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Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumer Buying Behavior in Emerging

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DOI: 10.5539/ijbm.v11n7p211

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 International Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 11, No. 7; 2016
ISSN 1833-3850 E-ISSN 1833-8119
Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education

Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumer Buying Behavior in

Emerging Market: A Mixed Method Study
Irfan Butt1
1
College of Economics & Political Science, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman
Correspondence: Irfan Butt, P.O. Box 50, Al Khoud, Muscat 123, Oman. Tel: 968-2414-1971. E-mail:
[email protected]

Received: May 7, 2016 Accepted: May 19, 2016 Online Published: June 18, 2016
doi:10.5539/ijbm.v11n7p211 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v11n7p211

Abstract
A number of companies are involved in various social responsibility programs aimed at increasing consumer
trust in their services and improve overall image of the firm. This phenomenon is prevalent in developed world
but is still new in emerging economies. In a developing country like Pakistan, Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) is affected by various factors. The purpose of this mixed method study is to examine key antecedents to
consumer responses to CSR to determine a link between CSR activity and consumers’ responses to such actions.
After a qualitative study, a pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered to 224 respondents. The
constructs were validated using confirmatory factor analysis and regression analysis was conducted to test
hypotheses. It was found that purchase intention was impacted by perceived CSR which was positively
influenced by awareness while trust played a pivotal role as a mediator between CSR and purchase intention.
Surprisingly, religiosity was not significantly related to CSR. The study was conducted using a hypothetical
company; however more insight might be gained if the company name was used since certain consumer patterns
are brand specific.
Keywords: CSR, trust, purchase intention, awareness, religiosity
1. Introduction
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an important topic in both academic literature and business
world in the past two decades (Fatma & Rahman, 2015). The role of CSR in influencing perception and attitude
has been debated both in the academia and practitioner domain (Rahman & Norman, 2016). It is stated that CSR
positively influences firm’s financial performance (Weinzimmer & Esken, 2016), supports its share prices
(Cochran & Wood, 1984), shores up its market values (Mackey et al., 2007) and provides competitive advantage
(Diddi & Niehm, 2016). Also, consumers now want companies to behave ethically in addition to providing
quality product at a lower price (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004). Robinson et al. (2012) found that likelihood of the
product purchase increased when consumers were given the option to support a social issue through the purchase
of a product. Crowther (2004) is of the view that companies can “derive enormous benefits if they are perceived
to be socially responsible by their stakeholders”. Sen and Bhattarchariya (2004) attested that among all the
stakeholders of a company, consumers are most influenced by the social initiative undertaken by a firm.
There has been significant growth in the publication of studies on CSR in last five years; however, most of the
studies were conducted in developed countries focusing on Western context (Fatma & Rahman, 2015). Thus, the
impact of CSR in developing nations has remained largely unexplored. In fact, Kolk et al. (2015) established that
constructs developed in the West are not applicable the same way in China, and suggested that there is a need to
focus on non-Western countries.
Feldman and Vasquez-Parraga (2013) state that research on CSR might be reaching maturity, but consumer
responses to CSR activities are not well researched. They claim that findings from studies examining the
relationship of consumer responses to CSR activities are still debatable. Some studies indicate a clearly positive
relationship between consumer responses and firm’s CSR actions (e.g., Carvalho et al., 2010; Ellen et al., 2006;
Smith & Langford, 2009) and others report that this relationship is “not always direct and evident” (e.g., Fatma
& Rahman 2015; Fatma et al., 2015; Valor, 2008).
The results from surveys investigating the relationship between consumer responses to CSR actions have failed

