Exploring the influence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) domains on consumers’ loyalty: An experiment in BRICS countries

Studies on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) acknowledge the need to consider stakeholder’s expectation when building a corporate image. However, this stakeholder-centric perspective is often neglected in the literature in favour of more firm-centric studies on CSR practices that are widely legitimated in the business community. Our study helps to fill this gap by exploring the influence of various CSR practices on consumers, who are a key stakeholder in every CSR campaign. The study empirically test how different CSR activities, and their related CSR domains, are valued by consumer when assessing their loyalty to a company. Data from 1516 consumers in the capital cities of BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – show how the communication regarding CSR initiatives in remote areas influences the consumers’ assessment of their energy supplier. Our results highlight that CSR activities aimed at reducing the impact of company’ operations on local communities have the highest importance for consumers compared to CSR activities that ensure reliable communications and prevent environmental impacts. Differences among BRICS countries highlight that multinational companies should adapt their CSR communication strategies for different developing countries.