The effects of stakeholders' expectations in their evaluation of corporate social responsibility news

Abstract

This thesis investigates the effects of air passengers' and travel intermediaries' expectations on their beliefs, attitude and behavioural intentions. I develop a conceptual model articulating the nature and antecedents of three types of expectations: would, could and should. I propose that would and should expectations influence updated beliefs through attitude towards news for two different stakeholder groups and that would expectations mediate the relationship between could expectations and attitude towards news for two different stakeholder groups. Empirically, I measure prior dispositions and intentions, then how beliefs, attitude and behavioural intentions change towards a focal airline in response to a piece of corporate social responsibility (CSR) news about it. 781 airline passenger stakeholders (B2C) and 356 travel intermediaries (B2B) were surveyed after an initial pre-test of the survey instrument and a pilot study. Structural equation models (SEM) and multi-group structural equation models (multi-group SEM) largely provided support for the hypothesised model.