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to reach a consensus. On the one hand, some studies report a positive relationship between a company’s CSR
actions and consumers’ reaction to that company and its products (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Carvalho et al., 2010;
Ellen et al., 2006). On the other hand, some surveys indicate that the relationship between a company’s CSR
actions and consumers’ reactions is not always direct and evident, suggesting numerous factors influence this
relationship (Carrigan & Attalla, 2001; Maignan & Ferrell, 2004; Valor, 2008).
The relationship between ‘consumer awareness’ and ‘knowledge about CSR’ has been identified as an area
which requires further examination (Fatma & Rahman, 2016; Rahim et al., 2011; Pomering & Dolnicar, 2009).
Feldman and Vasquez-Parraga (2013) state that consumer’s ‘motivation to support’ a firm’s CSR activities are
linked with consumer’s personal characteristics, values, and religiosity. However, the concept of religiosity has
not been examined sufficiently in this context. It is generally observed that in developing countries such as
Pakistan, religion plays a key role in decision making process of consumers. Religiosity is known to have a deep
influence on the value system of an individual which in turn influences the attitudes and behavior (Ramasamay
et al., 2010).
This paper aims to address above gaps in the literature and examines less researched areas. This paper intends to
explore the developing economy of Pakistan and investigates the social responsive behavior of Pakistani
consumers. The objective of this study is to re-examine key antecedents to consumer responses to CSR in order
to establish a clear link between CSR activity and consumers’ responses to such activity. This paper will depart
from the previous studies by interpreting the CSR relationships from a South Asian perspective where the factor
of religiosity will also be taken into account. The paper attempts to gain a better understanding of the behavioral
implication in response to social initiative undertaken by firms. This paper poses the following questions:
1. What is the impact of CSR activities on consumers purchase intention in an emerging market?
2. What is the effect of awareness on purchase intention?
3. Does trust of CSR play a mediating role between customer’s perceived CSR and purchase intention?
4. To what extent religiosity of customers impacts CSR?
The paper is organized as follows. In the next section relevant literature and the hypotheses will be discussed.
Then the paper will provide an overview of the methodology and the findings based on analysis. The paper
concludes with managerial implications and future research directions.
2. Literature Review and Hypothesis Development
There has been a growing debate over how to define the socially responsible behavior of a company. There is no
one universally accepted definition of corporate social responsibility (Ahmad, 2006). The definitions of CSR
have been evolving with time. The pool of literature focused on defining CSR can be categorized into a two
clusters. There is one group of academics including individuals like Milton Friedman who consider social
responsibility of any firms as a way to maximize profits. On the other end there are academics like J.W McGuire
who contend performing every social deed to be the responsibility of the company.
The paper adopts the Carroll's model in defining CSR in the Pakistani society. Carroll (1991) established a
seminal definitional construct of CSR which states that social responsibility of business encompasses “economic,
legal, ethical and philanthropic expectations” that society has of organizations (p.40). Her “four-part pyramid
construct can be useful to look at how CSR is manifested in a developing country context” (Visser, 2006).
However, in developing countries like Pakistan, Caroll’s model (Figure 1) deviates from the classic pyramids
defined in developed countries. More emphasis is placed on economic and philanthropic activities rather than
economic and legal.

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Figure 1.. Caroll’s pyram

mid

Economic “responsibilitties are the bassic level of CSSR which must be carried out by corporatioons with no do oubt”
(Tian et aal., 2010). Theerefore, this sstudy mainly discusses CSR R activities frrom a philanthhropic perspec
ctive.
Philanthroopic activities have
h been deffined as settingg aside funds for corporate and community projects (V Visser,
2008). In ccountries like Pakistan,
P philaanthropic activvities are emphhasized due to increasing soccio-economic needs
n
of the sociiety and are coonsidered the riight thing to doo by corporatioons.
The currennt literature exxamining relattionship betweeen CSR and cconsumer respponse has idenntified a number of
relevant vvariables suchh as company evaluation, pproduct assocciation, trust, perceived CS SR, awareness and
purchase iintention. Howwever, based onn the gaps idenntified after exxtensive literatture review, thhis paper will focus
f
on trust, perceived CSR and awarenesss, and then, itt will analyze ttheir influencee on the purchaase intention of o the
company. As depicted inn Figure 2, relligiosity will bbe incorporatedd along with tthe above menntioned variablles in
our develoopment of hypoothesis in the nnext section.

Figure 2. Coonceptual fram

mework

The researrch conductedd by Sen and Bhattachariyaa (2001) and Brown and D Daicin (1997) has indicated d that
perceived CSR has direect impact on the purchase intention of aan individual. Based on the different concepts
related to CSR, perceivved CSR can be defined ass consumer’s pperception of whether or nnot the compan ny is
capable too conduct its operations in a socially respoonsible manneer and its abilitty to contributte to the welfa
are of
the societyy. This percepption is deemeed to influencee the decisionn making abilitties of an indiividual. Studie es on
consumer behavior havee provided suffficient evidencces to indicate that negative pperceived CSR R leads to redu
uction
in sales. O
On the other hand,
h the issuee of positive aattitude towardds product leadding to a highher purchase iss still
debatable. The main queestion at helm m is that in commparison to thee traditional m
moderators of ppurchase e.g. price,
p
quality and conveniencee, does positivve attitude tow wards firm’s C CSR positivelyy impact firm’ss sales. Biehall and
Sheinin (22007) indicate that
t if the custtomers are unaable to differenntiate products among varyinng competitors than

