The effect of corporate social responsibility on corporate reputation and brand equity

Academic Thesis for Master's Degree

Field: Business Administration Major: Marketing

Abstract

Today, companies are increasingly under new attacks from disgruntled customers, grumpy employees, and in short, anyone with a personal computer and an incentive to destroy the company's reputation.  And due to the special features of the brand in the service sector, branding in the insurance sector has been considered as a special feature that creates significant value. Therefore, in this research, using the MC Williams model in 2006, we have examined the impact of corporate social responsibility on the brand equity and reputation of the company. The statistical population of this research includes all life insurance customers of social security insurance companies, Parsian, Shahr, Day, Razi, Saman, who have been active in the field of social responsibility. The total number of research samples is 384 customers. For sampling, the cluster sampling method and the available non-social method were used to select the samples. This research is applied in terms of purpose and its research plan is a descriptive survey that aims to match the results of fundamental research conducted in the field of brand equity and company reputation for use in the life insurance industry. In terms of collecting information, it is field type. The data collection tool was a questionnaire, and Cronbach's alpha was calculated to measure its reliability, and the data was analyzed using Lisrel software. The results of the hypothesis test indicate the confirmation of the research hypotheses. Key words: brand value, company reputation, customer satisfaction, corporate social responsibility, life insurance. Introduction. Speed ??is one of the signs of today's world. This progress, development and change has also been introduced in the principles of management and marketing. Today, many concepts of theories and general management literature have been revised and rewritten based on the customer. (Ayari, 1384, 11)

Nowadays, with the development of the concept of marketing and competition, commercial organizations, including insurance companies, have realized that in order to achieve their goals (survival) or go beyond it, they should seek to create competitive advantages. (Haidari, 2010) In today's competitive environment, organizations use any means to win and achieve ideal and attractive conditions. Paying attention to marketing activities as a tool to be present in the minds of customers and create an intellectual property called a brand is considered a new perspective in marketing science (Khalili, 1390). Basically, an organization is created according to public and social needs, and the basis of creating an organization is the need to produce goods or provide services to society. Therefore, neither the organization can separate itself from the society nor the society can live without the organization. One of the results of this inseparable relationship is that every decision and action of the organization affects the society in some way. The above influence makes the members of the society consider themselves as contributors to the performance of the organization and demand and audit the organization. (Emami, 89)

As companies with production and. They influence the society itself, the society requires the companies to feel responsible for their performance so that in addition to the production and desirable services, they also observe the social considerations. All the organizations that only weighed their profits and losses, under the pressure of people and similar organizations, their vision was slightly beyond the mere benefits of the organization. They were looking for activities that, in addition to benefiting the people, would create fame and prestige for themselves and leave a good image of themselves in the public eye. (Shajaei and Mashbaki, 89)

2-1 Statement of the problem

Today, companies are increasingly under new attacks from disgruntled customers, grumpy employees, and in short, anyone who is equipped with a personal computer and an incentive to destroy. Many companies have realized painfully, people using the weapon of new media and social networks can cause great damage to the reputation and credibility of organizations in the blink of an eye. Twitter, blog, Facebook, SMS, virtual petitions, video clips, etc.New potential threats are considered and organizations must learn how to defend themselves against these threats and deal with them. An organization may never be able to decisively win the reputation campaign and the battle is always ongoing, but organizations can protect their business against environmental turbulence by changing their mindset, using new tools and internal acceptance of the principles of the reputation campaign. (Makri, 2012)

During the last few decades, researchers and activists in the field of services have paid a lot of attention to the issue of brand. A brand has a value that exceeds the normal value of assets created by professional financial activities, which has led to a great deal of attention to brands in the service sector. Considering the special features of the brand in the service sector, branding in the insurance sector has been considered as a special feature that creates significant value. Therefore, many insurers are looking for brand development opportunities in order to gain more advantage from their current brand. These advantages include loyal customers, the ability to return quickly and face crises, and increase the effectiveness of marketing communications. (Keller, 2001, 1) Building a powerful brand in the market is the goal of many organizations. Financial experts are of the opinion that the brand can create more value than the conventional value. Today, brand is no longer just an efficient tool in the hands of managers. Brand is a strategic requirement that helps organizations to create more value for customers and also create sustainable competitive advantages (Keller, 1993). Successful brands increase trust in intangible products and services, and customers are able to better visualize and identify their services. Also, a high level of brand equity increases customer satisfaction, repurchase intention and loyalty level (Kim and Kang, 2008, 2). The special value of the brand indicates the added value that is given to the product by the brand name. (Farquhar, 1989) Brand equity has a positive effect on sustainable competitive advantage, marketing success and stock price. (Lane and Jacobson, 1995) Brand equity can be examined from two behavioral and perceptual dimensions. In this study, due to the weak relationship between corporate social responsibility (Csr) and behavioral variables, we have examined the issue from the perceptual dimension. is Satisfaction is the degree of performance that meets customer expectations. If the service provider does not act in accordance with the customer's expectations, a relationship does not continue. Mechanize and Olshawsky Crosby and others state that satisfaction includes the evaluation of the quality of all previous interactions with the service provider (Oliver 1992). Because organizations and companies have a major impact on their social system, their activities should be such that they maximize the positive effects of their activities and minimize their negative effects, and as an influential member of society, they are concerned. (Salehi Amiri, 1387, 131)

Corporate social responsibility emphasizes responsibility and accountability as the basis and basis of an organization's behavior in society, and oversees how to conduct responsible business along with the production of wealth. It is the social needs of society that define economic markets. Economic enterprises are responsible for all stakeholders and the stakeholders include customers, employees, the organization itself, consumers, the environment, the local community, neighbors, the university and the economy of that nation. (Kazemi, 1391)

Corporate social responsibility (Csr) can link social features with the company brand to differentiate a product or service. In other words, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is strategically linked with product differentiation and more than that with brand differentiation. (Varadarajan and Menon, 1998) A company can use corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities as a mechanism to introduce its interesting features to stakeholders. (Fombrun, 2005).

Several reasons have been stated in the brand related literature for the growth of branding in the insurance industry. From the client's point of view, the reduction of perceived financial and non-financial risks and research costs are among the key benefits. In the case of brand owners, the key issue is the ability to offer more appropriate prices compared to competing services, the ability to gain more market share, the ability to retain customers by creating brand loyalty and reducing marketing costs.