A framework for understanding corporate social responsibility programs as a continuum: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs are increasingly popular corporate marketing strategies. This paper argues that CSR programs can fall along a continuum between two endpoints: Institution-alized programs and Promotional programs. This classi-fication is based on an exploratory study examining the variance of four responses from the consumer stakeholder group toward these two categories of CSR. Institution-alized CSR programs are argued to be most effective at increasing customer loyalty, enhancing attitude toward the company, and decreasing consumer skepticism. Pro-motional CSR programs are argued to be more effective at generating purchase intent. Ethical and managerial implications of these preliminary findings are discussed. KEY WORDS: Corporate social responsibility, cause-related marketing, customer loyalty, satisfaction, stake