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Top1. Introduction
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) provides a high profile concept that has critical implications for many businesses in today's competitive service environment (Luo & Bhattacharya, 2006). Identifying corporate social responsibility (CSR) for consumer behavior and service effectiveness is crucial in marketing-based CSR research (Bello et al., 2020; Luo & Bhattacharya, 2006). Latest evidential studies have looked at the effect of CSR on a variety of matters related to consumer behavior and service-related outcomes such as service recovery satisfaction (Choi & La, 2013); product evaluation (Palihawadana et al., 2016); purchase intentions (Akbar et al., 2020); word of mouth (Vo et al., 2017); and service performance (Yang & Baasandorj, 2017). However, literature is still missing to discover the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on five dimensions of the SERVQUAL model in the retail banking context.
CSR has become an integral component of firms’ marketing strategy (Pirsch et al., 2007). When competition is intensified, the impact of consumer preferences on CSR is even more critical as companies aim to attract the same customer's group with similar products/services. However, previous studies have presented that some special features (i.e., external integration between the frontline staff and consumers) may influence the company’s service quality and relationship patterns between them (Bejou et al., 1998; Lewis & Soureli, 2006). Accordingly, if service brands are considered effective in providing an advanced level of services, the impact of the CSR collaboration on service brands could be increased. Furthermore, several recent research has actively found the importance of corporate social responsibility in the particular loyalty development procedures, as well as its unique function in explaining important loyalties such as repurchase (Afifah & Asnan, 2015; Su et al., 2017), engagements in positive corporates events (Rashid et al., 2015), and revisiting (Su et al., 2017). Several studies on customer loyalty in the banking sector have mainly focused on the quality of service by the service provider (Sata Shanka, 2012). Similarly, banks are responsible for delivering the highest quality of services to customers to ensure consistent competitive advantages. Due to inadequate service quality in the banking sector, service providers face many problems acknowledging the quality of services. In this regard, Afifah and Asnan (2015) figured out that a loyal customer is not restricted to being a customer but maintains the favorable attitudes and emotions for the same service provider. Su et al. (2017) also claimed that a socially responsible company could enhance customer commitment by reinforcing the emotional attachment of customers and their own perceived integrity. With the increasing competition in the market, it is a key corporate aim to satisfy and retain customers, and CSR is needed to support in achieving it. Customer loyalty is a crucial indicator of how consumers communicate their brand success acceptance. Although, the association between CSR and customer satisfaction has been analyzed by several studies as a progressive measure (Chen McCain et al., 2019). The current study outlines a crucial gap in service marketing literature by investigating the mediation effect of SERVQUAL dimensions between the relationships of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and banking customer loyalty.