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CSR initiative are likely to make a positive impact on the product evaluation that will eventually transform to
increase in purchases. Thereby it is hypothesized that:
H1: Consumer’s perception about CSR is positively associated with purchase intention.
Every firm looks to develop rapport with its consumers in order to be successful in this competitive world and
this association is not very straight forward. Bhattacharya and Sen (2004) state that it is a complex relationship
with many factors and variables operating at the individual level (e.g., consumer personal preferences,
perceptions and values) and at the company level (company’s domain of corporate social performance). Pivato et
al. (2008) clearly showed that one of the core and central variables in many relationships between the targeted
consumers and firm is trust and socially orientated companies can use this variable in order to get a competitive
advantage. Trust is defined by Pivato et al. (2008) as: “an expectation that the trustee is willing to keep promises
and to fulfill obligations”. Consumer trust helps to shape future actions and attitudes of an individual in response
to the CSR campaign of the firm. Resultantly, a stronger consumer-firm relation suggests a positive correlation
between consumer behavior towards the company and its products (Smith, 2003; Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004;
Pigott, 2004). Therefore it can be stated that:
H2: Trust plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived CSR and Purchase Intention.
It can be argued that cultural and value system of an individual influence one’s buying patterns just like
economic factors influence the decision making abilities of an individual. It guides individual in their
preferences, attitudes and behavior towards different obstacles of daily life. In its essence it provides a
background for ethical behavior of consumers. Most religion tends to promote their followers towards a concern
for societal issues. “Business practices based on moral principles and ‘controlled greed’ were advocated by
pre-Christian western thinkers such as Cicero in the first century and their non-western counterparts such as
India’s Kautilya in the fourth century” (Blowfield & Frynas, 2005). Although the word CSR may have originated
in the 19th century but the concepts have been encouraged long before the industrial revolution.
Academic research has been done to identify the link between religiosity and social responsible behavior. The
results however have been mixed. Agle and Van Buren (1999) indicated a semi positive relationship between
certain religious beliefs and socially responsible behavior. Other studies found no difference of ethical behavior
between religious and non-religious behavior. Graafland et al. (2007) found that socially responsible behavior
tends to differ among religious people themselves. The degree of the importance of the role of religiosity on the
purchase intention may not be ascertained globally but research done by Ramasamy et al. (2010) indicated that
in Hong Kong “religious people are more supportive of socially responsible activities carried out by firms. They
are more willing to purchase goods and services from firms that are socially responsible”.
Although the concept of CSR has originated from Anglo Saxon communities but the Asian communities have
not been unaware of the rights of societal obligations. Societies like Japan have had longstanding social contracts
that instituted certain societal obligations to businesses. Historically, due to their varying cultural experiences,
the interpretation of CSR has varied among societies in the developing countries. For example, in Thailand,
environmental issues are the most cared about, whereas in India, economic empowerment is given the most
importance. The difference in the perception of CSR can be traced back to the belief systems and values of
society. Hence, religiosity is a major contributing factor.
Similarly, the Pakistani society consisting of a majority Muslim population is highly influenced by the religion of
Islam. Ramasamay et al. (2010) included religiosity as a factor because of a large proportion of welfare activities
being performed by religious bodies in Hong Kong and Singapore. If similar reasoning is applied to Pakistan, we
see a large number of religious bodies involved in welfare activities in the country which is indicative of the fact
that religiosity level in Pakistan will be relatively higher in comparison to a multicultural society like Hong Kong
or Singapore. Therefore it seems valid to state that:
H3: Religiosity plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived CSR and Purchase Intention.
Literature indicates that the major moderator of consumer responsiveness is the level of awareness. The
experiments of Brown and Daicin (1997) have indicated that consumer knowledge of CSR can lead to positive
evaluation of products. This implies that understanding the level of awareness plays a crucial role in analyzing
the responsiveness. In the conceptual framework proposed in this paper, consumer awareness is considered to be
an exogenous construct that directly affects the purchase intention. Awareness comes mostly from firm’s
deliberate marketing communication efforts (for example cause-related marketing programs). It can also come
indirectly through third-party information (including approved seals) from sources such as government
departments, the media, non-government organizations (NGOs), or the consumer’s social reference group.

