AbstractsEconomics

The purpose of this thesis is to be able to conclude which of the two, cause fit communication or cause commitment communication, is the best strategy for companies to adapt when looking to reduce consumer skepticism when communicating their CSR. CSR is nowadays a core component in every business yet so many managers find it hard to justify because they do not reap the benefits from engaging in CSR (Porter & Kramer, 2006). CSR has to be communicated in order for companies to reap the benefits from their endeavors (McElhaney, 2009). However, when companies do this consumers tend to get skeptical about the CSR motives of the company, which results in companies not gaining any benefits from their CSR at all (Bhattacharya, 2010). To solve this problem, researchers have suggested many different communication strategies to reduce consumer skepticism when companies communicate their CSR. In this thesis we test the consumer skepticism reducinge ffects of Cause Fit Communication and Cause Commitment Communication to conclude which of the two is the most efficient at reducing consumer skepticism. To fulfill our purpose we have used a quantitative method and constructed a survey where we have asked people about their perception of different companies’ CSR communication when the companies used Cause Fit Communication or Cause Commitment Communication. The answers from the respondents were analyzed through which we could conclude which of the two strategies is better. From our findings it was very hard to conclude which of the two communication strategies was the best at reducing consumer skepticism. However, we could see that Cause Commitment Communication had the highest consumer skepticism reducing effects. After having conducted this research we truly believe that the two communication strategies can be just as efficient at reducing consumer skepticism as long as one follows the guidelines we have provided in this thesis.