Corporate social responsibility: a pathway to sustainable competitive advantage?
International Journal of Bank Marketing
ISSN: 0265-2323
Article publication date: 5 August 2019
Issue publication date: 17 January 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of customers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on affective and continuance commitment. It analyses the moderation effect of relationship age on the CSR-commitment relationships in the banking industry of an emerging economy.
Design/methodology/approach
Partial least squares based structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses in a sample of 360 respondents collected from the retail banking sector of Pakistan.
Findings
Customers’ CSR perceptions directly and positively influence affective and continuance commitment. The findings also confirm that relationship age is a positive moderator of the CSR-continuance commitment relationship, but does not influence the CSR-affective commitment relationship.
Practical implications
Marketers should use CSR activities to enhance customers’ commitment. Given the moderating role of relationship age, marketers should devise different strategies for new and long-term customers. The results clearly show that relationship age affects the CSR-continuance commitment relationship. Long-term banking customers will more likely be in a binding relationship when their banks do CSR activities and disseminate those activities to long-term customers. The study explicitly indicates that maintaining long-term customers’ base through CSR activities helps the marketers in achieving sustainable competitive advantage.
Originality/value
First, it is the pioneering study to empirically investigate the understudied relationship between CSR and continuance commitment. Second, it examines the moderation effect of relationship age on CSR-commitment relationships in the banking industry of an emerging economy.
Keywords
Citation
Shah, S.S.A. and Khan, Z. (2020), "Corporate social responsibility: a pathway to sustainable competitive advantage?", International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 38 No. 1, pp. 159-174. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-01-2019-0037
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited