Corporate social responsibility

CSR is defined as an enduring assertion by businesses to behave humanely, contribute to local economic growth, and improve the quality of life of company employees and their families, as well as other members of society at large19. The concept of sustainable development mainly refers to the macro level (generally) of the whole economy and society, while the concept of CSR emphasizes the medium level (organizations and stakeholders) related to the organization, which are parties who are related to each other through commitment or non-commitment to work together constructively to achieve harmonious and sustainable development20. However, the definitions of CSR mainly describe a phenomenon, not showing the challenges in the phenomenon and how to deal with it; In fact, businesses all agree that CSR is an important factor, but there is a lack of measurement in each actual condition and a lack of plans to apply CSR to business development strategies of enterprises21.

The measurement of CSR often has two schools. One considers it as a variable22 whereas another considers it as a quadratic variable including CSR variables and internal variables. There is no consensus on how to measure these variables but only relies on macro-impact theories to explain23. Building CSR strategies based on sustainable development theory makes this concept more tangible and easier to evaluate for customers24. Accordingly, CSR is a quadratic structure with components consisting of economic, social, and environmental responsibility. Although the scope of sustainability initially covered environmental issues, it has been expanded to include social and economic issues as well.

Brand equity

Aaker25 defines BE as a set of values associated with a brand's name or symbol, and these values will be added to a product or service to add value to the people involved. The above understanding of BE is used in this study because it shows a full appreciation for the brand and is especially easy for customers to understand.

One school says that the BE should be measured through financial indicators, in which brand equity is considered as a separate asset to estimate the value of the brand. BE can be used as a basis for internal performance measures or external consolidation plans26. The second school measures BE through customers who directly perceive products and services. The association and perception of customers towards a particular brand will add value to the product27.

Keller28 focuses only on the perceptual property of BE and defines it as the difference in the impact of brand knowledge on consumer (after service) response compared with the marketing of the brand. Aaker 25 combined both behavioral and perceptual approaches to build a set of measures of BE. The aggregation of behavioral and cognitive variables shows that this is a more appropriate measure to measure BE because the brand itself will also add value to the product or service. However, it has not been shown to be effective in looking at the causal relationship between CSR and BE29. Meanwhile, most studies accept equity as a multidimensional concept that includes four main components: brand awareness, brand image, perceived quality, and brand loyalty 30.

CSR and BE relationship

CSR has been proven as an important resource for the development of BE in businesses. Lai et al.31 demonstrated that from the customer's point of view, CSR and the corporate reputation of a company could affect the BE in the market. Liu et al.32 suggested that brand preference could be enhanced by CSR to varying degrees depending on whether the responsibility that the company focuses on is economic, environmental, or social. Research conducted by Rahman et al11 argued CSR is a source of intangible competitive advantage through the impact of CSR on brand value. Their research emphasized the importance of linking CSR with corporate strategies to realize the full potential of CSR to BE. In addition, Guzzo et al.33 confirmed that the lack of CSR implementation led to the low level of BE of small and medium enterprises. Therefore, it can be affirmed that CSR has a direct impact and enhances the BE when properly and adequately invested.

Customer trust in the relationship between CSR and BE

The regulatory intermediary mechanism that governs the relationship between CSR and BE is still a big research gap, especially in determining the role of stakeholders, where the customer is an important factor. Rashid34 argues that customer-oriented CSR focuses on satisfying customer satisfaction, mainly bringing benefits to customers in terms of services and concerns about their society and community. Theoretical and practical studies also prove that CSR affects BE through an intermediary mechanism such as customers35. Consumers as key stakeholders need to be considered when assessing the impact of CSR on BE36. Many factors are considered to belong to customers, but it can be seen that experience and a positive attitude are important factors in this relationship. Fatma et al.37 shows that CSR affects BE through the mediating role of customer trust.

Customerparticipation in the relationship between CSR and BE

Besides the direct relationship, the relationship between CSR and BE is also affected by intermediate factors, although there is no consensus34. Moisescu 38 argued that stakeholders also had a clear impact on this relationship. The customer here is the direct involvement of the customer should be considered when assessing the impact of CSR on constituting brand equity36. Fatma et al. 37 showed that CSR indirectly affected corporate reputation and BE through the mediating role of brand trust. Most CSR literature focuses on corporate involvement while ignoring consumer involvement in CSR, despite the fact that an increasing number of companies are launching initiatives to allow consumers to participate in their CSR activities, thereby enhancing the effects of CSR on the BE of companies33. The inconsistency in the mechanism and related results requires a specific study on the relationship between CSR and BE with the participation of customer intermediaries and customer participation39.

