Meta-Analysis on the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives on Consumer Attitudes and Behavior

The present research conducts a thorough meta-analysis to better understand the relationship and magnitude of the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives on consumers’ behavior and attitudes, including multiple moderators (e.g., type of CSR initiatives, type of industry, and country development level). Data comprises 744 effect sizes, extracted from 165 research articles encompassing 67,270 participants. Altogether, the findings reinforce the importance of CSR to consumers, suggesting that companies benefit from incorporating CSR initiatives in their business practices, having a positive effect of medium magnitude when no specific moderators are considered in the analysis ( r = .38; linear models = .25; correlations = .44). However, findings also indicate that when considering specific moderators (e.g., country development, industry type, and cultural characteristics) and consumer responses type (e.g., attitudinal vs behavioral), this magnitude can differ significantly, providing evidence that consumer engagement in CSR activities is multifaceted and does not always translate into the expected outcomes. JEL CLASSIFICATION : M140, M310