The effect of corporate social responsibility in the environment of high religiosity: an empirical study of young consumers

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the issue of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Pakistan, where religiosity is very strongly prevalent. Based on literature, it is conceptualized that the consumers’ perception and awareness about the CSR activities influence their purchase intentions, but the effect from consumers’ CSR perception is to be mediated by their trust in the company and their religious beliefs. Design/methodology/approach - Both qualitative and quantitative methods are applied to investigate the research issue. The qualitative method is applied in the initial phase and conducted in two steps. First, focus groups discussions are conducted to understand the consumers’ knowledge on CSR and other factors influencing their purchase intention. Next, a number of descriptive and interpretive approaches are applied to examine the contents of focus group discussions. A total of three focus groups discussions are conducted in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. Each of the focus group includes 10 individuals from different social classes. Based on the focus group discussion outcomes, a survey is designed to conduct the quantitative study in the next phase. A set of 310 was randomly selected as a convenience sample from the university student population. This non-probability random sampling method ensures data availability for the study, but also risks that the sample might not represent the whole population of the society, and it might be biased by the volunteers. Findings - Based on 230 respondents’ data, it is found that the CSR perception and awareness do influence the purchase intention of consumers, which provides corroborating evidence to confirm that CSR is important for business development in different environments. However, religiosity in society does not play a significant role in determining the effect of CSR perception; but the consumers’ trust in the CSR activities of companies is found to be an important factor. Therefore, it is concluded that CSR has a business value if the consumers have a good perception of CSR which is determined by their trust in the company, but not by the religious orientations. Hence, companies need not overemphasize religious aspects in CSR campaigns, instead working on the building of consumers’ trust is more important. Originality/value - Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a widely studied issue because of increasing pressure from global society to ensure ethical corporate behavior. However, there is a trend to dress up CSR within the broader business framework because CSR initiatives eventually pay off through expanding business as result of more engagement with the customers and society. Because the social structure widely varies across the world, it is important to understand how the different social dynamics influence CSR initiatives and their impact on the customers’ buying decisions. This paper examined the issue in Pakistan, where religiosity is very strongly prevalent. Based on literature, it is conceptualized that the consumers’ perception and awareness about the CSR activities influence their purchase intention, but the effect from consumers’ CSR perception is to be mediated by their trust in the company and their religious beliefs. The survey study using 230 respondents’ data confirm that CSR perception and awareness positively influence consumers’ purchase intention. This corroborating evidence generally suggests that CSR initiatives may add value for the companies in different environments.