International Journal of Business and Management; Vol. 11, No. 7; 2016 ISSN 1833-3850 E-ISSN 1833-8119 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 211 Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumer Buying Behavior in Emerging Market: A Mixed Method Study Irfan Butt 1 1 College of Economics & Political Science, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman Correspondence: Irfan Butt, P.O. Box 50, Al Khoud, Muscat 123, Oman. Tel: 968-2414-1971. E-mail: irfanb@squ.edu.om Received: May 7, 2016 Accepted: May 19, 2016 Online Published: June 18, 2016 doi:10.5539/ijbm.v11n7p211 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v11n7p211 Abstract A number of companies are involved in various social responsibility programs aimed at increasing consumer trust in their services and improve overall image of the firm. This phenomenon is prevalent in developed world but is still new in emerging economies. In a developing country like Pakistan, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is affected by various factors. The purpose of this mixed method study is to examine key antecedents to consumer responses to CSR to determine a link between CSR activity and consumers’ responses to such actions. After a qualitative study, a pre-tested structured questionnaire was administered to 224 respondents. The constructs were validated using confirmatory factor analysis and regression analysis was conducted to test hypotheses. It was found that purchase intention was impacted by perceived CSR which was positively influenced by awareness while trust played a pivotal role as a mediator between CSR and purchase intention. Surprisingly, religiosity was not significantly related to CSR. The study was conducted using a hypothetical company; however more insight might be gained if the company name was used since certain consumer patterns are brand specific. Keywords: CSR, trust, purchase intention, awareness, religiosity 1. Introduction Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an important topic in both academic literature and business world in the past two decades (Fatma & Rahman, 2015). The role of CSR in influencing perception and attitude has been debated both in the academia and practitioner domain (Rahman & Norman, 2016). It is stated that CSR positively influences firm’s financial performance (Weinzimmer & Esken, 2016), supports its share prices (Cochran & Wood, 1984), shores up its market values (Mackey et al., 2007) and provides competitive advantage (Diddi & Niehm, 2016). Also, consumers now want companies to behave ethically in addition to providing quality product at a lower price (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2004). Robinson et al. (2012) found that likelihood of the product purchase increased when consumers were given the option to support a social issue through the purchase of a product. Crowther (2004) is of the view that companies can “derive enormous benefits if they are perceived to be socially responsible by their stakeholders”. Sen and Bhattarchariya (2004) attested that among all the stakeholders of a company, consumers are most influenced by the social initiative undertaken by a firm. There has been significant growth in the publication of studies on CSR in last five years; however, most of the studies were conducted in developed countries focusing on Western context (Fatma & Rahman, 2015). Thus, the impact of CSR in developing nations has remained largely unexplored. In fact, Kolk et al. (2015) established that constructs developed in the West are not applicable the same way in China, and suggested that there is a need to focus on non-Western countries. Feldman and Vasquez-Parraga (2013) state that research on CSR might be reaching maturity, but consumer responses to CSR activities are not well researched. They claim that findings from studies examining the relationship of consumer responses to CSR activities are still debatable. Some studies indicate a clearly positive relationship between consumer responses and firm’s CSR actions (e.g., Carvalho et al., 2010; Ellen et al., 2006; Smith & Langford, 2009) and others report that this relationship is “not always direct and evident” (e.g., Fatma & Rahman 2015; Fatma et al., 2015; Valor, 2008). The results from surveys investigating the relationship between consumer responses to CSR actions have failed