International Journal of Organizational Analysis

CSR across the globe: Dutch and Indian consumers' responses to CSR
Brigitte Planken, Catherine Nickerson, Subrat Sahu,
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CSR across
CSR across the globe: the globe
Dutch and Indian consumers’
responses to CSR
357
Brigitte Planken
Business Communication Studies and Centre for Language Studies, Received 30 January 2012
Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands Revised 28 November 2012
Accepted 24 December 2012
Catherine Nickerson
College of Business, Zayed University, Dubai,
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United Arab Emirates, and

Subrat Sahu
School of Petroleum Management, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University,
Gandhinagar, India

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer responses to CSR in a developed and
emerging economy (The Netherlands and India).
Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a survey of 95 consumers in each country to
investigate attitudes to CSR platforms and CSR initiatives and responses to CSR-based marketing
strategies (in terms of attitude to the company and purchasing intent).
Findings – The study found similar attitudes across nationalities to both CSR platforms and CSR
initiatives, with greater importance assigned to CSR reflecting legal and ethical (rather than
philanthropic) concerns. (Some) CSR-based marketing strategies, reflecting an ethical (people/planet)
concern, led to significantly more positive attitudes to the company and higher purchasing intent. The
study found some cross-cultural variation in the extent to which different CSR-based marketing
strategies influenced consumer outcomes.
Research limitations/implications – This is an exploratory study, limited to highly educated
consumers. The study provides indications that stakeholder expectations in emerging and developed
economies may be more similar than previously suggested. The philanthropic platform conventionally
pursued in Indian business may not be the most effective way to engage (all segments of) Indian
consumers. Findings suggest it is important that companies monitor stakeholders’ CSR attitudes to
ensure that CSR policy orientations meet stakeholder expectations.
Originality/value – This paper uses an innovative approach to investigate responses to CSR policy
and communications. CSR research on emerging economies is underrepresented in the literature. The
findings suggest areas of further enquiry with implications for global business.
Keywords Corporate social responsibility, Communication, CSR in emerging economies, CSR platforms,
CSR pyramid, Stakeholder engagement, Social responsibility, The Netherlands, India
Paper type Research paper

International Journal of
Organizational Analysis
The authors would like to acknowledge the help of their students and colleagues in Nijmegen and Vol. 21 No. 3, 2013
Bangalore, respectively, for their help in conducting the surveys in this study. Catherine pp. 357-372
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Nickerson also gratefully acknowledges the support of the Indian Institute of Management 1934-8835
Bangalore in providing financial assistance for this project. DOI 10.1108/IJOA-Jan-2012-0551
 IJOA 1. Introduction
21,3 Increased global competition means that corporations need to find innovative ways to
engage primary stakeholders. As levels of sophistication among stakeholders around
the globe continue to rise, businesses will come under increasing pressure to find ways of
participating in sustainable development and meeting ethical expectations. One area in
which a corporation’s sustainability stance can be communicated to stakeholders is in
358 the construction of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) “platform”, a reflection of the
corporation’s orientation to specific stakeholder issues. CSR is:
[. . .] the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic
development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as
of the local community and society at large (Holme and Watts, 2000, p. 10).
Two examples of international companies that have been commercially successful by
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projecting a CSR platform that underpins their business strategy (and vice versa) are Body
Shop, and more recently, the Indian retailer Fabindia (Ramachandran and Patvardham,
2007). To date, studies investigating CSR empirically, and particularly the effects of
CSR-based campaigns on stakeholders, have been relatively few. Investigations of this
type in developed countries have shown that CSR can contribute to corporate image
(Brown and Dacin, 1997; Creyer and Ross, 1997; Mohr and Webb, 2005; Marin and Ruiz,
2007), which may lead to increased profitability (Lin et al., 2009; von Arx and Ziegler, 2008;
Scholtens, 2008). Although Asia is the most covered region in considering CSR in emerging
economies (Muruganantham, 2010; Setthasakko, 2009; Gupta, 2007; Visser, 2007; Chapple
and Moon, 2005; Arura and Pulanik, 2004), research on CSR attitudes and the effects of
CSR-based campaigns in developing countries is so far underrepresented in the literature.
This study aimed to investigate consumer attitudes to different CSR platforms and CSR
initiatives and their responses to CSR-based marketing strategies in order to gain insight
into the role that the pursuit of a particular CSR policy and its incorporation into a corporate
communication strategy might play in achieving primary corporate objectives. The study
also compared an established versus an emerging economy, which as Sarkis (2009) has
recently observed, remains an under-represented area of research. In this way, we hoped to
contribute to the growing body of empirical research that has investigated primary
stakeholders’ perceptions of CSR and to contribute to CSR research in developing countries,
which has tended to consider CSR from the business perspective (Quazi and O’Brien, 2000;
Blowfield, 2003; Christie et al., 2003; Zulkiflli and Amran, 2006; Jamali and Mirshak, 2007;
Rettab et al., 2009; Galbreath, 2010) and has rarely examined other stakeholders (but see,
e.g. Arli and Losmono, 2010, on Indonesian consumers’ CSR attitudes). The Netherlands
was chosen as an example of a successful European economy and compared with India as
an emerging economic power. As we discuss below, it also seemed plausible that
consumers located in these two different countries would be likely to express differing
attitudes towards different CSR platforms and strategies (see for example, Smith et al., 2007
who compare the corporate social orientation values of US and Japanese students).
The following sections consider research that specifically informed the focus and
methodology of the present study. Section 2 discusses studies that have shown how CSR
communications reflect the different CSR stances that corporations take up in both
emerging and developed economies, and the different CSR initiatives they emphasize.
Section 3 discusses studies that have specifically investigated consumer attitudes to CSR
platforms and consumer responses to CSR-based marketing, as well as their willingness
 to support responsible companies. Sections 4 and 5 provide details on the aims and CSR across
methodology in the study, and Section 6 the findings of the contrastive study of Dutch and the globe
Indian consumers. Finally, in Section 7 we discuss the implications of our findings in the
context of previous studies and we give suggestions for further research in the future.