Research hypothesis

Prior studies found that CSR practice can enhance BE40, which in turn plays a regulatory role in promoting corporate brand performance and brand value41. A company's brand is formed from its ethical conduct, and this is an important factor in determining the value of corporate BE42. Corporate branding can also be derived from CSR activities, and CSR itself is an important factor in developing the BE value of a company's business arising from CSR activities that create a key element in BE43. Martinez & Nishiyama14 shows that CSR can enhance brand awareness in the hotel sector. Evidence is also provided by Kang & Namkung44, and confirms a positive relationship between CSR and brand awareness, especially when consumers follow ethical consumerism. CSR activities provide valuable content for brand associations because they connect companies with ethical values ​​such as honesty, respect, or sustainability14.

H1. Dimensions of CSR (economic, environmental, social responsibility) positively and directly affect the components of BE (brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, perceived value and brand loyalty).

Trust is a key factor in creating and developing long-term relationships between members. In business relationships, it is the relationship between the company and its customers45. Consumers will either provide a standard of reliability (after using the service) or provide a standard of expected reliability (before using the service) to be able to assess their trust. their services to a business that provides their services 46. If customer evaluations of service providers (in this case, hotel businesses) are relatively objective and fair, and these concerns are noted and positive feedback is provided to customers, it will help improve customer confidence in the hotel business47. According to Shulga et al.46, trust is the result of a relationship between an organization (business) and an individual (customer), which is identified as having a positive impact on this relationship and has the potential to reduce business risks and reduce service perceived uncertainty for the hospitality industry.

H2. Customer trust fully mediates the relationship between CSR (economic, environmental, social responsibility) and BE (brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, perceived value and brand loyalty).

Consumer participation is currently of wide interest in marketing, especially for advertising strategy 48. In essence, relevant consumers will get stronger predictive effects of CSR for a brand than brands that are not CSR-related. Consumer participation in CSR is expected to enhance the impact of CSR levels on a firm's BE 49. Consumer participation in CSR increases the positive relationship between a company's CSR level and brand awareness, specifically, it reinforces and emphasizes a company's CSR behaviors as a reminder of BE in the minds of consumers.

H3. Customer participation fully mediates the relationship between CSR (economic, environmental, social responsibility) and BE (brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, perceived value and brand loyalty).

CSR affects customer trust and customer trust affects BE, this relationship is also mentioned in many research articles by authors in many countries in different fields such as Martinez & Rodriguez 50 research in Spain in the field of hospital accommodation services, Glaveli51 in telecommunications companies in Greece, Islam et al. 52 in the postal service industry in China, Choi & La53 studied restaurants in Korea, or Sindhu & Arif54 studied the Pakistan telecommunications service industry.

H4. Components of CSR (economic, environmental, social) positively and directly affect customer trust.

H5. Customer trust has a positive and direct impact on the components of BE (Brand Awareness, Brand Association, Perceived Quality, and Brand Loyalty).

CSR affects customer participation and customer engagement affects BE is studied from studies in many industries and many countries such as Chomvilailk & Butcher55 research in the telecommunications service industry in Thailand, Hur et al.56 research in the banking industry in Korea, Jarvis et al.57 study in the retail service industry in France, Behnam et al. 58 research at indoor sports service industry in Belgium & Ahn (2020) studied the hospitality industry in the US.

H6. The components of CSR (economic, environmental, social) have a positive and direct impact on Customer Participation.

H7. Customer engagement has a positive and direct impact on the components of BE (Brand Awareness, Brand Association, Perceived Quality, and Brand Loyalty).

Proposed research model

Based on the research overview and theoretical background, the author propose a specific research model as follows Figure 1.

This study measures CSR in three aspects: economic, environmental, and social responsibility, according to research by Moisescu38 and Fatma et al.37. The scale includes the economic responsibility variable (6 questions), the environmental responsibility variable (6 questions), and the social responsibility variable (9 questions).

