Corporate social responsibility as a determinant of consumer loyalty: An examination of ethical standard, satisfaction, and trust Eunil Park a, ⁎, Ki Joon Kim b , Sang Jib Kwon c a Division of Culture, Media, and Design Technology, College of Computing, Hanyang University, ERICA Campus, Ansan, Republic of Korea b Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong c Department of Business Administration, Dongguk University, Gyeongju, Republic of Korea abstract article info Article history: Received 6 January 2016 Received in revised form 26 February 2017 Accepted 28 February 2017 Available online xxxx Factors promoting loyalty are of great interest to both academics and practitioners because consumer loyalty is a notable predictor of business success. This study identifies the congruency between consumer values and the goals of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and corporate ethical standards as the two main determi- nants of CSR quality and commitment. It further investigates how consumer perceptions of CSR shaped by these two factors increase loyalty. The results of structural equation modeling analysis (N = 931) reveal that higher ethical standards leads consumers to perceive that the company is committed to its CSR activities. The company's CSR commitment induces greater satisfaction with and trust in the company and its services, which then ulti- mately encourages consumers to remain loyal. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Corporate social responsibility Consumer loyalty Satisfaction Trust 1. Introduction As consumer loyalty plays an integral role in business success in competitive markets (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010; Oliver, 1999; Orel & Kara, 2014), ample studies have examined the various factors that mo- tivate consumers to remain loyal to a company's products and services. However, little emphasis has been placed on the effect of corporate so- cial responsibility (CSR) on attracting loyal consumers and increasing their number (Liu, Guo, & Lee, 2011). CSR typically consists of legal, eth- ical, and philanthropic responsibilities that represent the company's concern for society (Stanaland, Lwin, & Murphy, 2011), which also func- tions as a self-regulatory mechanism that monitors whether the compa- ny complies with these responsibilities. Applying this concept as one possible way to increase consumer loyalty, this study explicates how some of the determinants and outcomes of CSR influence loyalty in the retail industry. Earlier studies primarily investigated the role of CSR in improving fi- nancial performance and product evaluations by focusing on the corpo- rate perspective of CSR activities (McWilliams, Siegel, & Wright, 2006; Lee, Park, Rapert, & Newman, 2012). Although the importance of CSR in shaping consumer perceptions and valuations of a company is being increasingly recognized (Maignan, Ferrell, & Hult, 1999; Christopher & Luke, 2013), consumer awareness of CSR remains low, and companies frequently have unsatisfactory results despite the large amount of resources dedicated to their CSR activities (Lee et al., 2012). Therefore, companies and researchers should explore the factors associ- ated with consumer perceptions of CSR and investigate their role in shaping consumer loyalty. Accordingly, this study examines CSR from the consumer rather than the corporate perspective by focusing on the value relevance (i.e., fit between a consumer's values and CSR) and the ethical standards of CSR activities as the two main determinants of CSR quality and commit- ment. We predict that higher value relevance and ethical standards lead consumers to perceive that the company is committed to its CSR activ- ities, which, in turn, induces greater satisfaction with and trust in the company and its services. Consequently, consumers are likely to remain loyal to the company. 2. Literature review and hypotheses 2.1. Value relevance of CSR Human values are the foundation of individuals' thoughts and be- haviors (Schwartz, 1994). Values are built and strengthened by personal experiences and used as standard measures to evaluate particular ob- jects and people (Jansson, Marell, & Nordlund, 2010; Olsen, Thach, & Journal of Business Research 76 (2017) 8–13 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Division of Culture, Media, and Design Technology, College of Computing, Hanyang University, 55 Hanyangdeahak-ro, Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do 15588, Republic of Korea. E-mail address: pa1324@hanyang.ac.kr (E. Park). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.02.017 0148-2963/© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Business Research