Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Trust, and Loyalty-Perspectives from a Developing Country

Customer loyalty and trust are increasingly recognized as crucial for businesses to gain a unique and advantageous position over their competitors. In order to build customer loyalty and trust, businesses in developed countries are increasingly incorporating corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in supply chains. While CSR is increasingly being considered in supply chains in developed countries, incorporating CSR practices in local supply chains presents a challenge in the context of developing countries and, as a topic, remains under-researched. Drawing from the literature, this article presents a conceptual model with certain propositions to explain the contextual constraints of incorporating CSR practices in local supply chains in developing countries. These propositions are further strengthened by using a descriptive case of Bangladesh as an exemplar of developing countries. The article provides insights into the under-researched area of the link between incorporation of CSR practices, customer loyalty, and trust in the context of developing countries and can be used as a catalyst for future research. (C) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.