Banks’ Corporate Social Responsibility Fit, and Customers’ Attitudes and Behaviors: Does Customers’ Quality of Life Matter?

Using a novel approach to customers’ quality of life research, this research considers quality of life, not as a customer and societal outcome of organizations’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities as it is often considered in marketing literature, but as a driver of customers’ response to organizations’ CSR initiatives. Focusing on the CSR attribute of fit, this study developed and tested two models that proposes CSR-fit’s indirect effect on customer-related outcomes through attitudinal loyalty, as moderated by customers’ self-perception of quality of life. In the first model, attitudinal loyalty is investigated as a mediator of the relationship between CSR-fit and cross-buying, before examining the interaction of CSR-fit, CSR support, and quality of life in predicting cross-buying through attitudinal loyalty. The second model explores CSR-fit’s indirect effect on customers’ advocacy through attitudinal loyalty, as moderated by customers’ self-perception of quality of life. In particular this relationship is investigated in commercial and microfinance banks, to cross validate the proposed relationships based on the distinct characteristics of both types of banks. Bank customers provided data to test the models via online and in-person surveys. The results from data analysis reveal that customers' perceived CSR-fit relationship with cross-buying behavior and customer advocacy is mediated by their attitudinal loyalty. Moreover, the conditional process analysis indicated that while CSR support strengthened the relationship of CSR-fit and attitudinal loyalty, quality of life weakened this relationship. In detail, in response to their banks' CSR-fit, respondents with high CSR support and perceived low quality of life were the most likely to be loyal and engage in cross-buying behaviors. The least, however, are those with low support and perceived high quality of life. Furthermore, for microfinance bank customers, the positive moderating effect of quality of life was in the relationship between CSR-fit and loyalty is only marginally significant. This doctoral study expands our knowledge of the intricate link between customer loyalty and CSR-fit perceptions; it expounds on the psychological contingencies of the relationship and its marketing implication in the banking industry. The practical and theoretical implications of the findings are also discoursed together with recommendations for future studies. Keywords: Cross-buying; CSR-fit; CSR Support; Quality of life; Customer Advocacy; Loyalty; Microfinance banks; Commercial banks; Retail banking industry.