The BE scale is used in the study according to the research of Tasci 30 and Spielmann59. The scale includes the brand awareness variable (7 questions), the brand association variable (7 questions), the perceived value variable (7 questions), and the brand loyalty variable (7 questions).

A consumer trust scale is used in the study, according to research by Morgan & Hunt60 and Atilgan et al.61. The scale consists of 6 questions.

For measuring consumer participation in the study, it is a two-level scale based on the studies of Kocak et al.62 and Adhikari & Panda 63. In the first level, consumer participation is measured by brand interaction, consumer engagement, and image synchronicity. Then, each sub-variable is scaled by three questions.

Sampleand sampling method

The complete research sample in the thesis includes 520 customers at twenty 4 or 5-star hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, selected by a non-probability sampling process in the period from December 2021 to February 2022 described at Table 1, the time when Ho Chi Minh City has ended social distancing and opened for foreign experts to come to Vietnam if they have fully vaccinated and tested negative for Covid-19.

Common Method Bias

Since the respondents gave answers to all the statements in the questionnaire at the same time, a methodological bias may arise64. This deviation is checked by the method proposed in the research of Podsakoff et al. 64. First, verify the neutrality of the questions through the different categories. Second, the questions in the questionnaire should not be used as true-false questions to help respondents be honest while filling out the questionnaire. Third, non-conceptual observations should be ordered separately to avoid the probability of respondents being confused and answering the same (same value) to closely related questions. Finally, the study examines the general methodological bias effects that can create skewed relationships between variables using the variable technique64.

According to Chang et al.65, in any study, confirming the mediating role of a factor showing methodological bias is not a serious problem. Thus, these results show that even the presence of methodological bias does not significantly affect the obtained estimates.

PLS – SEM model

This study uses the PLS-SEM model, which is evaluated through two stages, including evaluation of the measurement model and evaluation of the structural model18. Evaluation of the measurement model consists of four steps as follows:

The first step in evaluating the reflectivity measurement model is to check the load reading. The load reading coefficients should have a value greater than 0.708 because then the structural model explains more than 50% of the indicator's variance, and the scale of variables will have high and acceptable reliability66.

The second step in evaluating the reflectance measurement model is to evaluate the intrinsic consistency of the reliability. Researchers often use the composite reliability index of Joreskog & Sorbom66 to evaluate this. In general, the higher the value, the greater the confidence level. However, if the value is too high, it also indicates that the confidence level is too high and will not be true. A confidence coefficient from 0.60 to 0.70 is considered "acceptable in exploratory research" and values from 0.70 to 0.90 range from "satisfactory to good". However, a value from 0.95 to higher is controversial as it indicates that the observed variables are unnecessary and thus reduces the reliability of the structure67.

The third step in evaluating the reflectance measurement model is referenced to the convergence of each scale. The concept of convergence is the degree to which a structure converges and is used to explain the variance of the entries of a converging structure. In evaluating the convergence of each scale, the metric used is the average extracted variance (AVE) for all variables in each construct 66. AVE was calculated by squaring the load factor on each structure and then using the mean. AVE is considered significant and is accepted when it has a value of 0.50 or more, because then this index shows the structure that explains at least 50% of the posterior squares of the indexes in the model67.

The fourth step in evaluating the reflectance measurement mode is to evaluate the discriminant of the scale, which is the empirical difference that this construction has compared with other constructions in the same model structure result. Fornell & Larcker 68 proposed the traditional method of measurement, in which the study suggested that the AVE of each structure could be checked with the structure squared correlation (as a scale of variance) of the same structure, and all other structures are measured reflectance in the model structure. The variance used for slap variables in model constructs cannot be greater than its own AVE value.

However, in recent studies, the authors have shown that this AVE index is not suitable to evaluate discriminatory values68, Dijkstra & Henseler69 proposesthe heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) index of correlations was used as a surrogate measure for AVE. The HTMT was calculated as the mean of the category correlations between the constructs compared with the mean of the correlations for the items measuring the same construct70. According to Dijkstra & Henseler 69, when the HTMT value is high, there will be discriminant validity problems, with a threshold HTMT value of 0.90 for structural models with very similar structures in terms of structure concept.