2. CSR in practice: evidence from corporate communications

The Four Step Pyramid of CSR (Carroll, 1979, 1991) sees CSR policy as focusing on one or 359
more of four sets of factors relating to the economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic
obligations a business is considered to have to the society in which it operates. In
Carroll’s (1979) original conception, businesses were said to prioritize their profitability
(economic obligation) and their responsibility to conduct business within the law (legal
obligation). Only in the second instance would ethical concerns (norm-imposed
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obligation), such as minimizing environmental impacts, and philanthropic or

“discretionary” concerns, such as corporate giving (Carroll, 1991) play a role. In a
study of international versus local Oil and Gas (O&G) corporations’ web sites,
Planken et al. (2007) found that the way corporate marketers present CSR policy to the
outside world, especially in their brand building, largely reflects Carroll’s pyramid. After
profits and compliance with the law, the focus taken in their CSR discourse is clearly
ethical, centering on sustainable energy and the environment.
Esrock and Leichty (1998) investigated the extent to which 100 Fortune 500
corporations (in six industry segments) communicated about CSR initiatives to establish
a CSR policy position and to present themselves as socially responsible. As early as 1998,
82 percent of the companies were found to disclose CSR information and report on
14 distinct types of CSR initiatives, reflecting the corporations’ focus beyond profits, on
ethical, legal and philanthropic responsibilities. Overall, ecology/environment,
education and community involvement were the three most reported CSR initiatives.
Environmentally-oriented and technology corporations referred to ethical CSR issues
significantly more than financial and whole-sale retailing firms. There were no
significant differences between different industries in the extent to which philanthropic
CSR was discussed.
Maignan and Ralston (2002) conducted a cross-cultural study of CSR information on
the corporate signature web sites of Fortune 500 companies in France, the United
Kingdom, The Netherlands and the USA. They analyzed CSR discourse in terms of CSR
motivations, initiatives/processes and stakeholder issues. The study found cross-cultural
variation in terms of the CSR platform companies across the four countries occupied
to convey a socially responsible identity. While US companies tended to discuss
philanthropic initiatives, centering around corporate giving and volunteerism, Dutch and
French businesses emphasized environmental programs, i.e. ethical concerns, and to a
much lesser extent than US companies philanthropic initiatives. UK companies adopted
what Maignan and Ralston termed an “intermediary approach”, a mix of CSR initiatives
without clear emphasis on one or another CSR platform.
Visser (2007) suggests that CSR in developing countries be regarded as distinct from
CSR in developed countries for a number of reasons. First, developing countries represent
growing economies and thus lucrative markets. Second, social and environmental crises
are felt most strongly in the developing world. Third, developing countries are likely to
experience the strongest environmental and social impacts. As a result, developing
countries present companies with a unique set of CSR challenges that are different to
 IJOA those faced by companies in developed countries. Visser proposes an adaptation of
21,3 Carroll’s CSR model to accommodate emerging economies, suggesting that although
business will always give priority to profitability, companies in emerging economies
will put philanthropic responsibility second, followed by legal and, finally, ethical
responsibilities. The plausibility of Visser’s suggestion, at least for India, is supported by
case-based accounts of Indian businesses’ CSR efforts, which collectively indicate that
360 the CSR pursued by local Indian corporations places strong emphasis on community-
oriented “altruistic” programmes, reflecting a philanthropic CSR platform (Arora and
Puranik, 2005; Sagar and Singla, 2004; Muruganantham, 2010). Examples include Indian
Petrochemicals Corporation Limited which develops rural areas under the slogan
“Beyond Business”, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited which has adopted 40 Indian
villages, and the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Group which focuses CSR efforts
on local education initiatives. The historical and cultural reasons for this emphasis on
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discretionary CSR in India are beyond the scope of this paper (but see, e.g. Gupta, 2007 for
an extensive discussion), but what seems clear is that although India-based corporations
do put environmental protection – reflecting ethical concerns – on the agenda, most CSR
activities reported on are of the social, community projects type that Visser (2007)
identifies as characteristic of the CSR focus in developing regions, and which Sagar and
Singla (2004) go so far as to term “passive philanthropy” in relation to Indian business.
In a cross-cultural study of CSR practices in Asia, Chapple and Moon (2005)
investigated CSR communication by companies in seven developing countries,
including India. Nearly 75 percent of Indian companies investigated presented
themselves as having CSR policies and undertaking CSR initiatives (Chaudri and Wang,
2007) versus only 25 percent of Indonesian companies. Falling between these extremes
were companies in Thailand (42 percent), Malaysia (32 percent) and the Philippines
(30 percent). Chapple and Moon conclude that CSR practices in Asia clearly vary and
that this variation can be explained by the stages of development in CSR adoption and
implementation. Community-focused, philanthropic initiatives constituted the first – by
now most established and evident – examples of CSR, followed by socially responsible
production and employee relations. Again, this seems to corroborate the suggestion that
discretionary CSR tends to be seen by businesses in developing economies as relatively
important.
Studies such as those above have provided some insight into CSR practices, across
cultures and in developing versus developed countries. However, if local and global
companies are to design effective CSR-based communications that appeal to – and have
the potential to influence – stakeholders, there is a need to establish to what extent the
CSR platforms and initiatives pursued by corporations and communicated in their CSR
campaigns actually conform to stakeholders’ CSR attitudes and meet stakeholder
expectations.

