The mediating role of employees' csr-induced attributions in the relationship between perceived corporate behavioral integrity and affective commitment: A study in hotels

Due to its positive effects on stakeholders' attitudes and behaviours toward to company, the strategic importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in tourism industry is increasing gradually. Stakeholders' positive feedbacks on these practices motivates businesses to maintain these activities. However nowadays using these practices as marketing tool and demonstrating inconsistent corporate behaviours cause making comments about its underlying motives. Therefore, stakeholders are more interested in why these activities are done rather than what social responsibility activities are carried out. That is to say, they look for answering the question of businesses' real motives about doing these practices. At this point, they make substantive and symbolic attributions to the CSR activities carried out by hotel enterprises. Current study investigate the mediating role of employee-CSR induced attributions (substantive and symbolic) in the relation between perceived corporate behavioral integrity and affective commitment. Data collected via questionaire. 499 questionaires collected through face- to-face and drop-collect method. The model tested via confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. As a result of analysis, employees' perceptions of corporate behavioral integrity have positive effect on substantive CSR-attributions and affective commitment, have a negative effect on symbolic CSR-attributions. Besides, employees' affective commitment is positively effected by substantive-CSR attributions and negatively by symbolic CSR-attributions. Lastly findings support the mediating role of employees' CSR-induced attributions in the relation between perceived corporate behavioral integrity and affective commitment. Based on findings, a number of recommendations have been developed for practitioners and subsequent researchers.