Stakeholders’ perceptions and behavioural intentions toward online CSR communication: An attribution theory approach

Abstract

The present research applies attribution theory to provide holistic insights into the antecedents and consequences of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) attribution on stakeholders’ perceptions and behavioral intentions toward online CSR communication in the digital era. A systematic review and a meta-synthesis of relevant empirical journal articles on the Scopus database have been conducted. This synthesis of recent findings reveals that it is vital for organisations to invoke intrinsic CSR attributions at every touchpoint of online CSR communication since extrinsic CSR attributions that are formed in the absence of intrinsic CSR attributions negatively result in skepticism and mistrust. Concurrently, intrinsic CSR attributions lead to positive attitudes, perceptions, trust, purchase intentions, and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intentions toward online CSR communication messages and organisations. To effectively foster intrinsic CSR attributions, organisations need to acknowledge and implement the antecedents of intrinsic CSR attributions, which include communications of appropriate social causes and message design. Effective message designs that influence stakeholders to form intrinsic CSR attributions include information specificity, social topic awareness, perceived interactivity, negative arousing visuals of the current problems that stakeholders face in the social causes, evidence-based CSR messages for stakeholders with dispositional attribution styles, and belief-based CSR messages for audiences with situational attribution styles.