After the evaluation of the measurement model is satisfactory, the author moves to the next step in the process of evaluating the PLS-SEM results, which is the evaluation of the structural model. According to Hair et al. 18, the criteria that need to be considered in evaluating the structural model include the coefficients of determination R, Q, statistical significance, and the relevance of the path coefficients. The coefficients of the structural model show the relationship between the structures and are inferred from estimating a series of regression equations. To be able to evaluate the structural model of relationships, Little et al. 71 suggests that it is necessary to check for multicollinearity to ensure that the regression results are not biased. For the VIF index, a value greater than 5 indicates a high probability of alignment between the predicted structures. However, this problem can also occur when the VIF value is between 3 and 3.5 71. Therefore, the VIF value should only be at a maximum of close to 3.018.

Evaluation of the measurement model

To test the loading factors of the factors, Ringle et al. 72 proposes the PLS-SEM Algorithm technique to analyze data and propose hypotheses, about software with many different software programs used. In the study, the author used AMOS 20 software. The estimated results show that the factor loading coefficients of the structures in the model are all over 0.64 or higher, which shows that the system of variables is important. The survey explains more than 50% of the variance of the research concepts, thus providing reliability for the scale of the concepts in the research model18.

Evaluation of internal consistency shows that the composite factor reliability of the constructs (C.R) is all higher than 0.9, which shows that the constructs meet the criteria of internal consistency well66.

In evaluating the discriminant between variables in the model, the AVE for each construct in the model is higher than the recommended threshold of 0.749 or higher, indicating the convergent value of each construct measurement18. In addition, Henseler et al. 73 introduced a new approach to value discrimination such as HTMT, which is a measure of the similarity between latent variables. In many practical situations, the HTMT should be at the threshold of 0.85 or 0.90, which reliably distinguishes between pairs of latent variables with discriminant value and those that are invalid 73. In addition, the Monte Carlo estimator also provided evidence for the favorable classifier performance of HTMT70. The HTMT calculation results show that all discriminant values of the structure are confirmed, none of which exceeds the threshold of 0.8573.

For the Customer Participation variable, which in our study is a two-level variable with three components is shown in Table 2, the size of the structure reflects the higher-order structure the theory can support:

Hypothesis test results of structural model

Structural model evaluation

In assessing the predictability of the structural model and the relationships between the variables in the structural model, the author uses the index values R, Q and the Stone-Geisser's path coefficient18. The VIF value of the predicted structures in the reserch model is lower than 5.0, which shows that multicollinearity is unlikely in the model18. The R value of the inside structure is a measure of the describe power of the model and the predictive power in the research sample of the article18. The R value of the inside structures in the model is shown in Table 3, namely customer trust (0.138), customer participation (0.215), components of BE including brand awareness (0.215), brand association (0.231), perceived quality (0.209), and brand loyalty (0.202).

The “standard-root-mean-square-residual” (SRMR) = 0.028, thus providing a suitable model66. The value of Q is positive and higher than 0.025 represents the small and medium augur fit of the PLS-path model, the indicators described in Table 4 include: customer trust (Q = 0.106) consumer participation (Q = 0.121) and other components of BE, including brand awareness (Q = 0.160), brand association (Q = 0.172), perceived value (Q = 0.158), and brand loyalty (Q = 0.149).

Direct impact assessment

Chin74 recommends that a Bootstrap analysis be performed with a number of observations of 1,000 subsamples to evaluate the statistical significance of each path coefficient. Table 5 shows value of the path coefficients, value of their Bootstrap values, and value of their T-S values.

With partial support of Hypothesis 1, environmental responsibility was found to be positively and significantly associated with brand awareness ( = 0.133, t = 2.088, p < 0.05), brand association ( = 0.138, t = 2.154, p < 0.05), and perceived value ( = 0.112, t = 1.744, p < 0.10). Meanwhile, social responsibility was found to have a positive impact on brand awareness ( = 0.120, t = 1.734, p < 0 .10) and brand loyalty ( = 0.180, t = 2.831, p < 0.01).

Supporting Hypothesis 4 in part, economic and environmental CSR was found to have a positive and significant impact on Customer Confidence ( = 0.131, t = 1.890, p < 0.10; = 0.219, t = 3.248, p < 0.001).