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In Pakistan, CSR is still a relatively new concept and the awareness level of CSR projects among consumers
might be low. In cause-related marketing (CRM), firm promises to donate a proportionate sum to either a
nonprofit organization or to a social cause when consumer purchase its products or services (Nan and Heo, 2007).
Consumer groups that have a higher level of awareness tend to have a positive response towards social initiatives
taken by companies. Therefore it may be said that:
H4: A higher level of consumers’ awareness of CSR leads to consumers’ more positive responses to consumers
purchase intention.
3. Methodology
Three in-depth interviews and three focus groups were conducted first to understand consumer buying behavior
towards organizations involved in CSR activities. It was found that the consumers from lower income group
were mainly concerned with price and they did not care much about the CSR initiatives of company. Therefore,
it was decided to limit sample for quantitative research to consumers from socio-economic class A and B. The
respondents were personally approached for interviews in Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan. The
respondents were asked to read the brief material (Appendix) about the hypothetical firm; the material included
information about the industry in which firm operated, its main products and its positive CSR record.
Respondents were free to ask any question if they found any difficulty in understanding the information about
the firm. A total of 224 valid interviews were conducted.
Measures for all of the constructs used in the study were available in the literature, and were adapted to suit the
Pakistani context. To check their validity, three focus groups were conducted with respondents belonging to
different socio-economic classes and educational backgrounds. Focus groups were also used to examine how
consumers describe awareness, trust, purchase intention and religiosity. Participants were also asked about their
responses to real world CSR initiatives taken by some companies. In order to avoid desirability bias, respondents
were asked to write down their responses before discussing them. These results were helpful in generating and
revising some of the items. After scale development, 15 respondents were asked to participate in the pretest of
the questionnaire in which they stated the problems encountered by them while answering questions. The
questionnaire was revised to accommodate the small changes indicated in the pretesting and then questionnaire
was again pretested with another group of respondents before it was finalized.
The independent variables for this study were consumers’ perceived CSR and awareness of CSR. Since this
study focused on the positive effect of CSR on consumers, a hypothetical firm was shown with a positive CSR
record. The company profile was presented at the start of the questionnaire. Appendix shows the CSR
description for the household appliance industry as an example Consumers were then asked questions based on
that information. For all the measures, a five-point Likert scales was used.
4. Results
Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using Amos 7.0 (Figure 3) to check the measurement reliability. The
measurement model has a good fit χ2 (44) = 66.711, p<0.015, CFI = 0.971, RMSEA = 0.048, NFI = 0.921. All fit
indices are higher than the recommended levels (Roberts, 1999).

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Figure 3. M
Measurement m
model

All factor loadings are higher

h than thee recommended level of 0.5 (Bagozzi & Y Yi, 1988) and C Chronbach alph
ha of
every consstruct is higherr than the recommmended leveel of 0.7 (Hair et al., 2006), aas depicted in T
Table 1.

Table 1. Faactor analysis

Construct Item Factor Cronbach's
L
Loading Alpha
A
Perceived CS
SR I feel that Soocial responsibilitty record of Comppany X is good 0.80 0.814
Company X is a socially respponsible company 0.86
Trust of CSR
R I think Com
mpany X took a loot of effort to be socially responsiblle 0.76 0.747
I think comppany X’s socially responsible actionns are sincerely aiimed at contributinng to society 0.78
Awareness of I care aboutt environmental prrotection in my daay to day activitiess 0.71 0.715
CSR I pay attentiion to some sociall issues involving multinational com
mpanies’ donation 0.61
Religiosity I feel sorrow
w and dissatisfactiion when I do som
mething against myy faith 0.59 0.770
I have feelinng of being afraid of Allah 0.75
I have a feelling of being puniished by Allah whhen I do somethingg wrong 0.82
I feel pleasuure by seeing otherrs follow Islamic teachings. 0.60
Purchase I am willingg to pay a little moore for Company X
X’s product 0.73 0.710
Intention If I am plannning to buy a hoouse hold product e.g. refrigeratorr, I will choose C
Company X’s 0.74
product

In order too demonstratee the impact oof perceived C CSR and awarreness of CSR R on the depenndent variable e i.e.
purchase iintention, regrression analyssis was emplooyed. As expeected, the impact of both oof the independent
variables oon purchase inntention was ppositive. This was evident ffrom the positiive beta coeffi ficients for botth of
these variaables (Table 2)). In addition, the impact of both these varriables was staatistically significant, becausse of
negligible p-values correesponding to eeach of these vaariables.