3. Consumer response to CSR platforms and CSR-based communication

The final set of investigations that informed this study comprises research that gauged
stakeholder attitudes to CSR platforms and CSR-based communication specifically. We
restrict our discussion to studies involving consumers, as this stakeholder group was
central in the present research. In a comparative survey of French, German and US
consumers, Maignan (2001) investigated consumer attitudes to Carroll’s responsibilities
and readiness to support socially responsible organizations. While the US consumers
 valued economic responsibility highly, the French and German consumers seemed more CSR across
concerned that companies comply with legal and ethical norms. Furthermore, French the globe
and German consumers were more willing to support responsible businesses (i.e. buy
from them) than US counterparts. For Maignan, these latter findings confirm the
potential usefulness of CSR as a resource, especially in marketing. At the same time, they
underline the need to better understand how primary stakeholders located in various
countries respond to different CSR platforms. 361
Podnar and Golob (2007) surveyed highly educated Slovene consumers to determine the
relationship between their CSR expectations in terms of Carroll’s responsibilities, and
intentions to support CSR initiatives. The Slovenes held high expectations of CSR and
expected businesses to take legal responsibility and to comply with ethical-philanthropic
expectations first and foremost, regarding economic responsibility as less important. Also,
their ethical-philanthropic expectations were reflected in their readiness to support
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responsible companies. These outcomes seem to support Maignan’s findings (Maignan,

2001) in the sense that they provide further indication of the potential usefulness of CSR as a
marketing resource on the one hand, while highlighting cross-cultural variation in consumer
attitudes – if we compare the Slovenes with the nationalities in Maignan’s study –
regarding the relative importance of different CSR platforms in the eyes of consumers.
Dahl and Persson (2008), finally, investigated whether specific CSR policy-based
marketing strategies influence Swedish consumers’ attitude to the company and their
purchasing intention. Consumers were presented with descriptions of marketing strategies
incorporating the six CSR initiatives distinguished by Kotler and Lee (2004). Companies can
incorporate these strategic initiatives (Table I) in their marketing communications with the
aim not only of promoting the corporation as a good citizen but also to encourage consumer
support. Although all six strategies led to positive corporate evaluations and reasonably
high purchasing intent, the Swedish consumers in Dahl and Persson’s study were found to
respond relatively most positively to those strategies (cause related marketing, corporate
philanthropy, socially responsible business) which, according to the authors, involve
considerable effort by the corporation itself. In contrast, community volunteering is realized
by employees, and cause promotion and corporate social marketing are intended primarily
to influence consumer attitudes or behaviour, rather than to improve corporate conduct.

4. Aims
In sum, corporations have been shown to pursue a wide variety of CSR initiatives and there
appears to be some cross-cultural variation in the CSR platform – or orientation –
companies adopt across industries and in different developing and developed countries. By
opting for a particular CSR strategy, companies presumably aim to address specific
stakeholder concerns and meet stakeholder expectations. Consumers constitute a primary
stakeholder group, but few studies have investigated consumer attitudes to different CSR
initiatives or platforms, compared consumer attitudes across countries or studied consumer
responses to CSR-based communication. Furthermore, despite the global context in which
many companies operate, research has tended to focus on stakeholder attitudes in
developed countries (but see, e.g. Christie et al., 2003, on managers’ ethical attitudes in India,
Korea and the USA). Studies of consumer attitudes to date indicate considerable
cross-cultural variation in CSR attitudes and willingness to support responsible business.
Much still remains to be investigated with respect to how different aspects of CSR –
and CSR-based communications in particular – are perceived by stakeholders in
 IJOA
Strategy Description Aim(s)
21,3
1. Cause Corporation promotes awareness of a Raise awareness of the cause; influence
promotion societal cause as part of its CSR policy in consumer attitudes/behaviour by
an advertising campaign combining corporate/product promotion
with cause promotion
362 2. Cause-related Corporation is seen to be actively Raise awareness of the cause; actively
marketing involved with a particular societal cause involve consumer in supporting cause by
as part of its combined CSR and purchasing company’s product (i.e. % of
marketing policies; specific product(s) purchasing price is donated
explicitly associated with the cause to cause)
3. Corporate Corporation combines product/service Persuade consumer to purchase; bring
social advertising with awareness-raising about structural change in stakeholder
marketing specifically targeted at changing behavior beyond purchase
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consumer behaviour in a sustainable way

