Corporate citizenship: Cultural antecedents and business benefits

The article explores the nature of corporate citizenship and its relevance for marketing practitioners and academic researchers. Specifically, a conce ptualization and operationalization of corporate citizenship are first prop osed. Then, an empirical investigation conducted in two independent samples examines whether components of an organization's culture affect the level of commitment to corporate citizenship and whether corporate citizenship is conducive to business benefits. Survey results suggest that market-oriente d cultures as well as humanistic cultures lead to proactive corporate citiz enship, which in turn is associated with improved levels of employee commit ment, customer loyalty and business performance. The results point to corpo rate citizenship as a potentially fruitful business practice both in terms of internal and external marketing.