Unravelling the Effect of Consumer Perception of CSR Practices of Multinational Enterprises on Consumer Purchase Intention: Insights from the Sri Lankan FMCG Sector

Due to increased market potential, Multinational enterprises offering fast-moving consumer goods have grown rapidly in developing countries such as Sri Lanka. Accordingly, the main objective of this study is to investigate how CSR practices in the MNE FMCG sector of Sri Lanka affect consumer purchasing intentions through the mediation of brand image, brand attitude, and perceived quality. A positivist research paradigm has been adopted in this study. Accordingly, self-administered questionnaires were distributed among 200 consumers of MNE FMCGs and the structural equation modeling technique was adopted to generate the study's statistical conclusions. It was found that consumer purchase intention is influenced by the CSR practices of MNE FMCG companies, while brand attitude, brand image and perceived quality partially mediate the aforementioned relationship.
This study unravels the actual effect of CSR practices of MNEs on consumer purchase intention especially in the context of South Asia based on the theoretical foundations of Social Exchange theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour. This would be in contrast to extant literature which seems to have inconsistent findings on this relationship.