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This study proposes a conceptual framework for strategically integrating societal marketing (SM) into corporate identity to effectively represent a firm’s SM programs to stakeholders. The framework is crucial for firms to align their SM efforts with their identity in a manner that minimizes, if not eliminating, the accusations of dishonesty, such as greenwashing, brownwashing, or greenhushing.

Drawing on corporate identity theory and synthesizing the literature on SM, the study identifies three levels of corporate identity (strategic, operational, and functional) and three dimensions of SM’s alignment with business objectives (direct, indirect, and remote). Subsequently, the study develops a conceptual framework based on an interaction between corporate identity levels (strategic, operational, and functional) and dimensions of SM’s alignment with business objectives (direct, indirect, and remote) to identify strategic windows to represent SM to stakeholders.

The study identifies nine strategic windows at the strategic, operational, and functional levels of corporate identity to represent a firm’s SM programs to stakeholders. At the strategic level, CSR, corporate citizenship, and sustainability programs may be utilized to represent SM programs to stakeholders when SM respectively aligns with business objectives remotely, indirectly, and directly. At the operational level, environmental safety, stakeholder marketing, and business/marketing ethics programs serve this role. At the functional level, philanthropy, cause-related marketing, and green marketing are identified to represent SM to stakeholders, depending on the respective alignment of SM with business objectives remotely, indirectly, and directly.

The study implies that firms can minimize corporate misrepresentation of SM programs, especially when diverse stakeholder expectations demand varied representation of SM across levels of corporate identity. Additionally, firms can mitigate stakeholder confusion and misinterpretation by highlighting the differing degrees of alignment between SM and their economic goals when competing firms promote SM programs in the same context.

The study implies that firms can selectively prioritize different SM programs at different contexts depending on how stakeholders’ expectations are satisfied by the interaction between levels of corporate identity and dimensions of SM.

This paper advances corporate marketing research on corporate identity by proposing strategic windows to integrate SM into corporate identity for effective representation of SM programs to stakeholders.

This study aims to investigate how employee perspectives on the role of business, specifically capitalist beliefs, affect the corporate social responsibility (CSR)–reputation–employee behavior relationship.

A conceptual model was developed, and to test the model empirically, survey data were collected over two phases from 192 working professionals. Data were analyzed in SAS using Hayes’s PROCESS approach.

Results of this study reveal that the positive employee outcomes (i.e. affective commitment and reduced turnover intentions), resulting from CSR, through perceived employer reputation (i.e. an employee’s perception of how others view their firm), are diminished when employees have strong capitalist beliefs.

Building on the signaling and person–organization fit literatures, this study highlights the theoretical and managerial importance of recognizing employees’ ideological differences as well as the value of considering employee perceptions of reputation. Although many stakeholders value social responsibility, not all do, and a firm’s intended outcomes will vary depending on employees’ beliefs.

This study demonstrates that CSR not only affects institutional-level corporate reputation, as previously studied, but also affects employees’ behaviors through “perceived employer reputation”, or employee beliefs about how other stakeholders perceive the firm. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of understanding employee differences, including ideological differences, prior to engaging in certain types of CSR.

This study explores the motives and objectives of sports sponsorship in China, taking into account the sports, social and cultural contexts. It also adopts a comparative approach to examine the sponsorship of elite and grassroots sports events in China.

This study adopts a qualitative approach, employing semi-structured interviews with representatives of nine companies sponsoring elite and/or grassroots sports events in Western China. The data were analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis.

In China, sponsors are frequently driven to sponsor elite sport events by a sense of obligation and responsibility to the country, whereas their motives to sponsor grassroots sport events is primarily influenced by sincerity and goodwill. Chinese companies consider brand awareness, exposure and the relationship with the government and authorities as key factors for sponsorship, and use sponsorship to achieve market-related objectives.

Companies’ sponsorship motives and objectives have received significant attention in the literature, but mainly in Western countries. In the context of China, this study identifies how sponsors utilize social networks to shape their motives and objectives. It also reveals certain patterns common with the current literature, as well as specificities such as how the roles of the government and authorities are linked to the contingent economic and social context of the country. Furthermore, the differences between elite and grassroots sports events sponsorship are explained.