalization – An Example Using Asian Consumers

The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Globalization – An Example Using Asian Consumers

Research shows that Asian consumers demand corporate social responsibility (CSR) from businesses and that globalization has created a trend toward hybrid products. What has not been addressed is whether these consumers pay attention to CSR failures and what effect this has on globalization. This study explores the effect of variables on consumer purchasing intentions with regard to CSR failures. Using the convenience sampling method, we distributed 400 questionnaires to individuals in the four most frequently visited department stores in Taipei, and obtained 376 effective samples. The questionnaire focused on six hybrid toothpaste brands and six hybrid brands of cell phones. The seven research hypotheses were tested using stepwise regression analysis. The findings strongly verify that both the country-of-brand (COB) image and country-of-manufacture (COM) image significantly positively affect consumer purchasing intentions when CSR fails, but that the COM image is superior to the COB image. Results showed that brand awareness and product involvement have only a slight effect, indicating that brand awareness is no longer a panacea when CSR fails.