Relationship between Social Responsibility with Ethical Reputation and Brand Equity; Mediating Role of Trust

Background: In today's competitive market place, corporate social responsibility has become an important issue for all stakeholders. On the other hand, factors such as customers trust, ethical reputation and brand equity are critical to company's success. So, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between social responsibility with ethical reputation and brand equity with analyzing the role of trust. Method: This research is an applied descriptive-correlation survey. The statistical population includes all of Asia Insurance Company customers in Khorasan-e-Razavi province, that 388 people were selected using available sampling method. The data collection tool was a standard questionnaire, which its validity was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis and reliability by Cronbach's alpha. The collected data were analyzed using structural equation modeling using SPSS and Lisrel. Results: The results show positive relationship between social responsibility with ethical reputation and brand equity. Also, with regarding trust, the relation severity was increased and its mediating role was confirmed. Conclusion: Trust of customers as a mediating variable has an effective role on ethical reputation and brand equity. So, initiative social responsibility practices should be taken in such a way as to create the trust of customers and ultimately would increase ethical reputation and brand equity.