Linking corporate social responsibility to trust in the banking sector: exploring disaggregated relations
- 13 January 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Emerald in International Journal of Bank Marketing
- Vol. 39 (4), 592-617
- https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbm-04-2020-0209
Abstract
This paper has two purposes. First is to operationalise the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and trust in the context of a developing country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Second purpose is to test in a disaggregated perspective the impact of each CSR dimension on trust. Data were collected from 264 customers of six banks and processed with exploratory, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations using LISREL 9.1. CSR is found to have five dimensions: legal responsibility, social needs responsibility, product responsibility, environmental responsibility and employee responsibility; trust is found to be a three-dimensional construct: integrity, compassion and partnership. Each CSR dimension has a positive impact on customers' perception of trustworthiness. Reliability of trust is not high enough, suggesting the need to deepen research in order to find a more adapted CSR scale for banks. The smallness of sample size might have influenced the robustness of our psychometric results. CSR and trust relationships might be analysed in a more enriched framework including service quality, reputation and banks' employee performance as moderating variables. This paper has measured the two concepts from the customers' perspective only. However, both CSR and trust are best understood in a stakeholder perspective. So, it might be insightful to extend future research in a stakeholder orientation perspective. Banks from developing countries are also concerned with CSR and should invest in it. Clearly, each dimension of CSR should receive enough importance if Congolese banks are to recover their customers' trust. The findings of the study also suggest that banks' customers are aware of the necessity for banks to comply with the country's legislation. Non-compliance can have severe influence on customers' trustworthiness to banks. Financial institutions are generally evaluated through financial indicators. The findings suggest that banks customers and other stakeholders begin a shift towards requiring their banks to invest in social and environmental activities in order to improve their local milieu. These aspects are still very neglected, or adopted only as marketing strategies to improve image, without a true willingness to be socially responsive. The two concepts are measured in a context where they did not receive enough importance (developing country), hence providing new knowledge in the field. Further, a disaggregated approach allowed understanding the way each CSR dimension impacts trust, which had not been the case in previous research.Keywords
This publication has 82 references indexed in Scilit:
- Stakeholder Theory, Value, and Firm PerformanceBusiness Ethics Quarterly, 2013
- To Thine Own Self Be True? Employees’ Judgments of the Authenticity of Their Organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility ProgramJournal of Business Ethics, 2011
- Corporate Social Responsibility and the Benefits of Employee Trust: A Cross-Disciplinary PerspectiveJournal of Business Ethics, 2011
- Corporate social responsibility activity reportage on bank websites in GhanaInternational Journal of Bank Marketing, 2010
- Marketing's Consequences: Stakeholder Marketing and Supply Chain CSR IssuesSSRN Electronic Journal, 2010
- Best Practices in Credit Accessibility and Corporate Social Responsibility in Financial InstitutionsJournal of Business Ethics, 2008
- Rising to the challenge: How to develop responsible leadersLeadership in Action, 2007
- The Nature and Management of Ethical Corporate Identity: A Commentary on Corporate Identity, Corporate Social Responsibility and EthicsJournal of Business Ethics, 2007
- Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on Loyalty and Valuation of ServicesJournal of Business Ethics, 2005
- Corporate citizenship as a marketing instrument ‐ Concepts, evidence and research directionsEuropean Journal of Marketing, 2001