The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumers Attitudes at Northwestern Mutual: A Case Study

Transcription

1 The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumers Attitudes at Northwestern Mutual: Researchers: Kuhlman, Laura Lett, Kate Vornhagen, Shellie December 6, 2013 Marketing Research Kuhlman_A7

2 Executive Summary Research objectives and goals The integration of Corporate Social Responsibility strategy into Northwestern Mutual s business plan has resulted in various reactions from stakeholders. This research study was conducted to evaluate the impact Northwestern Mutual s CSR strategy has on consumers overall attitude toward the company. It aims to answer three key questions: 1. Does knowing about a company s CSR initiatives create a more favorable attitude toward that company? 2. Does better alignment of the CSR strategy with the company s core competency further influence that attitude? 3. Does a consumer s agreement or disagreement with a company s CSR strategy influence their purchase decision/ willingness to do business with Northwestern Mutual? Findings 1. Overall positive affect towards a company increases with knowledge of the corporate social responsibility initiative sponsored by the company. 2. No relationship between a given CSR initiative s alignment with the company s core competency and consumers attitudes was statistically evident. 3. There was no statistical evidence that supports that a consumer s purchase decision will be influenced by their agreement or disagreement with the CSR strategy of the company. Conclusions/ Key Insights Northwestern Mutual should make their stakeholders aware of their CSR initiatives. There was a clear and significant increase in respondents overall attitude scores after they learned of the CSR strategy of the company. This substantiates the claim that knowing a company s CSR strategy creates a more favorable attitude toward that company in consumers. Better alignment of the CSR strategy with Northwestern Mutual s core competencies was not shown to further influence a consumer s attitude toward Northwestern Mutual. The results show there is no significant difference in the increase of attitude scores whether the respondent viewed the CSR initiative as aligned or not aligned with the company s core competencies. Northwestern Mutual should take care to avoid CSR initiatives that offend women and select CSR initiatives that men support. Based on the overall population, a consumer s agreement or disagreement with a company s CSR strategy does not necessarily influence their purchase decision. However, when analyzing this issue along gender-specific lines, women are more apt to not support a business if they disagree with their CSR strategy. Men are more apt to support a business if they agree with their CSR strategy. Recommendations 1. Researchers are advised to more precisely define what is meant by a given CSR initiative s alignment with the company s core competencies. The two treatments used in the experiment Alex s Lemonade Stand Foundation and Junior Achievement were proposed by the researchers as two very divergent treatments, one being aligned with Northwestern Mutual, and one being not-aligned with Northwestern Mutual. However, a clear and sufficient divergence was not perceived by respondents. The alignment issue ought to have been defined by specific criteria or simply given further explanation (i.e. survey respondents should be asked directly how they view a given CSR initiative as aligned/ not-aligned with the core competencies of a company to establish a more reliable control) The issue of awareness/ knowledge of corporate social responsibility ought to be further explored as it provided significant statistical evidence of influencing a consumer s attitude toward a given company. 3. A greater number and more balanced sample (men-women) should be selected as survey respondents. 1 See Limitations for further explanation. 2

3 Table of Contents Introduction... 4 Corporate Social Responsibility & Business Planning... 4 Background... 4 Project Goals... 5 Key Questions... 5 Research Design... 5 Overview of the Experiment... 5 Methodology... 6 Experimental Design Summary... 7 Results... 8 Responses to Key Questions... 8 Limitations First Limitation Second Limitation Other Limitations Conclusions & Recommendations Key Insights Recommendations Appendix

