Co-creating a CSR Strategy with Customers to Deliver Greater Value

Abstract

A CSR strategy that delivers social value to the community, altruistic value to the customer, and value to the firm undertaking the program has the potential to ensure long-term commitment by firms to invest strategically in CSR. In further exploring the relationship between stakeholder management and CSR, co-creation and customer engagement is receiving a lot of attention within the discipline of Marketing, and extending this to thinking about how customers can act as a useful resource for, and be truly engaged in addressing social issues is an exciting direction. The development of the Preference, Engagement, Loyalty Model answers three critical questions—customers prefer firms address social issues which are aligned with their core purpose; customers are willing to be engaged in addressing the social issue, and if engaged, customers will be more loyal to the firm. Customer engagement was found to be a full mediator of the relationship between CSR issue preference and loyalty. These findings are significant. For organisations investing in a CSR program, adoption of the Preference, Engagement, Loyalty model demonstrates an opportunity for firms to not only deliver social benefit to the community, but to also use the program as a co-creation platform with their customers to achieve greater loyalty. Educators must embed the concept of engagement and co-creation within the teaching of CSR, and future research should further explore the relationship between societal marketing and engagement.