Proposing and Testing a Model of Corporate Social Responsibility as Consumer Marketing Derivative in Telecom Sector of Pakistan: A consumer Perspective

Abstract

Modern businesses are expected to be socially responsible regardless of their industry of operation or country of abode. The age of economic globalization, efficiency in information transfer, and the desire to make our world a more sustainable place of abode for everyone have all combined together to make it even more so. Interestingly, it has now become apparent that corporate entities in both developed and developing economies of the world are conscious of their social responsibilities to all their stakeholders. This is certainly a step in the right direction; our world can only be a better place for this generation and future generations of all living objects to exist in, if we all as individuals and corporate entities were to take issues relating to social responsibility very seriously. The objective of the present study is to assess the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, relevant towards the domain of consumer marketing in relation to telecom (mobile phone operators) service sector of Pakistan. An attempt has been made to highlight the importance of CSR proposition towards organizations that is by adopting and incorporating the CSR inventiveness‘s will enhance the organizations profitability, growth and sustainability in a more competitive and constructive manner and which will earn them a stronger corporate identity with socially and business responsive organization stance and in return can attain customer retention on consistent basis at a marketplace.

(v) This study contributes that corporate social responsibility has immense relationship in relation to consumer marketing. This study adds a fair understanding from theoretical perspectives that corporate social responsibility (Carroll‘s CSR strategies, economic, ethical, legal, and philanthropic) and contemporary stakeholder theory perspectives and stakeholder marketing perspectives are dependent on each other and directly proportional to consumer marketing. Any of the above perspectives cannot be implemented in isolation. A conceptual paradigm is being presented by incorporating the above perspectives and statistically tested. The results show positive outcomes that corporate companies (telecom mobile operators) by pursuing the given paradigm can enhance their profits, sustainability and growth. The present study registers that telecom mobile operator in Pakistan yet to comprehend the understanding of CSR phenomenon from business perspectives. The present study has proposed a CSR paradigm in relation to consumer marketing and further investigated that the existing Telecom mobile operators in Pakistan can create substantial opportunities through their consumer marketing strategies by incorporating the below propositions in relation to CSR (economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic) through direct and mediation constructs i.e., brand evaluations, word-of-mouth, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and marketing communication and Individual Consumer Characteristics having three dimensions i.e., (emotional, social and functional values). The investigation outcomes reveal positive connectivity among these constructs.