The effects of power on consumers’ evaluation of a luxury brand's corporate social responsibility

Abstract

This paper examines how power affects consumers’ responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of luxury brands. The results of three studies show that high-power individuals evaluated a luxury brand's CSR campaign more positively than low-power individuals. High-power individuals viewed CSR activities as being more fluent than low-power individuals. This study further demonstrates that power influences consumers’ responses to nonluxury brand's CSR activities. Low-power individuals, who are more receptive to warmth, evaluated nonluxury brand's CSR more favorably rather than high-power individuals.