Corporate Shared Value

: is this important? : a Millennial and Gen Z perspective

Abstract

Companies are engaging in a new way to address corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategically, by creating corporate shared value (CSV). Shared value differs from previous philanthropic social responsibility efforts because combines company competitiveness with social goals. This thesis aims to show what the consumers’ perspective of shared value is when compared with a philanthropic CSR initiative. Therefore, it tries to demonstrate if Millennials and Gen Z consumers react differently to a shared value program and to a corporate social responsibility initiative, by appraise the impacton consumer corporate evaluations, consumer loyalty, and purchase intention and if the motives attributed by consumers are different, accounting for the mediator role of motives attributed and the moderator role of commitment to the cause. A sequential mixed method was used, firstly using in-depth interviews, and then, was performed an online experiment asa research instrument. Findings show that these consumers attribute more value-driven and less egoistic-driven motives to a corporate shared value program than to a corporate social responsibility initiative, which is surprising considering that, even though the company improves competitiveness when helping, consumers do not perceive it in a more egoistic way when comparing to a philanthropic initiative. Additionally, these consumers attribute higher corporate evaluations and higher consumer loyalty to a shared value program, but the differences are not significant when considering purchase intention, which sheds light on existing literature. Value-driven motives have a mediating role, and commitment only moderates the relationship between action type and motives attributed on the low commitment scenario.

Date of Award	24 Jan 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Marta Bicho (Supervisor)