4. Corporate Corporation refers to its corporate giving Raise awareness about CSR policy with
philanthropy policy as a marketing communication regard to corporate
strategy which may be unrelated to giving; promote corporate
specific product promotion reputation
5. Community Corporation refers to its community Raise awareness about
volunteering volunteering policy as a marketing CSR policy/activities with regard to
communication strategy which may be community volunteering; promote
unrelated to specific product promotion corporate reputation
Table I. 6. Socially Corporation emphasizes its behaviour as Promote corporate reputation as a
CSR-based strategies, responsible a good corporate citizen in general and its responsible citizen
descriptions and aims, business overall commitment to sustainable
as distinguished by practice business as a “blanket” marketing
Kotler and Lee (2004) strategy (essentially subsuming 1-5)

different countries. Insight into these topics is an essential prerequisite for the design of
effective CSR campaigns that can meet stakeholders’ expectations, locally and globally.
To begin to address some of the gaps in the literature, this exploratory study
investigated consumer attitudes to various CSR platforms and CSR initiatives, as well as
their response to different CSR-based marketing strategies. The aim was to identify the
type of CSR orientation that is likely to appeal to these stakeholders, and to identify
marketing communication strategies that might be effective in bringing about positive
stakeholder outcomes. Furthermore, the study aimed to compare consumers in a
developed versus a developing country. The following research questions were
formulated:
RQ1. What relative importance do Dutch and Indian consumers attach to different
CSR platforms, e.g. the economic, the legal, the ethical or the philanthropic?
RQ2. What relative importance do Dutch and Indian consumers attach to different
CSR initiatives?
RQ3. To what extent do the CSR-based marketing communication strategies
distinguished by Kotler and Lee (2004) contribute to primary corporate
objectives (i.e. Dutch and Indian consumers’ attitude to the company and
purchasing intention)?
 RQ4. To what extent do consumers from a developed country and a developing CSR across
economy differ with respect to 1, 2 and 3? the globe
5. Method
5.1 Overview
Consumer samples in both countries were surveyed. A questionnaire measured attitudes
with regard to CSR platforms and CSR initiatives, and responses to specific CSR-based 363
marketing strategies in terms of attitude to the company and purchasing intent.

5.2 Respondents and procedure

95 respondents from each country (India and The Netherlands)[1] were selected through
non-probability, convenience sampling. All were highly educated (see Table II for
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respondent characteristics). The Dutch data were collected between 25 November and
10 December 2008. Respondents were approached in public places (e.g. shopping malls,
train stations) in the Nijmegen/Arnhem region in The Netherlands. The Indian data were
collected in the last three weeks of March, 2009. Indian respondents were drawn from
three postgraduate courses at a management institute in the south of India, and from a
large multinational corporation. In the Indian context, there is a much wider range of
both educational and (English) literacy levels in the general consumer population than in
The Netherlands. By focusing on a highly educated sample, the Indian sample could be
matched more closely to the Dutch. Furthermore, the sampling of highly educated Indian
consumers meant that it was not necessary to translate the questionnaire into Hindi or
other relevant local languages.

5.3 Instrumentation
The questionnaire contained items to measure four aspects:
(1) relative importance assigned to the four corporate obligations identified by
Carroll, referred to here as “CSR platforms”;
(2) relative importance assigned to six different CSR initiatives;
(3) responses to Kotler and Lee’s CSR-based marketing strategies in terms of
respondents’ attitude to the company and purchasing intent; and
(4) background questions.

Nationality Gender Age Education

Dutch Male 37 (38.9%) 18-24 30 (31.6%) Polytechnic 19 (20%)

