Jinho Joo, an assistant professor of media, recently published an article in the Journal of Interactive Advertising, “Revealing the Strength of CSR Endorsement in an Environmental CSR Advertising Campaign on Instagram: The Role of Interdependent Self-Construal, Regulatory-Focused Messages, and the Number of Followers.” It was co-authored with Yoon-Joo Lee, an associate professor of strategic communication at Washington State University, Pullman.
The present study reveals the strength of corporate social responsibility endorsement in an environmental corporate social responsibility advertising campaign on Instagram. Individuals with higher interdependent self-construal form more favorable attitudes toward the environmental corporate social responsibility advertising campaign on Instagram, which in turn positively influences corporate social responsibility endorsement. In particular, when presented with promotion (vs. prevention)-focused messages, they perceived the corporate social responsibility advertising campaign as only persuasive. Also, their perceptions of the number of Instagram followers did not affect their information processing. That is, the higher number of followers might not be more salient to them in the environmental corporate social responsibility context.
Joo’s research suggests that when presenting environmental corporate social responsibility advertising messages focusing on promotion goals, targeting individuals high on interdependent self-construal could be the key to increasing corporate social responsibility endorsement of the mitigation efforts of climate change, regardless of the number of Instagram followers.