Una aproximación al tratamiento de la imagen y la comunicación en las empresas. Aplicación en los operadores de comunicaciones móviles

RESUMEN. En entornos competitivos los activos intangibles adquieren gran importancia. La imagen de la empresa, entendida como representación mental que influye en los comportamientos, debe ser convenientemente dirigida desde el interior a partir de dos elementos clave, la identidad y la comunicación. La importancia de esta variable se ha dejado sentir particularmente en el sector de las telecomunicaciones. A este respecto, los operadores de comunicaciones móviles no han sido ajenos a los cambios del entorno y han abandonado su orientación a la tecnología para instaurar nuevos valores, en los que prima el acercamiento al cliente y el establecimiento de relaciones, basadas en la confianza y en una buena imagen.ABSTRACT. In competitive enviroments the intangible assets acquire great importance. The image of the company, seen as a mental representation that influences the behaviour, should be managed by the company following two key elements: identity and communication. The importance of this variable has been specially felt by the telecommunication sector. Due to this, operations in mobile phones have realised that there have been changes in the enviroment and they have adapted their orientation to technology to come up with new values in which the customer and customer relations, based on trust and image, have taken prime position

How do consumers face the decision to buy fair trade products? A marketing approach

ABSTRACT: In this paper we propose and empirically test a causal model to understand how consumer social orientation, the credibility of non-profit organisations, perceptions of fair trade products, and attitude towards the fair trade brand interact and affect the buying intentions of fair trade products in a sample of 292 Spanish consumers. The model is built upon the fair trade marketing literature that has empirically explored consumer buying intentions. The findings show that consumer social orientation has the greatest effect on buying intentions, above consumer perceptions of fair trade products, the credibility of the trading non-profit organisations, and consumer attitude towards the fair trade brand. Actually, consumer attitude towards the fair trade brand has no significant effect on consumer buying intentions. The findings also demonstrate that the credibility of non-profit organisations only influences buying intentions indirectly through consumer perceptions of the functional utilities of fair trade products

Information and Knowledge as Antecedents of Consumer Attitudes and Intentions to Buy and Recommend Fair-Trade Products

The authors propose and empirically test a causal model to understand how the availability of fair-trade information and consumer knowledge about this issue affect consumers? attitudes and intentions toward fair-trade products. The model is built upon the attitude-behavior paradigm and the premises of agency theory. It is tested through structural equation modeling with a sample of 292 Spanish consumers. The findings are that consumers do not have good knowledge about fair trade and that this is significantly determined by the lack of information about this in the market. It is also observed that consumers? perceptions about the availability of fair-trade information have negative effects on their concern about this issue and that such information as is available is not effective in reducing consumer skepticism. The research represents an extension of previous fair-trade literature because the role of information and communication in improving consumer attitudes and buying intentions has rarely been explored in the case of ethical products

The role of brand utilities: application to buying intention of fair trade products

ABSTRACT: The authors focus on the ethical consumption and propose a model of buying intention of fair trade products, including the utilities of the fair trade generic brand as direct determinants. The authors measure the functional and symbolic utilities provided by this brand, together with the attitude towards the commercialising organisations, consumer concern and perceived knowledge about fair trade issues. The model is tested through a structural equation model on a sample of members (students, lecturers and staff) of a "Fair trade University". The results confirm that perceived functional utility is the most important antecedent of the buying intention, while the symbolic dimension has a significant but weaker explanatory power. Conversely, the consumer attitude towards the organisation has no influence. The authors also highlight the importance of communication and concern to stimulate consumer behaviour

Reacciones hacia la publicidad de responsabilidad social corporativa de entidades financieras

ABSTRACT: LCSR communication is necessary but it remains a challenge because of the potential scepticism that it can provoke in audiences. Along this line, this study analyses consumer reactions - in terms of beliefs (attributions), affects (emotions and attitudes) and behaviour - to CSR advertisements of financial entities with different social reputations. As a result, it was observed that reputation is a key variable, it explains differences in audience reactions, and it may condition the effectiveness of advertising.RESUMEN: La comunicación de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa (RSC) es necesaria, pero sigue generando dudas, por la suspicacia que puede provocar en la audiencia. En esta línea, este estudio analiza las reacciones de los consumidores, en términos de creencias (atribuciones), afectos (emociones y actitud hacia el anuncio) y conducta ante la publicidad de una causa filantrópica por parte de entidades financieras con distinta reputación social. Como resultado, se aprecia que la reputación es un elemento clave que explica diferencias en las reacciones de los públicos, y puede condicionar la efectividad de la publicidad de RSC

CSR communication and media channel choice in the hospitality and tourism industry

Despite extensive research on corporate engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR), studies on CSR communication in the hospitality and tourism industry are scarce. Deepening this line of research is necessary to understand properly the real effects of CSR communication on consumers' attitudinal and behavioral responses to companies. In this paper, we test a causal model of CSR communication for this industry based on the hierarchy-of-effects framework. Based on attribution theory, we also explore whether media channel choice affects consumers' perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions in the model. Performing an ANOVA test and multisampling structural equation modeling (SEM), we test our model of CSR communication with two samples that receive the same CSR information about a restaurant chain through a controlled media channel (i.e., corporate website) and a media channel that is uncontrolled by the company (i.e., online newspaper). We collected data from 226 and 240 participants, respectively. The findings suggest that the conceptual model is consistent across the two samples, although the media channel choice significantly affects the strength of several relationships in the model. While consumer?company identification is a stronger mediator in consumers' responses to the CSR message when read in the newspaper, trust is more important for consumers when they evaluate the corporate website. Nevertheless, both media channels report good business returns to the company in terms of consumers' purchase and advocacy intentions. These findings have relevant implications for hospitality and tourism companies, promoting the incorporation of both controlled and uncontrolled media channels into integrated marketing communication strategies

Understanding the buying intentions of fairtrade products based on consumer social orientation and their perceptions of trading organizations, products and the brand.