Female 58 (61.1%) 25-35 34 (35.8%) University (BA) 38 (40%)
36 and older 31 (32.6%) University (MA) 38 (40%)
Total 95 (100%) 95 (100%) 95 (100%)
Indian Male 50 (52.6%) 18-24 24 (25.3%)
Female 45 (47.4%) 25-35 59 (62.1%)
36 and older 12 (12.6%) University 95 (100%) Table II.
Total 95 (100%) 95 (100%) 95 (100%) Dutch and Indian
Total 190 (100%) 190 (100%) 190 (100%) respondent
characteristics (gender,
Note: n ¼ 190 age and education)
 IJOA Question types included statements accompanied by seven-point Likert scales and
21,3 multiple choice items.
For (1), respondents rated statements, such as “Companies should be focused on
making a profit so they can contribute to a strong economy” and “Companies should
repay their debt to society by contributing to social, community projects”, to determine
the relative importance they attributed to, in these examples, the economic and
364 the philanthropic platforms, respectively. Statements were accompanied by a Likert
scale running from “very important” to “not at all important”. One distracter item was
included that did not relate to Carroll’s responsibilities but to a relevant CSR issue,
namely transparency.
For (2), respondents indicated the relative importance of six types of CSR initiatives:
community projects; environmental/ecological initiatives; donating to causes; improving
employees’ working conditions; sponsoring; engaging in responsible business practice.
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This shortlist was based on the most frequently reported initiatives, as found in earlier
research (Maignan and Ralston, 2002; Esrock and Leichty, 1998). Examples of statements
relating to sponsoring and responsible business practice, respectively, were: “The company
contributes to initiatives that support sports, education and the Arts, e.g. by sponsoring a
local sports team or art exhibition, or making available study grants” and “The company
implements policy to promote fair and ethical business practices, e.g. by signing Fair
Business contracts or implementing a Code of Ethics”. Respondents ranked the initiatives,
assigning each a number from 1 to 6 (1 – most important; 6 – least important).
For (3), respondents were presented with descriptions of Kotler and Lee’s six
CSR-based strategies (based on methodology by Dahl and Persson, 2008). Two
examples, for the cause-related marketing and community volunteering strategies
(Table I), are: “The company informs its consumers that it will donate 5 percent of the
sales price of every product it sells to a research foundation that studies the effects of
global warming” and “The company announces that it is to organize a day off for its
employees (with retention of salary) so that they can work as volunteers planting trees
for a local environmental protection initiative”. For each strategy, CSR stance was kept
constant, in that it involved an environmental initiative, therefore reflecting the ethical
dimension. After each description, respondents reacted to the strategy by indicating to
what extent they agreed with the following statements, anchored by “completely
disagree” and “completely agree”: “This strategy would influence my view of this
company positively” and “This strategy would increase my willingness to buy this
company’s products” (following methodology by Dahl and Persson, 2008).
For (4), respondents were asked to supply background information about their age,
gender and education level. Two language versions of the questionnaire were prepared:
Dutch (for the Dutch) and English (for the Indians). The translation back-translation
method (Brislin, 1970) was used to optimize item equivalence across languages.
Balancing was applied to scale items to prevent automatic scoring. To counteract order
effects, two versions of the questionnaire were created, each with the four parts in a
different order, and with items in each part presented randomly.

6. Results
6.1 Consumer attitudes to CSR platforms and CSR initiatives
The results for both nationalities are presented in Table III (CSR platforms) and
Table IV (CSR initiatives)[2].
 Table III shows that the ethical and legal platforms were regarded as relatively more CSR across
important by both the Dutch and Indian respondents, albeit in different orders. One-way the globe
(repeated measures) ANOVA confirmed significant differences in both groups: for the
Dutch, Wilks Lambda ¼ 0.45, F (3, 92) ¼ 36.88, p , 0.001, partial eta squared ¼ 0.55,
and for the Indians, Wilks Lambda ¼ 0.55, F (3, 92) ¼ 24.58, p , 0.001, partial eta
squared ¼ 0.44. Pairwise comparisons showed that, in the Dutch group (see Table III for
means), the legal platform was seen as significantly more important than the ethical 365
platform ( p , 0.01), which, in turn, was seen as significantly more important than the
philanthropic platform ( p , 0.001). Also, both the ethical and legal platforms were seen
as significantly more important than the economic platform ( p , 0.001). In the
Indian group (see Table III for means), the ethical and legal platforms were regarded
as significantly more important than the philanthropic and economic platforms
( p , 0.001). Overall, independent t-tests showed that the Indians assigned
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significantly higher importance to each of the four platforms than the Dutch.
Table IV presents the two nationalities’ assessments of the relative importance of six
types of CSR initiative, ranked from more to less important. The table reflects the frequencies
with which respondents assigned a unique number between 1 and 6 (where 1 was “most
important” and six “least important”) to each initiative. The frequency with which 1, 2 and 3
(most important, important, somewhat important) were assigned are presented together
as “percent important”, while the frequency with which 4, 5 and 6 (not so important,
of little importance, least important) were indicated are presented together as “percent
unimportant”. The findings show a similar ranking by the two groups in terms of the

Dutch (n ¼ 95) Indian (n ¼ 71)

CSR platform Mean score (SD) CSR platform Mean score (SD)

1. Ethical platform 5.85 (0.96) 1. Ethical platform 6.57 (0.68)

2. Legal platform 6.19 (0.85) 2. Legal platform 6.54 (0.73)
3. Philanthropic platform 5.23 (0.95) 3. Philanthropic platform 5.86 (1.00) Table III.
4. Economic platform 5.09 (1.08) 4. Economic platform 5.79 (0.99) Mean scores on
importance of the
Notes: 1 – not at all important; 7 – very important; SD in brackets; per nationality (Dutch, Indian) four CSR platforms

Dutch (n ¼ 95) Indian (n ¼ 71)

