Will CSR pay in the financial sector? An empirical study of a commercial bank's CSR orientation, corporate reputation and customer loyalty in western China

摘要

With globalization, commercial banks are facing increasingly strong competition, and their success now depends less on their hard power, but more on such soft powers as product ideas and moral orientation. Consequently, how to win customer with higher service quality, and to maintain and enlarge customer groups, becomes a central issue for them. By way of a customer questionnaire, this paper investigates the relationship between commercial bank's CSR orientation, reputation and customer loyalty. By analyzing a sample of 216 customers from a commercial bank's 12 sub-branches in western China, the paper finds that a commercial bank's CSR orientation is significantly correlated to its reputation and customer loyalty, and that its reputation mediates CSR orientation's impact on its customer loyalty. To realize a differentiated competition, commercial banks are advised to better concentrate on their CSR efforts, and engage in such sustainable efforts as social enterprise, green finance and sustainable finance, so as to enhance their reputation and customer loyalty.