4 Introduction The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumers Attitudes at Northwestern Mutual: Corporate Social Responsibility & Business Planning Corporate Social Responsibility is a company s aim to embrace responsibility for its actions and to encourage a positive impact via its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders, and all other members of the public sphere who may be considered stakeholders. In a world where the difference between the haves and have-nots is widening, many companies are integrating Corporate Social Responsibility strategies into their business plans. Companies who have made their CSR initiatives increasingly public and increasingly extensive have garnered various reactions from stakeholders. Some believe that companies embrace CSR initiatives to build their reputation (giving credit to their own name) whereas others believe a company is being truly sincere when carrying out their charitable works. Some stakeholders consider a company s CSR strategy when choosing whether or not to do business with them whereas others believe this is a moot point. If a consumer doesn t support a given firm s CSR strategy, but prefers the company for other reasons, awareness of their CSR initiatives may cause a conflict for the consumer. And then there are always demographic considerations As is evident, there is much at stake for managers when considering how to integrate corporate social responsibility into their business plan. One of the most important aspects of CSR strategy for a manager to take into account is how the proposed CSR initiative is aligned with the company s core competency. Studies have shown that to enact their commitment to CSR, businesses must embrace a solid set of principles and processes that can help to systematically address stakeholder demands and secure stakeholder support. 2 Amidst the proliferation of causes to support, a corporation should consider integrating corporate social responsibility in a way that is coherent with their fundamental mission or core competency. Background Northwestern Mutual is a financial services company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company is the nation's largest direct provider of individual life insurance in the United States. They too are integrating CSR within their company efforts. They are currently strategically affiliated with two nonprofit organizations and are considering how to get more involved in shrinking the gap between rich and poor. The same risks and opportunities apply to their business when considering how to integrate CSR into their business plan. It would highly benefit a company like Northwestern Mutual to understand how consumers attitudes change towards the company based on the extent to which a corporation s CSR strategy is in alignment with its core competency. This research study was conducted to evaluate the impact their CSR strategy has on consumers overall attitude toward the company. 2 Sen, Sankar, C. B. Bhattacharya, and Daniel Korschun. "The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Strengthening Multiple Stakeholder Relationships: A Field Experiment." Academy of Marketing Science. Journal 34.2 (Spring 2006): Web. 11 Sept < 4

5 Project Goals The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumers Attitudes at Northwestern Mutual: Key Questions This study aims to answer three key questions: 1. Does knowing about a company s CSR initiatives create a more favorable attitude toward that company? 2. Does better alignment of the CSR strategy with the company s core competency further influence that attitude? 3. Does a consumer s agreement or disagreement with a company s CSR strategy influence their purchase decision/ willingness to do business with Northwestern Mutual? Research Design Overview of the Experiment An online survey of 100 respondents 3 was conducted to determine the extent to which consumers attitudes towards a given company (Northwestern Mutual) change based on the extent to which the CSR strategy is aligned with the core competency of the company. The hypothetical construct, Consumers Attitudes was defined by the researchers with the following criteria: Confidence in the company, Northwestern Mutual Respect for the reputation of the company, Northwestern Mutual Likeliness of doing business with the company, Northwestern Mutual Overall positive affect toward the company, Northwestern Mutual The experiment was single level, two-factor in which respondents were randomly assigned to one of two treatments. The independent variable was alignment of the cause with the company s core competencies. The dependent variable was the change of attitude toward the company after being exposed to the CSR cause. In order to measure change in attitude of the consumer towards the company, a baseline attitude score towards the company was calculated. After taking into consideration a CSR initiative in alignment or not in alignment with the company s core competency, a new attitudinal score was calculated. This new score was compared to the initial baseline attitudinal score to determine the change in attitude towards the company. Thus, Change of Attitude = Post Treatment Exposure Attitude Score Pre Treatment Exposure Attitude Score. The demographic sample was comprised in the following way: 3 Thirty-two respondents were excluded due to incomplete answers. Sixty-eight total responses were used in the research. 5

