企业社会责任行为对品牌情感的作用研究:情感本土化的视角

The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility Activities on Brand Affect:A Chinese Perspective

本土化的品牌情感构念——真有和应有之情,在中国情景下更具解释力和预测力,然而,该领域的研究还不够深入和系统。基于中国人情感的双层结构理论,本文研究了企业社会责任(CSR)行为对品牌情感的作用,讨论了CSR行为对真有和应有之情两个维度的差异化效应,并探究了品牌知名度对CSR行为与品牌情感之间关系的调节作用。结果表明:CSR行为对真有之情和应有之情两个维度都具有正面作用,并且对应有之情的正面作用显著大于真有之情;而且,CSR行为与品牌情感之间的关系受到品牌知名度的调节,显示出差异化特征,品牌知名度正向调节CSR行为对真有之情的正面作用,相反,品牌知名度负向调节CSR行为对应有之情的正面作用。

With the increasing improvement of people’s living standards,emotional branding has become the main paradigm of brand management.Based on the double-layer structure theory of Chinese emotions,relevant indigenous studies have found that different from Western consumers,Chinese consumers have two-dimensional brand affection:the natural and obliged affection.However,the existing literature has mainly focused on the role of natural and obliged affection on the outcome variables such as brand attitude and brand loyalty,and little literature has discussed the driving factors of the natural and obliged affection and the contingent conditions of such affection,which may be more important to the management practice.In recent years,the empirical research results of Western scholars have shown that corporate social responsibility(CSR)activities are important driving factors of brand affection in both the intangible service industry and the physical product industry.Then,will CSR activities influence the natural and obliged affection-the brand affection in Chinese culture?Given the essential difference in connotation between the natural and obliged affection,do CSR activities have a differentiated driving effect on the two dimensions of brand affection?The current Western literature on brand affection cannot fully answer these questions,and the indigenous research has not yet involved them.In addition,in order to deepen the research of the indigenous brand affection theory,we also need to explore the boundary conditions under which CSR activities can produce greater value,that is,we need to discuss the contingent conditions.Based on the theoretical perspective of indigenous emotion and the double-layer structure theory of Chinese emotions,this paper has studied the effects of CSR activities on the affection for indigenous brands-the natural and obliged affection,discussed the differen-tial effects of CSR activities on the two dimensions of brand affection,and also explored the moderating effect of brand awareness on the relationship between CSR activities and brand affection by introducing key brand characteristic variable-brand awareness as a contingent condition.Three experiments have been used to test the theoretical hypotheses.Among them,the stim-ulus in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 adopted the physical product brand with hedonic characteristics,and the stimulus in Experiment 3 adopted the service brand with functional characteristics.The findings of this research reveal that CSR activities positively influence both dimen-sions of brand affection,and the positive effects of CSR activities have differential characteristics between the two dimensions.The influence of CSR activities on the obliged affection is significantly greater than that of the natural affection.The relationship between CSR activities and brand affection is moderated by brand awareness.Specifically,the impact of CSR activities on the natural affec-tion for high-awareness brands is significantly greater than that of low-awareness brands;on the contrary,the impact of CSR activi-ties on the obliged affection of low-awareness brands is significantly greater than that of high-awareness brands.This paper has multiple aspects of theoretical and practical value.In theory,it verifies the driving effects of CSR activities on the natural and obliged affection,and confirms the dif-ferential effects of CSR activities on the two dimensions of brand affection.At the same time,it reveals the differential moderating effect of brand awareness as a contingent condition on the impact of CSR activities on the natural and obliged affection.The research conclusions provide new theoretical views and insights in the Chinese context,and contribute Chinese new insights and knowledge to the research field of international brand affection.In practice,the findings of this paper indicate that companies can launch CSR activities in the Chinese market,and carry out targeted communication in the target market,thereby establishing brand affection.When companies need to establish brand legitimacy or to conduct non-functional interest competition,they can carry out CSR activities to stimulate Chinese consumers’obliged affection,thereby enhancing their ac-ceptance and preference of brands and obtaining efficient marketing per-formance.Companies should carry out CSR activities based on the status quo of brand awareness.For high-awareness brands,they may focus on the stimulation of the natural af-fection,so as to better compete with low-awareness brands.For low-awareness brands,they may focus on the stimulation of the obliged affection,so as to better compete with high-awareness brands.