“Who asked for this?”: authenticity and race-centered corporate social responsibility

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize and operationalize race-centered CSR, a combination of corporate social responsibility and corporate social advocacy concerned with repairing racial relationships and inequities, and test perceptions of authenticity of race-centered CSA. Authenticity in CSR and CSA has assumed a universal consumer, however authenticity, as a cultural construct, suggests that social identity can motivate how groups of people come to understand it. As corporate social responsibility efforts increasingly center race, race itself becomes a new measure by which to understand how those efforts are seen as authentic. The study surveyed 586 Blacks and non-Blacks using a modified version of Alhouti, Johonson, and Holloway’s (2016) consumer perceptions of CSR authenticity scale, Sellers et al.’s (1997) Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI) scale, and adapted measures using the concepts of reconciliation and cultural commodification to conceptualize race-centered CSR and perceptions of authenticity of race-centered CSR. Two new scales were developed to measure perceptions of commodification and reconciliatory discourse as antecedents for race-centered CSR activities. Findings of this study suggests that there are universal understandings of authenticity in race-centered and of what commodification of Black culture is in the context of race-centered CSR. More importantly, the recognition of commodification of Black culture is related to perceptions of authenticity of race-centered CSR. In addition, there are subtle differences in demographic drivers for Blacks and non-blacks, particularly political ideology (conservative Blacks vs. liberal whites) and education, age, and marital status of Black respondents in perceptions of authenticity of race-centered CSR. This study contributes to The study contributes to the body of literature on critical approaches to corporate social responsibility.