The importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for branding and business success in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in a business-to-distributor (B2D) context

Ben Youssef, K; Leicht, T; Pellicelli, M; Kitchen, PJ

Abstract

Integrating corporate social responsibility into brand positioning strategies has become a key concept for the brand marketing of many companies. There is a wealth of studies focusing on the effects of CSR for large international brands and companies operating in business-to-consumer markets. However, there is only limited empirical evidence about the relevance of CSR for sales and branding strategies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a business-to-distributor (B2D) context. Using a qualitative research design based on an exploratory case study approach, this paper therefore explores how CSR can be incorporated into the brand marketing strategy of a SME in the B2D sector and how CSR is evaluated in terms of brand perceptions and purchase intentions of business partners (n = 25). The findings suggest that although industrial buyers attribute a certain importance to CSR, product design and perceived product quality are nevertheless the main purchase reasons. The paper concludes with discussing practical and theoretical implications.

Citation

Ben Youssef, K., Leicht, T., Pellicelli, M., & Kitchen, P. (2017). The importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for branding and business success in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in a business-to-distributor (B2D) context. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 26(8), 723-739. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2017.1384038

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 15, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Oct 4, 2017
• Publication Date: Oct 4, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 24, 2017
• Journal: Journal of Strategic Marketing
• Print ISSN: 0965-254X
• Publisher: Routledge
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 723-739
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2017.1384038
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2017.1384038
• Related Public URLs: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjsm20/current