CSR and casino hotel branding: The joint moderation of CSR misfit and corporate awareness

Drawing on the Human Associative Memory (HAM) model, this paper aims to examine consumers' responses to casino hotels' corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. The study focuses on how CSR misfit hinders positive spillovers from CSR to corporate brand image, and whether corporate awareness can remedy this inherent handicap. Data were collected from the guests of 35 casino hotels in Macao. Hierarchical regression was adopted to test the main, moderating, and joint moderating effects. The findings indicate that company-CSR misfit jeopardizes the positive effect of casino hotels' CSR efforts in building a favorable corporate image, while corporate awareness can reduce such negative moderating effects. This research echoes calls to examine CSR spillover effects in controversial industry sectors and fills the gap to investigate the joint effects of the underresearched firm characteristics. Understanding firm-level handicaps and remedies in CSR implementation is of great value for academia and the industry.