The Relationship Between Corporate Citizenship and Purchase Intention: Fear of COVID-19 Across the South Asian Region

The empirical evidence reveals that there is a significant lacuna in ascertaining the relationship between corporate citizenship and purchase intention within the fear of covid-19 context in the South Asian region. This is a timely and opportune study carried out under pandemic conditions in the South Asian region where millions of people were affected. Hence this paper focuses the direct relationship between Perceived corporate citizenship and purchase intention, along with the mediating role of brand trust, brand love, brand-consumer identification and the moderating effect of COVID-19 fear appeal across the South Asian region. The study was underpinned, based on Social Exchange Theory (SET) and Fear Appeal Theory (FAT). The research was carried out under the positivist research paradigm using the quantitative research methodology, where the unit of analysis was an individual consumer. The data was analysed using SPSS and SMART PLS. The findings reveal that there is a significant positive impact of perceived corporate citizenship on purchase intention (Direct path), and a partial mediation for the indirect approach. In addition, COVID-19 fear appeal has a significant impact on the relationships between Perceived Corporate Citizenship and Purchase Intention, Brand Trust and Purchase Intention, Consumer-Brand Identification and Purchase Intention, and Brand Love and Purchase Intention. This study is perhaps the first to investigate the impact of Perceived Corporate Citizenship on Purchase Intention along with brand trust, consumer-brand identification and COVID-19 fear appeal in the retail industry, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study finally discusses the theoretical implications, managerial implications under the “pandemic context” for the region along with the suggested areas for future research.