The moderating influence of consumer demographics on the relationship between perceived CSR AND brand loyalty in the Romanian retail banking sector

摘要

The current research investigates the moderating infl uence of consumer demographics on therelationship between customers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and theircorporate brand loyalty towards retail banks in Romania, a typical developing country and one ofthe largest countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The investigation is based on data collectedwithin a survey conducted among a sample of 1,449 Romanian retail banking customers, basedon a questionnaire including a specifi c set of items drawn up from the literature, intended to refl ectcorporate brand loyalty, as well as perceptual CSR dimensions, from a sustainable developmentand stakeholder-based perspective. After an exploratory factor analysis, the observed variableswere grouped into several latent variables regarding perceived CSR and brand loyalty and, furtheron, these were included into a multiple regression model which was tested comparatively withinvarious sample groups generated based on consumer demographics variables. The resultsemphasize several signifi cant dissimilarities between gender, age, education and residence typebased consumer segments in what concerns the impact of various CSR dimensions, as perceivedby customers, on brand loyalty towards corporate brands in the banking sector. Thus, brand loyaltyis signifi cantly infl uenced by: perceived responsibility towards the environment – only in the caseof female, younger and/or higher educated customers; perceived responsibility towards publicauthorities – only in the case of customers who are male, older, less educated and/or residingin larger cities; by perceived responsibility towards shareholders – only when for customers whoare older, higher educated and/or residing in larger cities. The fi ndings have practical implicationsfor enhancing corporate brand loyalty in the regional retail banking sector market by outliningthose CSR policies, actions and attitudes which should have priority within local banks’ marketingcommunications.