The Hierarchy of Effects Model to Understand Customer Responses to CSR in a Recession

The authors of this paper propose a hierarchy of effects model to study how corporate social responsibility associations impact customer affective and conative responses in the crisis context of the Spanish banking industry. A Structural Equation Model is tested using information collected from 476 customers. The findings demonstrate that corporate social responsibility associations impact customer identification with the banking company and satisfaction positively. Identification, emotions and satisfaction also influence recommendation behaviour positively although only satisfaction determines repurchase behaviour. These results suggest that banking managers facing an economic recession should especially care about corporate social responsibility associations and customer satisfaction in order to benefit from high-involvement customer behaviours such as repurchase behaviour.