6 Respondents Total Number Women 51 Men 17 Incomplete Responses 32 Grand Total 100 *PNTA = Prefer not to answer Methodology First, respondents were asked a series of 4 questions, which were summed to determine the Initial Attitude Score. This score served as the baseline for the consumer s attitude toward Northwestern Mutual. Next, respondents were subjected to one of two treatments, charity A or charity B. Charity A was Alex s Lemonade Stand, and it was confidentially classified as not in alignment with Northwestern Mutual s core competency. It is the current charity that Northwestern Mutual is affiliated with through their CSR strategy today. Charity B was Junior Achievement, and it was classified as in alignment with Northwestern Mutual s core competency as a financial services company. It was also presented to the respondents as the current cause for Northwestern Mutual s CSR strategy. (In both cases, causes that deal with children s issues were selected by the researchers in order to eliminate the possibility that the children s charity may cause a stronger emotional reaction in respondents compared to a purely financially oriented charity and therefore skew the results.) In each treatment, a description of the charity was given along with a link to a short video to give additional information about their work Alex s Lemonade Stand: Alex s Lemonade Stand Foundation was founded in 2005 to continue the tradition that was started by a young girl named Alexandra Alex Scott. During Alex s battle with cancer, she decided to start a lemonade stand to raise money to help children with cancer. Alex s Lemonade Stand Foundation built on this idea by encouraging and educating others (especially children) about setting up their own lemonade stand events to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer causes, primarily research into new treatments and cures. Junior Achievement: Junior Achievement was founded in 1919 as a non-profit youth organization to help connect local businesses and organizations with students from kindergarten to high school in order to teach them, through experience, financial literacy, work readiness and 6

7 entrepreneurship. Junior Achievement has now become a worldwide organization with a mission to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global environment. The exposure to treatment A (Alex s Lemonade Stand) or treatment B (Junior Achievement) was followed by several questions regarding the respondent s opinion of the charity. Finally, the initial question series was repeated to determine the Post Attitude Score. The same wording and scales were used. The difference between the Post Attitude Score and the Initial Attitude Score was calculated as the Attitude Score Difference as the dependent variable in the analysis. Experimental Design Summary: The experiment consisted of one factor, with two levels. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of two treatments, thus a between Ss design. The independent variable was whether or not the charitable cause selected is aligned or not aligned with the company s core competencies. The dependent variable was the difference of an attitude score measured before and after the respondent was exposed to the CSR strategy of Northwestern Mutual. The planned total number of participants in the survey was 50, although 100 responses were collected and then 68 were utilized. They were distributed between the two treatments. The experiment was conducted as full-factorial. A visual representation can be found in Figure-1 below. Figure 1. Treatment Increased Decreased Unchanged N Aligned Overall Affect toward company is increased after exposure to an aligned cause. Overall affect toward company is decreased after exposure to an aligned cause. Overall affect toward company is unchanged after exposure to an aligned cause. 31 Not Aligned Overall Affect toward company is increased after exposure to a not aligned cause. Overall affect toward company is decreased after exposure to a not aligned cause. Overall affect toward 37 company is unchanged after exposure to a not aligned cause. Total Respondents: 68 7

8 Raises money for childhood cancer research. Works with children to teach financial basics. Not Aligned Aligned Results Responses to Key Questions 1) Does knowing a company s CSR strategy create a more favorable attitude toward that company? Yes. If a consumer knows about a company s CSR strategy, this influences the overall positive affect of the consumer toward the company. An ANOVA test was performed to analyze the degree to which consumers overall attitude scores changed after exposure to one of the two treatments Junior Achievement or Alex s Lemonade Stand Foundation. As is evident in Table 1, attitude scores increased by 13%, indicating that overall positive affect towards a company increases with exposure to the corporate social responsibility charity affiliated with the company. 4 Table 1a. Change in overall attitude from pre-experiment exposure and post-experiment exposure Groups Count Sum Average Variance Pre experiment overall attitude Post experiment overall attitude The conclusion that greater awareness of CSR generates positive liking for a company is also supported by researchers C.B. Bhattacharya and Daniel Korschun from Boston University. In their study The Role of 4 See Table 1b in Appendix 8