CSR initiative (more to less % important/ CSR initiative (more to
important) unimportant less important) % important/unimportant

1. Environmental projects 75.8/24.2 1. Environmental 80.3/19.7

projects
2. Work conditions employees 61.1/38.9 2. Work conditions 67.6/32.4
employees
3. Ethical code/responsible 55.8/44.2 3. Social/community 63.4/36.6 Table IV.
business projects Summed percentage
4. Social/community projects 49.5/50.5 4. Ethical code/ 42.3/57.7 of responses reflecting
responsible relative importance of six
business CSR initiatives, ranked
5. Donating to causes 34.7/65.3 5. Donating to causes 35.2/64.8 more to less important
6. Sponsoring 29.5/70.5 6. Sponsoring 14.1/85.9 (per nationality)
 IJOA relative high or low importance attached to the initiatives, with environmental projects and
21,3 initiatives to improve employees’ working conditions, reflecting “Planet and People”
concerns, ranked as relatively most important by both groups. Social/community projects,
reflecting a “discretionary” (philanthropic) CSR initiative, was regarded as third most
important by a majority of Indians (63.4 percent), and fourth most important by the Dutch
(49.5 percent), who assigned ethical code/responsible business relatively more importance.
366 Finally, both nationalities ranked the initiatives reflecting “pure” philanthropy, namely
donating to causes and sponsoring, as relatively least important.

6.2 Consumer responses to CSR-based marketing strategies

Consumer responses to Kotler and Lee’s CSR-based marketing strategies (Table I) was
measured in terms of respondents’ attitude to the company and their purchasing intent
after they were presented with the description of a particular strategy. Table V
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presents the mean responses for both nationalities and for each strategy (1-6).
6.2.1 Attitude to the company. Mixed (between-within subjects) ANOVAs were used
to assess the impact of strategy (six levels) on the two dependent variables attitude to
company and purchasing intention, across nationalities. With respect to attitude to the
company, there was a significant interaction between marketing strategy and
nationality, Wilks Lambda ¼ 0.9, F (5,184) ¼ 3.79, p , 0.05, partial eta squared ¼ 0.09.
The main effect of marketing strategy was also significant, Wilks Lambda ¼ 0.5,
F (5,184) ¼ 36.36, p , 0.001, partial eta squared ¼ 0.5. A subsequent one-way (repeated
measures) ANOVA confirmed significant effects for marketing strategy on attitude to
company for both nationalities, i.e. for the Dutch and Indian consumers, respectively:
Wilks Lambda ¼ 0.41, F (5, 90) ¼ 25.9, p , 0.001, partial eta squared ¼ 0.59, and Wilks
Lambda ¼ 0.55, F (5, 90) ¼ 14.78, p , 0.001, partial eta squared ¼ 0.45. In the Dutch
group, pairwise comparisons showed that cause promotion (strategy 1, see Table V for
means) led to a significantly less positive attitude to the company than the other five
strategies ( p , 0.001), while socially responsible business (strategy 6) led to a
significantly more positive attitude to the company than strategies 1, 3, 4 and 5
( p , 0.05). Somewhat similarly, in the Indian group, cause promotion (strategy 1)
evoked a significantly less positive attitude to the company than strategies 2, 5 and 6
( p , 0.05), while socially responsible business (strategy 6) led to a significantly more
positive evaluation of the company than any of the other five strategies ( p , 0.001).
Finally, corporate social marketing (strategy 3) led to a significantly higher corporate
evaluation in the Indian group than corporate philanthropy (strategy 4, p , 0.05).

Table V. Dutch (n ¼ 95) Indian (n ¼ 95)