Fully supporting Hypothesis 5, Customer trust was found to have a positive and significant effect on the components of BE, including brand awareness ( = 0.201, t = 4.547, p < 0.001). , brand association ( = 0.228, t = 4.662, p < 0.001), perceived quality ( = 0.221, t = 4.609, p < 0.001), and brand loyalty ( = 0.189, t = 4.183) , p < 0.001).

Fully supporting Hypothesis 6, economic, environmental and social CSR was found to have a positive and significant impact on Customer Participation ( = 0.149, t = 2.162, p < 0.05; = 0.162, t = 2,589, p < 0.05; = 0.115, t = 1.866, p < 0.10).

Fully supporting Hypothesis 7, Customer engagement was found to have a positive and significant effect on the components of BE, including brand awareness ( = 0.219, t = 4.563, p < 0.001) ), brand association ( = 0.237, t = 5.009, p < 0.001), perceived quality ( = 0.211, t = 4.224, p < 0.001), and brand loyalty ( = 0.224, t = 4.665, p < 0.001).

Indirect impact assessment

Table 6 shows the partial mediation of customer trust in the relationship between components of CSR and components of BE, therefore, Hypothesis 2, Hypothesis 3 are partially supported by the analysis results.

The role of CSR in building BE

CSR is an important strategic tool for the company, helping the company to increase the positive impacts on customer loyalty and BE. Therefore, companies should be interested in CSR programs and expend considerable business resources on their activities. In today's trend of responsible business for the future, consumers will assume that businesses operating for society will have higher trust because of their higher humanity, and therefore, they will appreciate the reputation of the company more than the reputation and brand value of the company.

Although the research shows that the impact of economic CSR on the components of BE is not clear, in the future economic information will become more transparent and public. At this time, customers will be more interested in the economic CSR of businesses. Customers will see these programs and will feel through the company's CSR activity plans if the program is really meaningful and comes from the essence of the company rather than mere promotional programs. For environmental CSR, this is reflected in the business philosophy of the business, customers will recognize it as soon as they use the company's products; and through the process of monitoring the environmental programs of the enterprise.

Companies also need to pay a lot of attention to communicating brand to customers and building brand identity in brand management strategy because the importance of brand value has recently been emphasized not only for financial performance but also for sustainable development performance. Companies can also enhance BE and its components, including brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty, through various CSR initiatives.

The role of customer trust in the relationship between CSR and BE

The results of this paper suggest that businesses can consider CSR action programs from the perspective of customer-business relationship marketing, focusing on building trust and enhancing the brand image of the company in the customer's brain. From the point of view of customer-based BE, a company can be considered trustworthy by customers when it is involved in a certain social issue, solving problems of interest to society. Therefore, CSR strategic management needs to be based on customer perception and must have action programs to develop reputation, customer trust, and long-term relationships between customers and brands. as well as create a favorable brand image and enhance BE.

Consumers find a company's identity more attractive and trustworthy when the company's views are in line with their beliefs and preferences. Since trust is founded on the eigenvalues of value-based trust, a company's perceived CSR can make a favorable impression on socially susceptible consumers that CSR deals with. Furthermore, CSR activities help to convince consumers that a company produces higher quality products, signaling a higher management capacity of the company because they can attract a group of like-minded people. point. Although CSR activities have the potential to generate overall goodwill, research shows that BE will be primarily driven by CSR activities.

The role of customer participation in the relationship between CSR and BE

Advances in technology and social media are the driving force behind experiential marketing activities, based on the relationship between the customer and the company. These marketing activities are also the driving force for the company's brand value creation. Currently, customers care about the experience through the product of the business, but they also want the experience through other activities of the business. Therefore, the marketing activities of the business are being designed to attract customer participation. It is the participation that will help customers understand the business better, thereby improving the customer experience on corporate image, and increasing BE of the business in the mind of customers.

For CSR activities, customers can interact with the company through the emotional aspect and the emotional aspect, which will support the description of CSR that suits their personality and focuses on the issue of business ethics. In addition, there is the issue of synchronizing CSR and commitment strategies, which will help customers have more confidence and actively participate. The more they want to connect themselves with the business, the more confidence they will believe in the brand and help increase the BE of the business. From there, the authors suggest that managers should design CSR messages emphasizing consumer participation.