Wang Zhigang, Liu Xintao, Zhang Lei, Wang Chao, Liu Rui
Economics and Management School of Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan, China.
China Baowu Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., Wuhan, China.
Front Psychol. 2022 May 20;13:831197. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.831197. eCollection 2022.
Consumers may sense hypocrisy in corporate social responsibility (CSR) if they note inconsistency in enterprises' words and deeds related to CSR. This inconsistency originates from the intentional selfish actions and unintentional actions of enterprises. Studies have revealed that consumers' perception of hypocrisy has a negative influence on enterprise operation. However, studies have not examined how corporate responses to consumers' hypocrisy perception affect consumers' attitude and behavior. Therefore, the present study attempted to determine the measures that should be undertaken by enterprises to reduce consumers' negative response to them when consumers perceive them to be hypocritical. We conducted a situational simulation experiment to explore the effect of the match between corporate hypocrisy manifestation (moral hypocrisy vs. behavioral hypocrisy) and the corporate response strategy (reactive CSR communication vs. proactive CSR communication) on consumers' negative behaviors toward an enterprise and to test the mechanism influencing this effect. The results indicated that the interaction between the type of corporate hypocrisy and the corporate response strategy has a significant effect on consumers' negative behaviors toward an enterprise. Consumers' negative emotions have a mediating influence on the aforementioned effect. This study explored the response strategies of enterprises during a corporate hypocrisy crisis, classified corporate hypocrisy crises into two types (moral hypocrisy vs. behavioral hypocrisy) according to the different manifestations of corporate hypocrisy, and introduced situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) into research on corporate hypocrisy. The present results help expand knowledge on corporate hypocrisy.
如果消费者注意到企业在企业社会责任（CSR）方面言行不一，他们可能会感觉到企业社会责任存在虚伪性。这种不一致源于企业故意的自私行为和无意的行为。研究表明，消费者对虚伪性的认知会对企业运营产生负面影响。然而，研究尚未考察企业对消费者虚伪性认知的回应如何影响消费者的态度和行为。因此，本研究试图确定当消费者认为企业虚伪时，企业应采取哪些措施来减少消费者对它们的负面反应。我们进行了一项情景模拟实验，以探讨企业虚伪表现形式（道德虚伪与行为虚伪）与企业回应策略（反应性企业社会责任沟通与主动性企业社会责任沟通）之间的匹配对消费者针对企业的负面行为的影响，并检验影响这种效应的机制。结果表明，企业虚伪类型与企业回应策略之间的相互作用对消费者针对企业的负面行为有显著影响。消费者的负面情绪对上述效应具有中介作用。本研究探讨了企业在企业虚伪危机期间的回应策略，根据企业虚伪的不同表现形式将企业虚伪危机分为两种类型（道德虚伪与行为虚伪），并将情景危机沟通理论（SCCT）引入企业虚伪研究。目前的结果有助于扩展关于企业虚伪的知识。