Mean scores reflecting Attitude to Purchasing Attitude to Purchasing
consumer responses to CSR strategy company intent company intent
the six CSR-based
marketing strategies, in 1. Cause promotion 4.06 (1.51) 3.58 (1.56) 4.85 (1.31) 4.21 (1.38)
terms of “attitude to 2. Cause-related marketing 5.47 (1.06) 5.02 (1.41) 5.51 (1.09) 4.85 (1.45)
company” and 3. Corporate social
“purchasing intent”, per marketing 5.33 (1.16) 4.68 (1.35) 5.48 (1.12) 4.71 (1.39)
nationality (Dutch, 4. Corporate philanthropy 5.25 (1.30) 4.60 (1.49) 5.18 (1.38) 4.24 (1.52)
Indian). (1 ¼ negative 5. Volunteerism 5.18 (1.34) 4.37 (1.53) 5.49 (1.32) 4.42 (1.56)
attitude, 7 ¼ positive 6. Socially responsible 5.67 (0.97) 4.96 (1.25) 6.06 (0.94) 5.35 (1.34)
attitude: SD in brackets) business
 Cross-nationally, independent t-tests showed significant differences in the effect of at CSR across
least some of the strategies on attitude to the company. Cause promotion (strategy 1) the globe
led to a significantly higher corporate evaluation by the Indians (M ¼ 4.85, SD ¼ 1.31)
than the Dutch (M ¼ 4.06, SD ¼ 1.51); t (188) ¼ 3.8, p , 0.001 (two-tailed). Similarly,
socially responsible business (strategy 6) evoked a significantly more positive
corporate evaluation among the Indians (M ¼ 6.06, SD ¼ 0.94) than the Dutch
(M ¼ 5.67, SD ¼ 0.97); t (188) ¼ 2.8, p , 0.01 (two-tailed). 367
6.2.2 Purchasing intent. With respect to purchasing intent, a significant interaction
was found between marketing strategy (six levels) and nationality: Wilks
Lambda ¼ 0.9, F (5, 184), F (5, 184) ¼ 5.14, p , 0.001, partial eta squared ¼ 0.12. The
main effect of strategy on purchasing intent was also significant: Wilks Lambda ¼ 0.54,
F (5, 184) ¼ 32.14, p , 0.001, partial eta squared ¼ 0.47. A subsequent one-way
(repeated measures) ANOVA showed significant effects for strategy on purchasing
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intent in both groups, i.e. for the Dutch and Indians, respectively: Wilks Lambda ¼ 0.45,
F (5, 90) ¼ 22.21, p , 0.001, partial eta squared ¼ 0.55, and Wilks Lambda ¼ 0.57,
F (5, 90) ¼ 13.37, p , 0.001, partial eta squared ¼ 0.43. In the Dutch group, pairwise
comparisons showed that Cause promotion (strategy 1, see Table V for means) led to a
significantly lower purchasing intent than cause-related marketing and socially
responsible business (strategies 2 and 6, p , 0.001). In turn, cause-related marketing and
socially responsible business (strategies 2 and 6) led to a significantly higher purchasing
intent than volunteerism (strategy 5, p , 0.05). In the Indian group, socially responsible
business (strategy 6) led to a significantly higher purchasing intent than any of the other
five strategies (6 . 1, 3, 4 and 5: p , 0.001, and 6 . 2: p , 0.05). In addition,
cause-related marketing and corporate social marketing (strategies 2 and 3) evoked a
significantly higher purchasing intent in the Indian group than corporate philanthropy
(strategy 4, p , 0.05).
Cross-nationally, the findings were similar to those found for attitude to the company.
Independent t-tests showed that cause promotion (strategy 1) led to a significantly
higher purchasing intent in the Indian group (M ¼ 4.21, SD ¼ 1.38) than in the Dutch
group (M ¼ 3.58, SD ¼ 1.56); t (188) ¼ 2.95 p , 0.01 (two-tailed). Socially responsible
business (strategy 6) also evoked a significantly higher purchasing intent in the Indian
group (M ¼ 5.35, SD ¼ 1.34) than in the Dutch group (M ¼ 4.96, SD ¼ 1.25);
t (188) ¼ 2.07, p , 0.05 (two-tailed).
Finally, paired sample t-tests showed that each of the six marketing strategies
evoked a significantly lower purchasing intention than mean attitude to the company
( p , 0.001); this was found to be the case for both nationalities.

7. Conclusions and discussion

The findings lead us to conclude that, with respect to attitudes to the four CSR platforms
(Carroll, 1979, 1991), attitudes seem to be largely similar across the two nationalities, in that
the ethical and legal platforms are seen as significantly more important by both Indians
and Dutch than the philanthropic and economic platforms. The findings for the Dutch are
similar to Maignon’s findings for French and German consumers; they expected companies
to conform to legal and ethical norms first and foremost (Maignan, 2001). Although no
comparisons can be drawn with findings from earlier studies on Indian consumers’
attitudes, the relatively low importance assigned to the philanthropic platform by the
Indians in the present study can be seen as surprising in light of the suggestion that society
 IJOA in emerging economies like India is likely to value discretionary (philanthropic) CSR more
21,3 highly than legal or ethical CSR (Visser, 2007). This suggestion is supported by accounts
and studies of CSR policy in Indian corporations which show that businesses mostly
engage – and emphasize in their corporate communications – philanthropic (i.e. corporate
giving and sponsoring) and altruistic, community-based (“People”) initiatives (Arora and
Puranik, 2005; Sagar and Singla, 2004; Muruganantham, 2010; Planken et al., 2010).
368 With regard to attitudes to different CSR initiatives, it can be concluded that Dutch and
Indians again seem to hold largely similar opinions, with environmental projects and
initiatives to improve employees’ working conditions, both reflecting ethical and legal
(“planet and people”) concerns, being ranked as relatively more important by a majority in
both groups, and donating to causes and sponsoring, reflecting a philanthropic platform,
being assigned relatively less importance by a majority in both groups. Here too, the
implication that Indians may assign relatively low importance to initiatives with a
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philanthropic orientation seems noteworthy in light of observations that Indian business

