The double-edged sword of CSR communication: A cross-industry perspec...

Based on Du, Bhattacharya, & Sen’s (2010) CSR communication framework, this research aims to examine the industry’s effect on corporate social responsibility (CSR-)related internal outcome variables, namely attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the company, ad credibility and the level of CSR scepticism. Unlike previous research, this study was conducted as a 2 (industry: controversial vs. non-controversial) x 2 (type of CSR communication: push vs. pull) experiment. As was assumed, significantly less favourable values in terms of the outcome variables were observed when the message stemmed from a controversial industry. Further, the controversial industry’s push communication showed the least favourable results for all four outcome variables and further supports the idea of push communication being potentially harmful if the company stems from a controversial industry.