In my master’s thesis, I examined corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSI), and their impact on consumer trust. I was interested in how CSR and CSI practices influence trust, and how consumers respond to companies that exhibit both types of
behavior simultaneously. A key insight from my theoretical review is that CSR and CSI are not mutually exclusive concepts, they can coexist. This means a company can engage in socially responsible initiatives while also displaying irresponsible behavior. Consumer trust was the central variable in my research. Importantly, consumers react based on their perceptions rather than the actual social (ir)responsibility of companies. In the empirical part of the thesis, I used three fictional scenarios, one depicting a CSR-oriented company, one showing a CSI-oriented
company, and one describing a company with mixed practices. I examined how consumer trust varied depending on perceived company behavior. The results showed that trust was highest in the CSR scenario, lowest in the CSI scenario, and moderate in the mixed scenario. Notably, the negative impact of CSI on trust was stronger than the positive impact of CSR. This suggests that even a few irresponsible actions can significantly undermine trust, despite the presence of
positive initiatives. This effect is due to negativity bias, where negative information has a stronger psychological impact than equally intense positive information.
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