9 Corporate Social Responsibility in Strengthening Multiple Stakeholder Relationships they state, Overall given sufficient awareness, even a single real-world CSR initiative is capable of affecting both internal outcomes and behavioral intentions related to multiple stakeholder roles. Therefore, To reap the positive benefits of CSR, companies need to work harder at raising awareness levels. 5 This awareness principle can be applied to CSR strategy at Northwestern Mutual. The company should focus its efforts on making their stakeholders aware of the various charities and initiatives sponsored by them, securing a more confident position in consumers minds. This can be accomplished through commercial advertising campaigns that raise the importance of charitable giving at Northwestern Mutual. 2) Does better alignment of the CSR strategy with the company s core competency further influence that attitude? It was hypothesized that a consumer s attitude towards Northwestern Mutual would change based on the extent to which its CSR strategy is in alignment with its core competencies. In other words, it was expected that a consumer s attitude toward Northwestern Mutual would be more positive if had a CSR strategy that was in alignment with its business plan. An ANOVA test was performed to analyze the relationship between consumers attitudes towards Northwestern Mutual and their exposure to an aligned cause or a non-aligned cause the aligned treatment being Junior Achievement, JA and the not-aligned treatment being Alex s Lemonade Stand Foundation, ALSF. (See Table 2a below). Table 2a. ANOVA test (single factor, two levels) looking at change in overall attitude for those exposed to JA or ALSF Groups Count Sum Average Variance Aligned Not Aligned Despite average increases in both treatments, the respondents attitude scores did not change statistically based on whether or not they perceived the CSR initiative to be aligned or not aligned with the company s core competency. 6 No correlation between the treatments (Alex s Lemonade Stand/ Junior Achievement) and consumers attitudes was statistically evident. 7 5 Sen, Sankar, C. B. Bhattacharya, and Daniel Korschun. "The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Strengthening Multiple Stakeholder Relationships: A Field Experiment." Academy of Marketing Science. Journal 34.2 (Spring 2006): 164. Web. 11 Sept See Limitations. 7 See Table 2b in Appendix 9

10 Overall, this research demonstrates that Northwestern Mutual and other companies should not focus so much on strategically aligning their CSR initiatives with their core competencies as they should on simply making their stakeholders aware of them as was discussed in response to key question no.1. [The results of this experiment were moderated by respondents subjective perceptions. The two treatments were not necessarily perceived by survey respondents to be sufficiently divergent from one another nor adequate indicators of alignment/ non-alignment with Northwestern Mutual s core competencies. This phenomenon may have influenced the abovementioned conclusion. The perception of aligned vs. not-aligned treatments by survey respondents is further discussed in the limitations section of this report.] 3) Does a consumer s agreement or disagreement with a CSR strategy influence their willingness to do business with Northwestern Mutual? Overall, there was no statistical evidence that supports that a consumer s willingness to do business with Northwestern Mutual will be influenced by their agreement or disagreement with the CSR strategy of the company. This leads to the conclusion that when considering doing business with Northwestern Mutual, whether or not a consumer agrees with their CSR initiative doesn t matter. As previously stated, awareness of the CSR initiative and not (a) its alignment with Northwestern Mutual s core competencies or (b) the consumer s said agreement with CSR strategy is what influences. Statistical evidence: An ANOVA test was carried out, analyzing if respondents would be more likely to do business with Northwestern Mutual based on whether they agreed or disagreed with the CSR initiative taken on by them. See Table 3a below. 8 Table 3a. ANOVA test (single factor, two levels) looking at change in mean scores for whether respondents would do business with a company- based on agree or disagree condition Groups Count Sum Average Variance Score recorded from agree condition Score recorded from disagree condition The results of this analysis show that it can be concluded that consumers willingness to do business with a company isn t moderated by whether or not they agree with that company s CSR initiatives. However, when further analyzing this issue, there is statistical evidence that supports that gender plays 8 See Table 3b in Appendix 10

11 a role in willingness to do business based on agreement/ disagreement with Northwestern Mutual s CSR initiatives. Men are more apt to do business with a company if they agree with their CSR strategy, while the same cannot be said about women. 9 Overall, this research ought to encourage managers to test the reactions both men and women stakeholders have towards their proposed CSR initiatives. Statistical Evidence Three T-tests were performed (details of Tables 5, 6 and 7 below): 1) To test the null hypothesis that men and women s willingness to do business with a company is the same based on their agreement with the CSR strategy 2) To test the null hypothesis that within females, agreeing with CSR strategy has a greater influence on willingness to do business with a company than disagreement with a CSR strategy. 3) To test the null hypothesis that within males, agreeing with CSR strategy has a greater influence on willingness to do business with a company than disagreement with a CSR strategy. Table 4. T-Test (two sample assuming unequal variances) looking at whether gender affects willingness to do business with a company if the respondent agrees with their CSR strategy Female Male Mean Variance Observations 20 6 Table 5. T-Test (two sample assuming unequal variances) looking at whether women are more influenced by agreeing or disagree with a company s CSR strategy Agree Disagree Mean Variance Observations Table 6. T-Test (two sample assuming unequal variances) looking at whether men are more influenced by agreeing or disagree with a company s CSR strategy Agree Disagree 9 Agreement with CSR strategy does not moderate women s willingness to do business with a company, but the inverse of this statement (that women would do business if they disagreed with the CSR strategy) cannot be inferred from the test. 11