tends to prioritize such activities, no doubt to appeal to local stakeholders, meet their CSR
expectations and address their societal concerns (see also above).
With respect to consumers’ response to Kotler and Lee’s six CSR-based marketing
strategies, it can be concluded that some of the CSR-based marketing strategies influence
stakeholder outcomes differently, and that this is the case both within and across the
nationalities studied. The inferential statistics showed that the “blanket” strategy Socially
responsible business led to a significantly more positive attitude to the company in the
Indian group than any of the other marketing strategies, and to a significantly more
positive attitude to the company in the Dutch group than four of the five other strategies.
This same strategy led to a significantly higher purchasing intent than any other strategy
in the Indian group. In the Dutch group, both the socially responsible business strategy
and the cause-related marketing strategy led to a significantly higher purchasing intent
than the volunteerism strategy. Again, it seems worth noting that the corporate
philanthropy strategy led to a significantly less positive response from the Indian group
with regard to both attitude to the company and purchasing intent, at least in comparison
to how the Indians responded to some of the other marketing strategies. The cause
promotion strategy also led to significantly less positive outcomes compared to some of
the other strategies (and in both groups), notably with respect to attitude to the company.
For the Indians, “do good”, altruistic strategies – such as those generally pursued in
Indian business – do not necessarily bring about more positive outcomes, relative to the
other marketing strategies studied at least.
In sum, it can be concluded that stakeholders in the two countries investigated may be
more similar with regard to the importance they attach to different social responsibilities
and CSR initiatives than might be assumed on the basis of the literature on CSR in
emergent versus developed countries. Furthermore, the CSR platform prominently
pursued by Indian business (philanthropic) may not “match” local stakeholders’ societal
concerns and what they regard as important. Finally, CSR-based marketing strategies
seem to influence stakeholder outcomes differently both within and across the two
nationalities studied.
The findings overall seem to underline the importance of analyzing stakeholder
attitudes in different countries in the interests of creating effective CSR policy
communication that orients to CSR issues stakeholders regard as important and that
meets their CSR expectations (Maignan, 2001). Furthermore, they provide some
 indication that the CSR platform and CSR initiatives currently being pursued and CSR across
emphasized by Indian businesses might not meet (local) consumer expectations the globe
adequately, and that this in turn could have implications for the effectiveness of Indian
businesses’ CSR policy and CSR-based communications. At the same time, the findings
seem to suggest that stakeholders in developed and developing countries are perhaps
more similar in their attitudes to CSR than would be expected on the basis of earlier
studies and accounts (Arora and Puranik, 2005; Sagar and Singla, 2004; Jamali and 369
Mirshak, 2007).

7.1 Limitations and suggestions for research

This study is subject to a number of limitations. First, the period between the collection
of the two data sets coincided with a time of global economic upheaval. It is possible
that both nationalities were preoccupied by global events, with a corresponding effect
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on their CSR attitudes. They may have considered CSR as less of a priority in society,
given the economic downturn at the time of the survey. Second, although the sample
size (n ¼ 190) was adequate given the study’s exploratory nature, the sample
represents a restricted – namely highly educated-consumer segment.
This investigation is part of a larger project on the role of business ethics and on CSR as
a resource for managing stakeholder relations within emergent versus established
economies. It would be useful to supplement stakeholder surveys with experiments
targeting responses of primary stakeholders (e.g. consumers and employees) to CSR
information in, for example, corporate, product or recruitment campaigns (for an example,
see Nan and Heo, 2007). As both CSR policy orientation and stakeholders’ expectations of
that policy would seem to have a direct influence on attitudes, effect studies incorporating
these variables in particular provide a fruitful avenue for further research (see Smith et al.,
2007 for an example). More empirically supported insights into stakeholder expectations
and responses to CSR across cultures – particularly in emerging economies – are needed.
Such insights could ultimately inform internationally operating companies’ decisions
with regard to strategic emphases in CSR policy and with respect to targeted local
CSR-based campaigns that could effectively contribute to building a socially responsible
identity and stronger corporate-stakeholder relations, in the global arena.

Notes
1. For a more detailed discussion of the Indian data (Planken et al., 2010). As indicated in
Tables III and IV, the responses provided by some of the Indian respondents were missing and
could therefore not be included in the comparison with the Dutch respondents. The statistical
analyses of this data, however, compensate for this difference in response rates across the two
different groups.
2. Ethical platform, t (188) ¼ 5.95, p , 0.001: Legal platform, t (188) ¼ 3.02, p , 0.01:
Philanthropic platform, t (188) ¼ 4.45, p , 0.001: Economic platform, t (188) ¼ 4.62,
p , 0.001.

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 IJOA About the authors
Brigitte Planken is an Associate Professor in the Business Communication Studies department
21,3 and Centre for Language Studies at the Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. She is
involved in teaching courses on corporate social responsibility and in researching business
communication in intercultural contexts.
Catherine Nickerson is a Professor in the College of Business at Zayed University in the
United Arab Emirates. She has a special interest in corporate social responsibility and the use of
372 English as an international business language. At the time when this study took place, she was a
Visiting Faculty at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in India. Catherine Nickerson
is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: catherine.nickerson@zu.ac.ae
Subrat Sahu is an Associate Professor at the School of Petroleum Management, in
Gandhinagar in India. He has over 13 years of experience in both industry and academia. He has
published in the area of brand relationship management, consumer behaviour, CRM, partner
relationship management and corporate social responsibility.
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