Does Corporate Social Responsibility Influence Customer Loyalty? Insights from the Hotel Industry

Background This study investigates the relationship between customers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR), hotel reputation, and customer loyalty within the hospitality sector. This study explored how customers’ evaluations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives influence their loyalty behaviors and whether this relationship is mediated by the hotel’s perceived reputation. This study contributes to the literature by integrating corporate social responsibility and hotel reputation into a unified model to predict customer loyalty in the hospitality sector. Methods Data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered via convenience sampling, resulting in 391 valid responses from customers who stayed in star-rated hotels in New Delhi, India. The proposed hypotheses were assessed using PLS-SEM, and the conceptual model was further evaluated for its explanatory and predictive power. Results The study revealed that corporate social responsibility and hotel reputation significantly and positively impact customer loyalty. Furthermore, hotel reputation partially mediates the relationship between corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty. The model demonstrated good explanatory power (R 2 = 0.435 for customer loyalty) and medium predictive relevance (Q 2 > 0.15), supporting the robustness of the proposed structural framework. Conclusions The findings of this study reveal that corporate social responsibility significantly enhances customer loyalty. The partial mediating effect of hotel reputation suggests that while corporate social responsibility independently influences customer loyalty, its impact is further strengthened when accompanied by a strong hotel reputation. This study highlights the strategic importance of aligning corporate social responsibility initiatives with reputation-building efforts to foster deeper emotional and behavioral loyalty among customers.