12 Mean Variance Observations 6 11 These three tests 10 substantiate the claim that men are more likely than women to do business with a company if they agree with that company s CSR strategy. 11 A possible explanation for this phenomenon is that men oftentimes play a more influential role in making financial decisions for the family. (Although this stereotype is changing, a male bias still remains). Providing additional information on which to base financial decisions (regardless of its persuasive power) may cause men to become more involved in the financial decision process, thus enabling the choice to do business with the company. On the other hand, women are more influenced by humanitarian causes and may allow their disagreement with a cause to override a potential decision to do business with a company. (Studies show that women are more apt to focus on details and allow these details to shade their decisions). Taking into account these possible explanations and further postulations, companies are advised to take into consideration the fact that CSR initiatives may have greater influence on men than women when it comes to purchase decision. Managers ought to take this into consideration when outlining their CSR strategy and marketing plans for various charitable initiatives. Limitations First Limitation Several limitations presented themselves in the course of this survey experiment. Most notably is the issue of perceived vs. intended alignment. From the start of the project, Junior Achievement was intended by the researchers to be a CSR initiative that was in alignment with Northwestern Mutual s core competencies. Alex s Lemonade Stand was intended by the researchers to be a CSR initiative that was not in alignment with Northwestern Mutual s core competencies. It was expected that those respondents exposed to ALSF (what the researchers had intended as the un-aligned treatment) would indicate that ASLF was truly not-aligned with Northwestern Mutual s core competencies. It was expected that those respondents exposed to JA (what the researchers had intended as the aligned treatment) would indicate that JA was truly aligned with Northwestern Mutual s core competencies. See Table 7a below. Table 7a. Observed values for intended alignment and perceived alignment 10 See Tables 4, 5 and 6 in Appendix 11 A limitation in this test was the small sample size of males which could lead to higher probability of error. 12

13 OBSERVED Alignment perceived as intended Alignment not perceived as intended Total Junior Achievement ( intended aligned) Alex's LSF (intended not aligned) Total However, when respondents were asked to mark whether or not their exposed treatment was in alignment or not in alignment with core competency, the overwhelming majority, 80.88% indicated that the treatment was in alignment with Northwestern Mutual s core competencies % said ALSF was in alignment with NWM s core competencies and 44.12% said JA was in alignment with NWM s core competencies, thus indicating no significant perceived difference between the two CSR initiatives. 12 What was intended by the researchers to be two very discriminant initiatives were perhaps not discriminant enough, or were simply too convergent with many other CSR initiative considerations. From this evidence, it can be concluded that the researchers failed to establish convergent and divergent validity in respect to the experiment treatments. Therefore, the experiment lacked construct validity (when a logical argument can be advanced to defend a particular measure). Because the intended non-aligned treatment (Alex s Lemonade Stand Foundation) was not clearly understood by the respondents to be non-aligned, the results of the experiment are possibly skewed and their interpretation must be tempered. Second Limitation A second limitation in the survey experiment involved ensuring that the overall attitude scores of the respondents were correlated with the criteria that determined them. The scores of the three individual questions tied to the criteria substantiating overall attitude were averaged and then compared to the overall attitude score indicated by the respondents. To ensure statistical evidence of the correlation, an ANOVA test was performed. Validity was proved because the average of the three criteria questions used to indicate a person s general attitude was correlated with the overall attitude score See Tables 7a, 7b and 7c in Appendix 13 See Table 8 in Appendix 13