RESUMEN. La literatura previa en el ámbito del comercio justo ha proporcionado únicamente resultados parciales con respecto a los antecedentes que condicionan el comportamiento de compra de estos productos por parte del consumidor. El objetivo del presente estudio consiste en proponer un modelo integrador que explore las posibles relaciones entre los antecedentes de comportamiento más explorados hasta la fecha, a fin de determinar la relevancia real de todos ellos a la hora de configurar las intenciones de compra del consumidor. Con este objetivo en mente, se propone un modelo causal para entender las intenciones de compra de productos de comercio justo a partir de la orientación social del consumidor, su percepción sobre las organizaciones comercializadoras y los propios productos, y la actitud hacia la marca genérica. El modelo se testa empíricamente con datos recabados de una muestra de 292 consumidores españoles. Los resultados muestran que la orientación social del consumidor tiene el mayor efecto sobre las intenciones de compra, por encima de las características de los propios productos, la imagen de las organizaciones comercializadoras y la actitud del consumidor hacia la marca. De hecho, la actitud hacia la marca no tiene efecto significativo sobre las intenciones de compra del consumidor.ABSTRACT. Previous literature in the field of fairtrade has provided only partial results against the background of consumer buying intentions. The aim of this study is to propose an integrative model that explores the interactions that occur among the several variables that have been most frequently explored as antecedents of buying intentions. This is done in order to determine the actual relevance of all of them when setting consumer buying intentions. With this goal in mind, the authors test a causal model to understand buying intentions of fairtrade products based on consumer social orientation, perceptions of ONGs credibility, perceptions of product functional utilities and the attitude towards the generic fairtrade brand. The model is tested empirically with data collected from a sample of 292 Spanish consumers. The results show that consumer social orientation has the greatest effect on purchase intentions, above the functional utilities of the products, the image of trading ONGs and consumer attitudes toward the generic brand. In fact, the attitude towards the brand has no significant effect on buying intentions

Do all CSR news affect market value equally?

This research explores the effects that media coverage of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) news related to primary stakeholders (e.g., customers, employees and investors) and secondary stakeholders (e.g., community) have on the market value of companies, measured as the impact generated in the positive and negative abnormal returns for those companies

Maximising business returns to corporate social responsibility communication: An empirical test

ABSTRACT: Based on a classic conceptual model of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication, we developed an empirical research study to test how several aspects of CSR message content (i.e., issue importance, impact, motives, fit, commitment) are associated with external support responses (i.e., purchase, advocacy). We also tested the moderating role of stakeholder - and company-specific factors (i.e., issue support and industry, respectively) in the proposed model. Data were collected from 302 participants who evaluated the same CSR information displayed in the websites of a fictitious bank and a fictitious restaurant chain. The findings suggest that better perceptions on how the CSR message reinforces issue importance, corporate CSR impact and altruistic motives lead to higher purchase and advocacy intentions. CSR fit is related only to advocacy, while CSR commitment does not have any significant impact on participants' responses. Some new interdependence relationships are also identified among issue importance, motives, fit, and commitment. The moderating role of issue support and industry is confirmed

An empirical exploration of the link between reporting to stakeholders and corporate social responsibility reputation in the Spanish context

Based on the principles of stakeholder theory, this paper explores the relationship between (1) the information reported to stakeholders in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and (2) companies’ CSR reputation (CSRR). Design/methodology/approach. The paper implements two regression models to test how reporting to stakeholders influences the CSRR of 84 companies included in the Spanish “MercoEmpresas Responsables” reputation index. Findings.The results demonstrate that greater global reporting intensity to stakeholders does not necessarily mean a better CSRR. Contrarily, the reporting–reputation link depends on the intensity of reporting to specific stakeholders, such as investors, regulators and the media. The findings are explained largely by the institutional, political and business characteristics of Spain after the Great Recession of 2007-2008. Research limitations/implications. The evidence reported in this paper confirms stakeholder theory as an adequate framework to understand corporate reporting to stakeholders and its relationship with CSRR. The findings suggest that stakeholder salience (i.e., power, legitimacy and urgency) is a key concept for understanding the reporting–reputation link better in future research. Practical implications. In the light of the findings, companies willing to use reporting to stakeholders as a tool to improve CSRR should (1) establish regular mechanisms for monitoring stakeholder power, legitimacy and urgency, (2) provide complete information to investors in their CSR reports and (3) minimize the amount of detail provided to regulators and the media in their CSR reports. Originality/value. There is still little empirical evidence concerning how the information to stakeholders contained in CSR reports influences the processes by which CSRR is built or destroyed. This paper contributes to the previous literature by describing how the global intensity of reporting to stakeholders and the intensity of reporting to different stakeholder groups relate to CSRR