CSR and corporate branding effect on brand loyalty: a study on Indian banking industry

Purpose The study aims to examine the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate branding (CB) and brand loyalty (BL) inthe Indian Banking industry. The study further intends to examine the direct and indirect effect of CSR on BL when CSR becomes an integral part of CB. Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire using seven-point Likerts scale is the instrument for data collection. Stratied random sampling is used to collect the cross-sectional data from 430 savings bank customers in India. A new scale is developed and used to measure the CB as a single construct. A multi-model path using structural equation modelling is used to test the hypotheses. Direct and indirectmodel path analysis is used to examine the integrated effect of CSR and CB on BL. Findings The results of the study show that there is a signicant impact of CSR components (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic) on CB toenhance customer BL. The study offers new insight into the relationship between CSR and BL by introducing CB as the mediating factor. However,the relationship between legal responsibility to CB and philanthropy responsibility to BL demonstrate a negative coefcient in the pathanalysis. Further, the result of the direct and indirect model path analysis conrms that customers BL can be enhanced more ef ciently when CSR becomes an integral part of CB. Practical implications The strategic incorporation of CSR tools as an integral part of CB strategy can help the managers in the banking industryto enhance their customers BL. Besides economic and legal responsibilities, managers need to give more emphasis on the ethical and philanthropicresponsibilities as critical positioning tools to develop rms corporate brand followed by enhancing BL. Originality/value Scale development and validation of CB as a single construct is an original move in this study. Additionally, the study is apioneer to examine the direct and indirect effect of CSR on customers BL using CB as a key mediating factor.