Consumer perceptions of company environmental requests : an experimental examination of hotel reuse programs

Abstract

Consumer response toward companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts has received much attention in the consumption context. However, little is known in the anti-consumption context. The present research studies one anti-consumption CSR program – reusing, which suggests that customers in a hotel use towels and linens more than once in order to reduce the use of fresh water and the generation of waste water. The impact of source credibility, argument strength, and fit on consumer response was assessed. It was found that a high credibility source (i.e., the hotel source) generated less egoistic attributions than a low credibility source (i.e., the Project Planet source). Regardless of the charity type, making a charitable donation can positively influence subjects’ attitudes toward the hotel and value-driven attributions, while negatively influenced egoistic attributions. Moreover, subjects’ perceived strong arguments positively influenced attitude, behavior intention, value-driven, strategic, and stakeholder-driven attributions, while negatively influenced counterarguments.