Do CSR initiatives foster sustainable consumption? A cross-cultural meta-analytic structural equation modelling approach

Abstract

This research investigates how corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities influence sustainable consumption behaviour, specifically whether they truly promote ethical consumerism or unwittingly legitimize overconsumption by superficial sustainability efforts. We integrate evidence from 51 studies with diverse settings through meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM). With reference to Social Identity Theory (SIT), Value-Belief-Norm Theory (VBN), and Institutional Theory, the research procedures take into account direct, mediated, and moderated CSR impacts on sustainable consumption and emphasize roles of trust, ethical cognition, and cultural-psychological processes. Green marketing positively influences brand loyalty, which further influences consumer sustainable action (CSA). Environmental concern affects perceptions of corporate ethicality, and this assists in value-personal value alignment and ethical consumption. Cultural collectivism moderates CSR's influence on brand loyalty positively, and employee involvement positively facilitates CSA by authenticity signaling. Tests of moderated mediation specify CSR's dual role in fostering identity-based trust and building ethical norms, conditional on cultural-institutional contexts. The study integrates micro-psychological processes and macro-cultural dynamics into a comprehensive model of CSR's dual role in sustainable consumption. It proposes an original model of “glocalized” CSR strategy with local adaptation competence to ensure appropriateness based on community-oriented or individualistic social norms.