"Sustainability & Corporate Brand Equity through Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives"

Headnote

Abstract

"The best Way to build strong positive image engenders through acquaintances with society by Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives."

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an area so dynamic & so effervescent that prompts and inspires for a variety of studies to be carried out .This study tries to explore the positive implications of CSR initiatives on brand equity and its significant enhancement towards meeting sustainability issues. It is hereby an attempt to find a solution to the subject matter evolved, that, does corporate social responsibility improves corporate reputation and leads to its brand equity?

The research aims to spot out CSR as a unique framework that endows its overall impacts on corporate reputation through provision of developed brand equity. Moreover, what are the relationships between mediating effects of corporate sustainability through CSR implications. In addition, does corporate reputation or brand equity has relationship between CSR and brand performance?

The present research proposes "corporate branding & sustainability" through integration of the fragmented CSR literature and there after incorporating disjointed sustainability literature. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a great positive impact on consumer behavior, but even then pity lower was known about these effects (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001).

The inadequate amount of research on CSR and consumer behavior till today has recommended that CSR affects consumers both directly as well as indirectly, through company evaluations and purchase intentions, but the effects are much diverse (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001).

Researches into trust specifically in context of brand is limited (Delgado-Ballester, 2004) and the relationship particularly between CSR and brand trust is yet to be investigated. This study tries to analyze the implications of CSR building up the Brand trust & shall identify the ways through which strong positive bond of CSR & Sustainability could be built up.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Sustainability, Brand trust, Brand Equity, Brand Performance, Corporate Branding & Corporate Reputation.

Introduction

In modern-day society, customers are progressively more savvy (Miller, 2008) concerning the touted trustworthiness of corporate brands. Brand managers are incapable of dictating the needs of consumers, as an alternative managers need to be amenable to the sprouting needs of stakeholders, and practically proactive in addressing these demands to preserve and maintain a strong market position (Low and Fullerton, 1994).

Corporate...