Although narratives are an effective tool in areas such as health communication and public speaking, it is unclear whether narratives are more effective than traditional expositive messages in corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. This paper examined the effects of CSR messaging type (narrative message vs expositive message) to counter the influences of online skepticism from other users on social networking sites (SNSs) on customers' perceptions and evaluations of the company and its CSR efforts. It also investigates the moderation effects of the online skepticism source in the process.
Data were collected using a 2 (CSR messaging type: expositive vs narrative) × 2 (skepticism source: social ties presence vs absence) between-subjects online experiment. A total of 426 participants recruited from a Qualtrics research panel passed the attention check questions and provided useable questionnaires.
The expositive CSR messages are more effective in the presence of online skepticism to lower customers' negative word-of-mouth (NWOM)intentions and protect purchase intentions, regardless of the skepticism source. Additionally, expositive CSR messages can better protect customers' psychological and emotional connections with the company when the CSR efforts are challenged by customers' social ties. However, expositive messages do not differ from narrative messages in reducing customers' perception of egoistic motives and protecting positive attitudes.
This study showed that narratives lose their advantages over expositive messages in CSR communication on SNSs and highlighted the importance of aligning the communication channel and communication context in CSR communication.
