Science Research Management ›› 2022, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (8): 90-99.

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The influencing factors on the willingness to participate in virtual corporate social responsibility co-creation

Zhang Jiemei, Wang Hao   

  1. Business School, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, Henan, China
  • Received:2022-03-29 Revised:2022-06-07 Online:2022-08-20 Published:2022-08-22

Abstract:     In the digital context, enterprises continue to explore new ways to fulfill their social responsibilities, and encourage consumers to contribute to solving social problems by building scenes with digital technology. Virtual Corporate Social Responsibility Co-Creation (VCSRC) refers to the endeavors by enterprises in social media like Micro-blogs and WeChat public accounts to attract and involve customers in activities that fulfill their corporate social responsibilities. It can establish brand image, publicize corporate culture, establish a stronger relationship between customers and enterprises, and bring more considerable financial performance to enterprises in the future. Only by deeply understanding the driving factors behind customer participation and attracting customers to join, can enterprises make better use of VCSRC to provide development power for enterprises. Compared with the single participation form of traditional corporate social responsibility, customers, in VCSRC, can understand the activity content based on internet information, form a preliminary judgment on the activity itself, and know their subjective initiatives, which will have an impact on the subsequent participation behaviors. Therefore, the division of different types of customers′ perception and the analysis of psychological activities brought by perception can provide new ideas for the effective implementation of VCSRC and create sustainable competitive advantages.
    At present, the research on VCSRC mainly involves the direct driving factors of customer participation and the performance brought by participation in co-creation. In the digital environment, many enterprises have endowed customers with more rights to know so as to enhance their sense of control in co-creation activities. This mediating role of customer psychological empowerment in corporate social responsibility perception on willingness to participate has not been explored in previous studies. Hence, it is of theoretical and practical significance to discuss the impact of customer psychological empowerment. Based on previous studies, this paper further discusses the relationship between corporate social responsibility perception and willingness to participate by using data statistical analysis, and studies the mediating role of customer psychological empowerment and the regulatory role of corporate reputation, revealing the mechanism of corporate social responsibility perception on the willingness to participate in VCSRC.
    This study takes customer psychological empowerment (right to choose, right to know and influence power) as the intermediary variables to explore the mechanism of corporate social responsibility perception (interest perception, emotional perception and expectation consistency) on participation intention. Through empirical analysis, the paper concludes that interest perception has a significant positive impact on participation intention through right to choose, right to know and influence power; Emotional perception has a significant positive impact on participation intention through right to choose and right to know; Expectation consistency has a significant positive impact on participation intention through right to choose, right to know and influence power; Corporate reputation plays a positive role in perception of interests, right to choose and right to know; Corporate reputation only plays a positive role in emotional perception and right to choose; Corporate reputation plays a positive role in expectation consistency and right to choose,  in right to know and influence power.
    According to the three dimensions of interest perception, emotion perception and expectation consistency divided by previous research, this paper proposes, through empirical analysis, that in the digital environment, corporate social responsibility perception is the driving factor of customer participation in VCSRC, and that customer participation is the key to VCSRC and value realization. This paper enriches the theoretical system of customer participation in VCSRC, and also provides new ideas for enterprises to effectively carry out VCSRC. Secondly, this study enlarges the application scope of customer psychological empowerment, and confirms that customer psychological empowerment (right to choose, right to know and influence power) plays an intermediary role in the impact of corporate social responsibility perception on participation intention. It provides new visions for the research system of VCSRC, and provides strong guidance for enterprises to improve the activity mechanism according to customer psychological empowerment. Finally, through empirical analysis, it proves the regulatory role of corporate reputation in corporate social responsibility perception and customer psychological empowerment, further enriches the theoretical framework of VCSRC, and confirms the important role of corporate reputation in customer participation in VCSRC.

Key words: corporate social responsibility perception, virtual corporate social responsibility co-creation (VCSRC), customer psychological empowerment, willingness to participate