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Table 2. Regression coefficients

Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized
Model Coefficients t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
(constant) .791 .320 2.472 .014
Perceived CSR .309 .068 .281 4.568 .000
Awareness of CSR .302 .066 .284 4.614 .000

Based on the regression values, the hypotheses presented earlier were analyzed. Since p-value between perceived
CSR and purchase intention is less than 0.001, null hypothesis was rejected even at 1% level of significance.
This implies that H1 is accepted. Likewise, the p-value between awareness of CSR and purchase intention is also
less than the assumed level of significance. Hence, H4 can safely be accepted. Conclusions about hypotheses’
testing can also be corroborated from the relatively larger magnitude of t-values as against the threshold values at
a particular significance level (e.g. 1.96 at 5 % significance level for a two-tailed test).
In order to check the mediating effect of trust and religiosity on purchase intention, a three step method
recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986) was used. According to Baron and Kenny (1986), to establish
mediation, the following three conditions must hold: “First, the independent variable must affect the mediator;
second, the independent variable must be shown to affect the dependent variable; and third, the mediator must
affect the dependent variable”.
H2 was checked using the three steps mentioned above. It was found out that the three conditions hold with
regression coefficients of 0.67, p<0.01 between Perceived CSR and Trust, 0.324, p<0.01 between perceived CSR
and purchased intention and 0.434, p<0.01 between Trust and Purchase intention. As it is not the perfect
mediation so to check the effect of partial mediation we used the Sobel test (Sobel, 1982). The result of Sobel
test shows that the test statistics is equal to 4.69 at p<0.01. Hence it is supported that the trust is the mediating
variable between perceived CSR and purchase intention.
Same process was used to check the mediating effect of religiosity between perceived CSR and purchase
intention. The three conditions, set forth by Barron and Kenny (1986), were not satisfied in case of religiosity.
The p value is very high even at the significance level of 0.05 so null hypothesis is accepted and H4 is not
supported.
5. Discussion
Customer awareness, trust and perceived CSR are variables that can influence the buying pattern of individual
which can turn out to be very crucial in dynamic and competitive environment of the current markets of the
world. This research study surveys consumers in an emerging market to identify a link between consumer’s
purchase intention and CSR initiatives. The findings corroborate with the past studies of Brown and Daicin
(1997) and Sen and Bhattacharya (2001, 2004) that were conducted in western countries. In Pakistan awareness
is positively associated with the purchase intention of the individual as it was in developed countries. Empirical
results show that consumer group with high level of awareness of about CSR activities of a firm have a positive
association with the purchase intention. The focus groups that were conducted earlier indicated that the level of
awareness among the general population was fairly low and this might interfere with conversion of CSR
activities into increased sales.
This study has established the role of trust as a mediating factor between perceived CSR and purchase intention
as it was done by a study conducted in China by Tian et al. (2010). It shows that if consumers are able to create a
trusting relationship, they reward the company with an improved perception and thus eventually result in greater
buying of its products.
Becker-Olsen and Hill (2006) state that “perceived corporate motivation is likely to influence consumers’
attitudes toward firms and their social initiatives”. Though the act of supporting a social initiative may appear to
be a public serving action, consumers’ perceptions of the underlying motivations for the act may drive their
evaluations of the firm and impact their beliefs, behaviors, and intentions. The findings of the paper establish the
fact that consumers are likely to respond based upon their perception about the CSR initiatives. The results imply
that Pakistani consumers are concerned about the motives of the firm.
It was initially argued that religion plays a key role in influencing the decision making of individual. However, it
was empirically found that the religiosity does not play a mediating role in the relationship between perceived
CSR and purchase intention. This helps to provide insight into the fact that the value system of Pakistani society

