Corporate Credibility, Religion and Customer Support Intention toward Social Enterprises

Abstract

Social enterprise (SE) outputs are not merely a result of the social entrepreneur’s personal vision, but an accumulation of resources and support from multiple stakeholders, particularly customers. Although marketing communication studies have long established the effects of corporate credibility on consumer attitudes and behaviors, it is worth noting that corporate credibility comprises three distinct dimensions, namely trustworthiness, expertise and dynamism, which do not necessarily have equal levels of influence on the endogenous variables. Additionally, from a social entrepreneurship perspective, the relationship between corporate credibility and consumer psychology requires a deeper inspection because of the role of religion in charitable and care-giving activities. Most religions stress the importance of spirituality, which may override their concern with the business aspects of the SE. In other words, for religious customers, it is likely that trustworthiness has a higher influence on their attitudes and support intention than expertise and dynamism. These conceptual relationships among corporate credibility, religion and consumer psychology in social entrepreneurship are elaborat‐ ed in this article through a literature review, followed by the development of a theoreti‐ cal framework and its associated propositions. The article concludes with some implications for SE governance, distinguishing societies with different religious backgrounds.