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Doing Good When Times Are Bad: The Impact Of Csr On Brands During Recessions, Valerie Good

Peer Reviewed Articles

Purpose – This paper aims to determine what the brand performance consequences of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities would be during times of recession for well-known brands.

Design/methodology/approach – Based on signaling theory, this paper investigates if CSR activities serve to signal higher brand value for consumers via perceptions of better quality and greater differentiation, specifically during recessions. This study incorporates a representative longitudinal sample of known US firms for the analyses, which is accomplished through generalized method of moments estimations.

Findings – The findings empirically demonstrate that CSR initiatives during recessions are actually associated with increased perceptions of brand …