Doing Well by Doing Good: The Benevolent Halo of Corporate Social Responsibility

The document explores the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumer perceptions of product performance. It presents findings from several experiments, with one involving 56 participants and another involving 236 participants, showing that CSR activities, even when unrelated to a company's core business, can lead to higher consumer ratings of product performance. This effect is particularly strong when consumers believe the company's motives are benevolent and when consumers have low expertise in the product domain. For instance, in one experiment, participants rated the effectiveness of a hair loss treatment higher when they were aware of the company's benevolent CSR activities. The research challenges the idea that CSR only affects company reputation, suggesting it also materially impacts consumer beliefs about product performance. The document highlights the importance of how CSR motives are communicated, with third-party endorsements being more effective than company advertising, and aligning CSR with societal values for economic benefit. Data for the studies were collected between 2009 and 2014.