Impacts of Corporate Social Responsibility on casino employees in South Korea: Customer orientation, work engagement, and affective organizational commitment

Grounded in Social Exchange Theory, this study examines how casino employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) influence their customer orientation within the underexplored context of the casino industry, exploring the extent to which work engagement and affective organizational commitment mediate this relationship. Data were collected from 317 employees at Kangwon Land Casino in South Korea. Analyses included confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and the SPSS PROCESS macro (Model 4) to assess mediation effects. Findings show that CSR perceptions positively influence customer orientation, with affective organizational commitment and, to a lesser extent, work engagement acting as mediators. CSR was found to significantly enhance affective organizational commitment, indicating a strong emotional bond between employees and the organization, while its effect on work engagement was more modest. Ethical CSR emerged as the most influential dimension shaping overall CSR perceptions. The results support partial mediation by both affective organizational commitment and work engagement, highlighting their roles in linking CSR initiatives to employee customer orientation. This study is one of the first to explore the dual mediating roles of work engagement and affective organizational commitment in the CSR– customer orientation relationship within the casino industry. It contributes to the literature by shifting the focus from traditional financial or self-focused employee outcomes to customer orientation as a socially driven employee outcome influenced by CSR perceptions. The findings offer theoretical and managerial implications for designing CSR initiatives that strengthen employee commitment and enhance service delivery in high-intensity service environments.