The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility Efforts on the Moral Behavior of High Self-Brand Overlap Consumers

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts are known to affect firm and societal outcomes, but little is known about their effects on consumer well-being. We address this research gap by investigating whether consumers who have integrated their self-schema with a brand's schema (i.e., high self-brand overlap consumers) vicariously balance their moral behavior against a brand's CSR efforts. Specifically, we propose that a brand's socially responsible behavior can negatively influence the moral behavior of high self-brand overlap consumers (vicarious moral licensing), while a brand's less socially responsible behavior can positively influence the moral behavior of these consumers (vicarious moral cleansing). Further, we do not predict or observe these effects among low self-brand overlap consumers, given their lack of psychological identification with the CSR brand. Across four experiments, we demonstrate the vicarious moral balancing effect and show process evidence for the potential role of pride (guilt) in driving vicarious moral licensing (cleansing) behaviors. Importantly, we also demonstrate two potential methods to eliminate the vicarious moral licensing effect when firms conduct CSR efforts.