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is influenced by factors other than the religion of Islam. Our empirical research supports the conclusion made by
Angelidis and Ibrahim (2004) who found statistically insignificant differences between the ethical behavior of
religious and non-religious people. This finding about no impact of religiosity is thus consistent with World
Values Survey (2014) which states that in the last three decades the nations have been moving towards a
secular-rational value system.
6. Managerial Implications
The paper ascertains that although the concept of CSR is relatively new in Pakistan, there is a segment of
consumers who perceive CSR positively. More marketing effort and awareness is needed to ensure that
consumers are able to associate CSR campaign with respective products. It became evident in research that
consumers in Pakistan currently are not thinking much about CSR when purchasing products. However this is
not because of low social responsiveness but rather low awareness and hence efforts have to be made in this
direction. The increased awareness would also ensure that the true nature of consumer choice comes to surface
and this is an important point for managers to consider.
The socio economic class of A and B could be targeted by managers to achieve a greater share especially in
consumer products like electronics where market tends to be highly competitive. The identification of this
specialized market segment does provide managers a strategic opportunity to attract these consumers while
simultaneously contributing to the society. The results of this paper also indicate that trust is an important
mediating factor that has a significant impact on perception. This necessitates marketing managers of CSR
campaigns to concentrate upon building trust of consumers while trying to create a positive image of the
company. Consumers tend to focus upon the motives of the company while making their decision so the clarity
of their motives is essential for companies to create a higher bond of trust with their buying group.
This paper brings out a very crucial point related to marketing strategies in Pakistan. In Pakistan there has been a
recent growing trend towards adding religious elements in a company’s CSR marketing campaigns to attract
religious customers. However the results of this paper clearly indicate that such strategies won’t be effective in
fulfilling the companies’ objectives and so any effort in this direction should be minimized because the resulting
return is negligible.
7. Limitations and Future Research Directions
The questionnaire was designed on the pattern of previous studies, which, for the sake of anonymity, do not
disclose name of company. However, to understand the implications of CSR on individual consumers, it is
important to disclose the name of the company. Disclosure is important because consumer preferences are
influenced by brand reputation and choice. A more effective way of conducting future studies would be to
disclose the company name and then establish how CSR’s impact changes with different brands.
The questionnaire was primarily focused towards an anonymous electronics company. In future, a broad mix of
companies could be taken to see the varying impact on consumers. This is because consumer behavior tends to
differ among varying product categories and market environments. The research in the paper was focused in the
geographical area of Lahore. This city, being a metropolitan city of Pakistan seemed sufficient for our sample but
widening the geographical sample could help to further validate the findings.
Evaluating the religiosity of the individual was a difficult task since there is no universal scale to assess
religiosity. The variable of religiosity is governed and overarches many factors which cannot be catered totally.
However, this was overcome by taking questions from past studies and trying to see the responses of Pakistani
consumers in qualitative research before finalizing structured questionnaire. Developing a universal scale will
certainly be a great contribution for future research in trying to analyze the impact of religion. This research can
contribute to the debate whether religiosity has an influence on ethical buying. No impact of religiosity in a
religious society like Pakistan requires further introspection by future researchers.
This study helps to portray the overall situation of CSR in Pakistan from a consumer perspective. The research
findings corroborate with previous studies that the purchase intention is positively impacted by perceived CSR
which is positively impacted by awareness. It has also been established that religiosity does not play a mediating
role in the perceived CSR initiatives by a company. This paper helps to contribute to the study of CSR in
developing countries and provides a better understanding of the perspective of consumers in South Asian region.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to express special token of gratitude to LUMS alumni- Uzair Azmat, Abdul Rehman
Shabbir, Hafiz Muhammad Shoaib, and Waqas Ahmad – for making significant contributions to this research.

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Appendix: CSR Description for the Household Appliance Industry

Please READ the information given below prior to filling out the survey:
Company X is a large-scale corporation manufacturing household appliances such as refrigerators and
Air-conditioners. Company X is also a pioneer in its active role as a supporter of environmental and charitable
movements. Company X was placed on Pakistan’s Top 100 Socially Responsible Companies’ Index, a ranking
released by the Government. Socially responsible companies are those companies that continually try to improve
the wellbeing of the society at large e.g. donating in charity organizations.
The index suggested that the reason why Company X is one of the most socially responsible companies in
Pakistan is that X:
(1) Has played an active role in supporting environmental protection projects for many years.
(2) Has established a generous fund to improve the education and health of poor people.
(3) During the period of flood disasters in 2010, Company X donated millions of Rupees in aid and sent rescue
teams to help people in disaster-hit regions

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