The relationships between corporate social responsibility, service quality, customer satisfaction, consumer rights awareness and repurchase intention

Abstract

Research efforts at investigating the effects o f perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumer behaviour have received increased attention within the last two decades. Findings from these studies have however been inconsistent regarding the extent to which perceived CSR directly influences consumers’ behavioural intentions towards companies and their products. Thus, there have been calls for the exploration of mediator and/or moderator influences on the CSR - consumer patronage intentions relationships. Therefore, this study investigated a model of direct and indirect relationships between perceived CSR, service quality, customer satisfaction, consumer rights awareness and repurchase intention. In addition, the study also sought to determine the dimensions o f CSR perceived by customers in the study area. The study used quantitative research design and data were collected from 604 customers of the major mobile telecommunication service providers in Nigeria using convenient sampling technique. Data analyses were conducted using the Smart-PLS software and the PROCESS macro. Results indicated that consumer perceived CSR is best represented through a second-order construct comprising o f ethical, legal and philanthropic dimensions. The findings also revealed that consumers’ perceived CSR directly influenced service quality, satisfaction and repurchase intentions; while service quality and satisfaction were indicated as having partial mediating effects on the relationship between perceived CSR and repurchase intention. Furthermore, the study established that consumer subjective rights knowledge moderated the influence of perceived CSR on service quality and repurchase intentions. The study contributes to theory by integrating the literature on CSR and consumerism, while the practical implication of the study is that service companies should communicate their efforts at safeguarding consumer rights within their CSR communications. Future studies are recommended to extend the study to other leading industries, particularly in the manufacturing sector.