How perceived corporate social responsibility affects consumer citizenship behavior? Investigating the mediating roles of perceived employee behavior and consumer company identification

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the detailed mechanism through which consumer citizenship behavior gets affected by corporate social responsibility through perceived employee behavior and consumer company identification. Design/methodology/approach The study subjects data from cross-sectional survey of 405 retail store consumers to structural equation modeling. Findings The results indicate that consumer company identification plays a very crucial role as it mediates the effect of corporate social responsibility and employee behavior on consumer citizenship behavior. In addition, the results also indicate that corporate social responsibility perceptions lead to positive employee behavior. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature on consumer citizenship behavior by identifying and filling up two major gaps in the retail outlets' context: (1) the limited empirical investigation of antecedents of consumer citizenship behavior up to third-level (i.e. antecedent of antecedent of antecedent) (2) the lack of clarity on the exact mechanism through which perceived corporate social responsibility influences consumer citizenship behavior, and the role of consumer company identification as a mediator in this relationship.