Consumer responses to corporate social responsibility communication from stigmatized industries: E-cigarettes and consumers’ use of persuasion knowledge

Drawing upon JUUL’s CSR campaign cases that were intended to rebuild people’s trust during its vaping crisis, this study examined the effects of the e-cigarette company’s CSR and CA messages on consumers’ responses. Applying the Persuasion Knowledge Model, this study also investigated how consumers’ existing beliefs about the e-cigarette industry (i.e., topic knowledge) and specific e-cigarette companies (i.e., agent knowledge) influenced their evaluation of CSR and CA messages. An online experiment (N = 275) showed that CSR messages were more likely to generate positive consumer attitudes toward the company and product, as compared to CA messages. These effects were mediated by consumers’ persuasion knowledge activation and moderated by consumers’ perceptions of the industry and perceived corporate legitimacy.