An Empirical Study on the Relationship among Corporate Social Responsibility, Brand Image and Perceived Quality

Most of the present studies described corporate social responsibility as a holistic concept when investigating the relationship between corporate social responsibility and its outcomes. Few researches were done on the dimensions of corporate social responsibility and their effects. A fourdimension scale of corporate social responsibility is defined in this paper. They are economic responsibility, philanthropic responsibility, ethical responsibility, and legal responsibility. A conceptual model of corporate social responsibility, brand image and perceived quality is proposed. Using the data gathered through a survey on 449 consumers, the hypotheses are tested by structural equation model. The results show that these four dimensions of corporate social responsibility have different effects. Economic responsibility and philanthropic responsibility have significantly positive effect on brand image, and ethical responsibility has significantly positive effect on perceived quality, while legal responsibility has no significant effect on brand image and perceived quality. Meanwhile, brand image has significantly positive effect on perceived quality.