14 Other Limitations Other limitations of this study include: Sample size was small: 100 minus 32 (incomplete responses). Sample sizes of men and women were not evenly distributed: weighted heavily toward the female side. There were more respondents whose data was not useable who were assigned to the agree condition, thus having more data in the disagree condition Conclusions & Recommendations Key Insights Knowing a company s CSR strategy creates a more favorable attitude toward that company in consumers. There was a clear and significant increase in the overall attitude scores after the respondent learned of the CSR strategy of the company. Managers should capitalize on this by emphasizing communication of their CSR initiatives via strategic advertising campaigns. In this experiment, better alignment of the CSR strategy with the company s core competencies was not shown to further influence a consumer s attitude. The results show there is no significant difference in the increase of attitude scores whether the respondent viewed the CSR initiative as aligned or not aligned with the company s core competencies. Doing good is what matters, not what type of good you re doing, as was stated by an interviewee. Overall, consumers agreement with a company s CSR strategy does not influence their willingness to do business with them. However, when analyzing the issue along gender-specific lines, men have a greater tendency to do business with a company if they agree with the CSR strategy. Managers ought to take this information into account when planning their marketing efforts. 14

15 Recommendations If this study were to be repeated, researchers are advised to better define what is meant by alignment with the company s core competencies. This concept was treated as having facevalidity by the researchers, but ought to be defined by specific criteria or simply given further explanation to survey respondents. Survey respondents should be asked directly how they view a given CSR initiative as aligned/ not-aligned without outright stating the core competencies of a company to establish a more reliable control. The issue of awareness of corporate social responsibility ought to be further explored as it provided significant statistical evidence of influencing a consumer s attitude toward a given company. A greater number and more balanced sample (men-women) should be selected as survey respondents. 15

16 Appendix The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumers Attitudes at Northwestern Mutual: Table 1b. ANOVA test (single factor, two levels) looking at change in attitude from Pre-Experiment to Post-experiment Groups Count Sum Average Variance Pre experiment overall attitude Post experiment overall attitude Source of Variation SS Df MS F-stat P-value F crit Between Groups Within Groups Total For the findings from Table 1b, the hypotheses were as follows, : and :, α= 0.05 with representing the average score before respondents were subjected to a treatment and representing the average score after respondents were subjected to a treatment. The scores were on a scale of 0 (disagree)-8 (agree). The null hypothesis was rejected because the F-statistic (9.669) > F- critical value (3.912). As well as the p-value (0.0023) < α (0.05). 16

17 Table 2b. ANOVA test (single factor, two levels) looking at change in overall attitude for those exposed to JA or ALSF Groups Count Sum Average Variance Aligned Not Aligned Source of Variation SS Df MS F stat P-value F crit Between Groups Within Groups Total Our hypotheses for this ANOVA test were as follows: : and :, α= 0.05, with representing the mean of the aligned treatment ( JA ) and representing the mean of the not aligned treatment ( ALSF ). Scores could range from -8 (extreme negative score change) to +8 (extreme positive score change). As seen above, the null hypothesis could not be rejected, due to F-statistic ( ) < F-critical value ( ) and p-value ( ) > α (0.05). Therefore we can conclude that after exposure to one of the two treatments, overall attitude scores did increase. However, this increase can be contributed to the mere fact of exposure to the treatment and not to perceived alignment as both the aligned and not aligned conditions resulted in an increase in attitude score. 17

18 Table 3b. ANOVA test (single factor, two levels) looking at change in recorded scores for whether respondents would do business with a company- based on either the agree condition or disagree condition Groups Count Sum Average Variance Score recorded from agree condition Score recorded from disagree ondition Source of Variation SS Df MS F-stat P-value F crit Between Groups Within Groups Total The hypotheses of this ANOVA test being: : and :, α= 0.05, with representing the average score of respondents who would do business with a company if they agreed with the CSR initiative and representing the average score of respondents who would do business with a company if they disagreed with the CSR initiative on a scale of 0 (not willing)-10 (very willing). The F-statistic ( ) < F-critical value ( ) and p-value ( ) > α (0.05) led us to not be able to reject the null hypothesis. Due to this, we conclude that consumers are equally likely to do business with a company, whether or not they agree with that company s CSR initiatives. 18

