How hedonic and perceived community benefits from employee CSR involvement drive CSR advocacy behavior to co‐workers

This study seeks to determine how organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) can be influenced by employee perception of the benefits arising from their involvement with corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The work is significant because of growing investment in CSR activities involving employees and increased firm expectations of employee dissemination of CSR information. A unique model examined how two types of perceived benefits, accruing to US‐based employees from their CSR engagement, impacted OCB. The variable of co‐worker‐directed CSR advocacy was used as a unique measure of OCB. An integrative theoretical framework combined social exchange theory with organizational citizenship behavior to provide a more comprehensive understanding of relationships. The first employee benefit tested was hedonic value, while the second was perceived community value. CSR reputation was modeled as a mediating variable. Data were collected via two scenario‐based experiments based at each respondents’ workplace. Analytical techniques included analysis of co‐variance and structural equation modeling using partial least squares. While both types of benefit had a significant effect on co‐worker‐directed CSR advocacy, the pathways differed. Perceived community value had a stronger effect on the mediating variable of CSR reputation, and consequently a significant indirect effect on the dependent variable. In contrast, hedonic value directly affected co‐worker‐directed CSR advocacy with CSR reputation playing no mediating role. This study contributes to the CSR literature through better understanding of the processes leading to the organizational citizenship behavior variable of co‐worker‐directed CSR advocacy. This dependent variable extends previous conceptualizations of OCB.