NEGATIVE CSR INFORMATION IN THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY HAS MORE EFFECT ON STAKEHOLDER ATTITUDES AND PREFERENCES THAN POSITIVE CSR INFORMATION

Tampubolon, Alfa Maria ; Soetarto, Dyah Paramitha Hastarini (Adv.: Mignon van Halderen and Guido Ber, Mignon van Halderen and Guido Berens

2013 | Skripsi | S1 Business

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) telah mengambil peranan penting dalam dunia bisnis saa ini. Banyaknya perusahaan-perusahaan yang telah menggeser fokus perusahaan saat ini. Namun demikian seberapa efektif nya informasi mengenai CSR dalam realita dan bagaimana ihal itu mempengaruhi sikap pemangku kepentingan dan pengambilan keputusan ? Beberapa jenis penelitian telah diadakan untuk menelaah lebih lanjut akan hal tersebut. Banyak pihak telah menyimpulkan bahwa informasi jelas mempengaruhi sikap pemangku kepentingan pada pengambilan keputusan. Dalam jaman yang berkembang dengan duni internet dan media, konsumen memiliki akses yang sangat luas untuk mendapatkan informasi. Makadari itu, pertanyaan muncul apakah perusahaan harus memperdulikan dan mementingkan informasi CSR terutama informasi negative terhadap perusahaan yang akan mempengaruhi proses pemngambilan keputusan pemangku kepentingan. Beberapa penelitian oleh Folkesand Kamins (2009), dapat menyimpulkan bahwa informasi negative memiliki pengaruh yang jauh lebih besar daripada informasi positif CSR. Selama beberapa tahun terakhir para penelitu telah menguji hipotesis ini dan belum ada yang mampu secara detil mendeskripsikan dan mencari penyebab hal ini. Maka dari itu penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menyempurnakan hal yang belum terjawab pada penelitian sebelumnya, dengan menggunakan proposisi : Informasi negaif CSR pada industry otomotif memiliki pengaruh yang lebih besar dari pada informasi positif.




Kami menguji proposisi uini dikalangan remaja (pelajar dan pegawai antara umyr 1-50 tahun) di area Eropa, Amerika Utara, dan Asia. Masing masing subjek di tes secara acak dan menggunakan peraga artikel untuk mengungkapkan informasi postif dan negative tersebut. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah informasi negative memiliki dampak yang signifikan bagi sikap pemangku pekepntingan dari pada informasi yang positif.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is playing an increasingly important role in todayÂ’s business world. More and more companies are shifting their focus on this particular topic. But how effective is CSR information in reality and does is contribute positively to stakeholder attitudes and preferences? Various studies over the years attempted to disclose the effect of CSR information on customer preferences. Many concluded that CSR information does indeed have an impact on customers. In the light of the development of the Internet and media over these decades, customers have access to an abundance of information. Therefore, the question arose if companies should focus on preventing negative CSR information or focus on creating more and more positive CSR information. Does negative CSR information have a larger impact on customer attitudes and preferences? A couple of studies, which includes one particularly important study by Folkes & Kamins (2009), were able to prove that negative CSR information does have a larger impact on customer attitudes than positive CSR information. Over the course of time, various researchers have tested this hypothesis in different industries and the results varied significantly. However, to our knowledge, there is no research that specifically deals with this topic within the automotive industry. Therefore, this research aims to fill this gap. Our study will therefore test the following proposition: Negative CSR information in the automobile industry has more effect on customer attitudes than positive CSR information.




We tested this proposition among adults (students and employees between the ages of 18-50) in area of Europe, North America, and Asia. Each of the test subjects was randomly assigned an article, which exposed them to positive, negative and neutral information about a fictitious car company. The dependent variables being tested for customer attitudes included purchase intention, loyalty and word of mouth. The test results validated that negative CSR information does indeed have a large impact on customer purchase intention than positive CSR information. The conclusions have significant managerial implications. Car companies have to realize that including the information from this research in their strategy could be very valuable and can prove to be very profitable in the future. In the end, companies that manage to adapt to their customers wishes and create a more sustainable environment while at the same time embracing the validated findings on this topic and creating a solution to deflect and nullify negative CSR information will become the clear winners in the automobile industry.

Kata Kunci : Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), customer preferences, sikap pemangku kepentingan dan pengambilan keputusan