Communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly important for the success of organizations (Coombs and Holladay, 2012; McWilliams and Siegel, 2001). Several studies have focused on consumer responses to CSR and found that positive evaluations of CSR initiatives led to greater loyalty to both companies and their brands and to more positive behaviors toward companies (Dhanesh, 2015; Glavas and Godwin, 2013; Sen and Bhattacharya, 2001). Therefore, the effective communication of these CSR initiatives appears to be important (Eberle, et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2013). However, research on how consumers perceive a company’s communication of specific CSR motives in relation to its corporate reputation is scarce (De Vries et al., 2013). The current study aimed to investigate the role that communicating CSR motives plays in someone’s perception of a company. To investigate the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motives in explaining consumer-company identification, scepticism and reputation, we conducted two online consumer survey studies. In Study 1 (N=178), we used a well-known personal care product (PCP). In Study 2 (N=220), in the context of a large worldwide furniture retailer, we tried to replicate the findings of Study 1. In contrast to Study 1, we now added situational scepticism. The results of the current study show that the positive relationship between intrinsic CSR motives and company evaluations were replicated from previous studies. In this relationship consumer-company identification and scepticism play a mediating role. However this role seems to be different for positive versus negative attributions. The negative relationship between extrinsic CSR motives and company evaluations seems to be more ambiguous. Suggestions are made for a more meta-analytical approach to distinct consumers’ perceptions on a company’s CSR motives.

In the past few decades, much attention has been focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Dahlrud, 2008; McWilliams & Siegel, 2001; Maignan & Ralston, 2002; Montiel, 2008), consumer responses to CSR initiatives (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001) and more recently, employee attitudes towards CSR (Kim et al., 2010; Michailides & Lipsett, 2012; Rupp et al., 2006; Zhu et al., 2012). Although awareness of environmental sustainability has increased over the past few decades, the current market share of sustainable products remains low. Because of their market position, large-scale and high- volume customer interactions (Vella et al., 2009), supermarkets appear to be appropriate venues for investigating perceived sustainability initiatives (Hampl & Loock, 2013). Our study examined the extent to which supermarkets are perceived to have embedded sustainability initiatives in their marketing strategies and to have taken sustainable tactical measures on the store floor. In addition, the study considered the roles played by social identification (as an indicator for intrinsic motives) and by perceived external prestige (as an indicator for extrinsic motives). Based on a literature review and semi-structured qualitative interviews with the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Dutch supermarkets (n = 8), we conducted an online panel survey among the managers of these supermarkets (n = 99). The results of the qualitative study show that although CEOs’ opinions differed regarding the relevance of sustainability, the majority of CEOs indicated that the implementation of a sustainability strategy is strongly dependent on the intrinsic motivation of board members, the family business in general or local entrepreneurs (supermarket managers). Specifically, the role of the supermarket manager was recognized as important concerning sustainability initiatives on the shop floor. The results of the quantitative study show the positive impacts of managers’ social identification with a sustainable consumer group and managers’ perceived external prestige on the perceived environmental sustainability initiatives of Dutch supermarkets. The study finds that managers’ social identifications are powerful ways to engender employee loyalty. Moreover, organizations that are perceived to have more external prestige are perceived as being more capable of developing sustainability policies.