19 Table 4. T-Test (two sample assuming unequal variances) looking at whether gender and willingness to do business with a company that the respondent agrees with their CSR strategy Female Male Mean Variance Observations 20 6 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 Df 9 T Stat P-value (two-tail) T Critical Value (two-tail) The hypotheses for this initial T-Test were: : and : (where for the average score for females who were randomly assigned to the agree condition and the willingness to do business with a company on a scale of 0 (being not willing)-10 (being very willing) and represents the average score for men in the same condition. We initially wanted to see if gender had an impact, however we could not reject the null hypothesis, yet because the p-value was so close to α, we decided to perform a t-test within each gender, as seen in Table 6 and 7. 19

20 Table 5. T-Test (two sample assuming unequal variances) looking at whether women are more influenced by agreeing or disagree with a company s CSR strategy Agree Disagree Mean Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 Df 47 T stat P-value (one tail) T critical value (one tail) The hypotheses for this initial T-Test were: : and :, α= 0.05, where represents the average score for females who were randomly assigned to the agree condition and the willingness to do business with a company on a scale of 0 (being not willing)-10 (being very willing) and represents the average score for females who were randomly assigned to the disagree condition. Based on the t-stat ( ) > t-critical value ( ) and p-value ( ) < α (0.05) we reject that women are influenced more by agreeing with a company s CSR initiative. 20

21 Table 6. T-Test (two sample assuming unequal variances) looking at whether men are more influenced by agreeing or disagree with a company s CSR strategy Agree Disagree Mean Variance Observations 6 11 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 Df 15 T stat P-value (one tail) T critical value (one tail) The hypotheses for this initial T-Test were: : and :, α= 0.05, where represents the average score for females who were randomly assigned to the agree condition and the willingness to do business with a company on a scale of 0 (being not willing)-10 (being very willing) and represents the average score for females who were randomly assigned to the disagree condition. Based on the t-stat ( ) < t-critical value ( ) and p-value ( ) > α (0.05) we cannot reject that men are more influenced by agreeing with a company s CSR initiative. Table 7a. Observed values for intended alignment and perceived alignment OBSERVED Alignment perceived as intended Alignment not perceived as intended Total Junior Achievement ( intended aligned) Alex's LSF (intended not aligned) Total

22 Table 7b. Expected values for intended alignment and perceived alignment EXPECTED Alignment perceived as intended Alignment not perceived as intended Total Junior Achievement (intended aligned) Alex's LSF (intended not aligned) Total Table 7c. Chi-Square statistic values for intended alignment and perceived alignment CHI-SQUARE STATISTIC Alignment perceived as intended Alignment not perceived as intended Total Junior Achievement (intended aligned) Alex's LSF (intended not aligned) Total Chi-Square critical value: P-value For this chi-square test the hypotheses were as follows: the two variables are independent : the two variables are dependent, with α =0.05. The chi-square statistic ( ) > chi-square critical value ( ) and the p-value ( ) < α (0.05), thus allowing us to reject the null hypothesis and state that the two variables are indeed dependent on each other. Respondents saw the CSR initiatives as we perceived (JA was seen as aligned and ALSF was seen as not aligned). 22

23 Table 8. ANOVA test (single factor, two levels) looking at validity of three questions used to indicate respondents general attitude toward the company compared to one question of overall attitude Groups Count Sum Average Variance Average of questions Question 4- overall attitude towards NWM Source of Variation SS Df MS F-stat P-value F crit Between Groups Within Groups Total The hypotheses of this ANOVA test being: : and :, α= 0.05, with representing the average score of questions 1-3 asking about general attitude towards NWM and representing the average score of question 4 asking about overall attitude towards NWM on a scale of 0 (negative)-8 (positive). The F-statistic ( ) < F-critical value ( ) and p-value ( ) > α (0.05) led us to not reject that the means are the same. 23