Corporate social responsibility in the luxury sector: the role of moral foundations

The academic literature on whether consumers respond positively toward corporate social responsibility (hereafter CSR) initiatives in the luxury sector is limited and contradictory. Our research contributes to this on-going debate by exploring the role of CSR moral foundations. By differentiating individualizing moral foundations (e.g., justice) from binding moral foundations (e.g., loyalty), our three experiments jointly suggest consumers respond more positive toward CSR guided by binding (vs. individualizing) foundations. Our results further suggest perceptions of intrinsic CSR motives mediate the impact of CSR moral foundations on consumer attitude. However, this mediation is moderated by the nature of tourism destination, more evident in a nature-based (vs. urban) destination. Taken together, our research suggests the luxury sector needs to focus on binding foundations rather than individualizing foundations to create a win-win situation.