Conscientious corporate brands: the roles of organisational purpose, organisational culture, brand authenticity and corporate social responsibility

Abstract The Conscientious corporate brand (CCB) is a nascent concept whose importance has grown in recent years due to stakeholder demands for organisations to address environmental and social changes as well as to display ethical behaviour in business dealings. Amidst calls for the identification and validation of the antecedents and mediators of CCBs, the purpose of this paper is to establish the role organisational purpose, ethical organisational culture, CSR and brand authenticity plays in shaping stakeholder perceptions of a CCB. Two studies were conducted, using samples obtained from Prolific. In study 1, the results show that organisational purpose is a powerful concept that positively influences the perception of a strong CCB by stakeholders, and that organisational culture moderates the relationship between organisational purpose and brand authenticity. In study 2, our results show that brand authenticity mediates the link between organisational purpose and stakeholder perceptions of a CCB and our findings also suggest that corporate brands with a strong organisational purpose are more likely to be perceived by stakeholders to be a CCB. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed, and recommendations for future research are suggested.