Responsibility in Corporate Reputation

This thesis aims to provide an insight regarding the influence different CSR practices have on the corporate reputation from a consumer perspective. This research analysed six different types of CSR by first dividing the concept into economic, legal, and ethical responsibilities, and then creating both positive and negative stimuli in each of the three domains. Using an online experiment performed among students, this study aimed to create a deeper understanding of the effects of CSR on corporate reputation. The findings show that economic, legal, and ethical CSR practices lead to equally strong corporate reputations. Furthermore, the findings show that legal and ethical CSR practices lead to a corporate reputation that is built from the idea that the company is responsible, whereas economic CSR practices lead to the perception that the company is a good performer. Finally, the findings indicate that the effects of bad CSR practices are not directly opposite to positive CSR practices. The evaluation of the company after a negative CSR practice is different on more attributes than the evaluation after a positive CSR practice, indicating that the horns effect of negative CSR is stronger than the halo effect of positive CSR.