1. Introduction
Companies have implemented corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in order to achieve sustainable performance while addressing their social and ecological concerns in a balanced manner [
1]. CSR refers to corporates voluntarily incorporating social, environment and economic welfare into their business activities and represents the relationship between corporates and their stakeholders [
2,
3,
4]. In the scope of corporations, CSR was identified as a significant strategy for improving competitiveness [
5]; therefore, some major corporations aggressively implement innovations to demonstrate their social responsibility and to better their public perception and reputation [
6]. Similarly, CSR efforts have potentially positive effects on customer engagement outcomes that encourage greater awareness of social welfare and promote behavior modification [
7,
8]. In this circumstance, motivating individuals to engage in CSR initiatives and express more pro-environmental and prosocial behaviors is a viable approach to increase both public benefits and corporate development [
9]. However, the inability to comprehend how customers’ respond to CSR practices will prevent CSR activities from maximizing returns [
5]. Indeed, customers’ reactions to CSR programs frequently involve additional psychological mechanisms [
10,
11].
The explosion of information and communication technology (ICT) has altered people’s behaviors and lives, allowing businesses a remarkable opportunity to boost customer engagement [
12]. As a direct consequence, businesses are increasingly integrating digital social responsibility (DSR) programs into their operations [
13]. DSR is implemented in multidirectional programs on digital platforms and social media [
14,
15]. Since ICT has reduced the necessary work by potential contributors by delivering digital platforms to materialize their intentions [
1], similarly, the online channels enable corporations to develop more customer-centric and consumer-relevant social responsibility programs [
16]. The evidence from China is the Ant Forest program embedded into Alipay, a public mobile gaming application combining ICT and CSR, which provides various engaging approaches to charity and promotes CSR engagement through customers’ daily low-carbon lifestyles [
6]. Therefore, customers actively reward companies’ efforts toward CSR with sustainable behaviors such as continuing to participate, providing innovative thoughts, offering online support, and recommending socially to others [
5,
17]. Scholars have investigated the connection between DSR and performance and discovered that customer engagement improves both CSR and strategy performance [
14]. Moreover, researchers discovered that the attitudes of customers toward DSR on social media are the predictors of customer engagement with DSR [
15]. Nevertheless, there is limited focus on the mechanism of customer engagement outcomes of DSR, and the majority of sustainable customer behaviors given are based on the evidence of the influences of offline CSR [
13]. Thus, the authors were motivated to explore the diverse outcomes of customer engagement in DSR, including CCB, and continue participating in DSR.
There are fragmented findings concerning the effectiveness of customer engagement in DSR. It was established that customers expect to transform their passive role to join in the value co-creation process and demonstrate philanthropic and voluntary behavior [
18]. Furthermore, prior research on customer engagement has given abundant evidence of its efficacy in customer loyalty, trust, word-of-mouth referrals, commitment, and feedback [
19,
20,
21]. Another body of research indicated that when a customer engages in a company’s DSR program, instead of just purchasing a product or service, the company and the customer build long-term relationships [
22,
23]. These segmented findings reveal that the diversified outcomes of customer engagement in DSR might include both external outcomes, such as customer citizenship behavior (CCB), and internal outcomes, such as customers’ intention to continue [
5,
6]. However, little research has examined relevant outcomes and psychological mechanisms within a single framework. To maximize the positive effect of CSR in a digital context, several studies have advocated for more comprehensive research into the initial conditions and occurrence mechanisms governing sustained customer engagement [
1,
13]. This study responds to these calls by proposing a moderated mediation model for the relationship between customer engagement and sustainable customer outcomes.
While the developing use of ICT can involve customers in CSR activities, one way to effectively bridge the connection between customer engagement and customers’ sustainable responses may be found in affective commitment concept. Previous studies have proven that customer engagement directly influences affective commitment without exploring the customers’ behavioral and intent manifestations [
20,
21,
24]. Furthermore, customers who are affectively committed to a company generally feel obligated to that company and might have stronger inclinations to reciprocate [
25]. Hence, a number of CSR studies have demonstrated that one of the key factors influencing CCB is customers’ affective commitment [
25,
26]. In addition, continuance intention is largely determined by customer satisfaction; CSR offers customers psychological benefits (e.g., green effectiveness, enjoyment), which strengthen their intention to continue participating [
6,
8,
27]. However, none of the existing literature emphasizes the relevance of affective commitment attributes in predicting the sustainable responses of potential consumers in DSR programs. Noting this, this study proposes affective commitment mediation as relevant psychological mechanisms.
To evaluate the effectiveness of psychological commitment, this study investigates whether DSR initiatives with a higher level of gamification affordance are more likely to encourage customers to produce sustained engagement reactions. In ICT-based workplaces, gamification affordance was proven to have a positive effect on customer satisfaction and psychological ownership, hence, influencing customer decisions [
6,
23]. In fact, numerous Chinese firms, including Alipay and Meituan, have incorporated gamification into corporate philanthropy. Customers become more involved in DSR programs by engaging in gamified activities and being supported in transforming their actions into real-world circumstances [
1,
28]. Consumer engagement is believed to raise consumers’ perceived value and foster positive interactions that reinforce consumers’ affective commitment [
24], which may affect sustainable customer response to DSR. Previous research in the environmental field has shown that individual sustainable attitudes and green behaviors are shaped by gamified applications [
29,
30]; this is because enabling gamification affordances motivated customers participation intentions through improving hedonic value [
31,
32]. It would seem, then, that customer CSR performance would benefit from effective CSR gamification design. Therefore, additional research is necessary to understand the extent to which the mediating influence of affective commitment is moderated by gamification affordance as a DSR performance variable.
To fill these gaps, this study develops a framework that specifies when and how customers respond sustainably to DSR. In order to provide a comprehensive explanation to the process, this study deconstructs customer response to DSR into internal outcomes and external outcomes to reveal the effects of customer engagement in DSR on different types of customer outcomes. This study also examines the mediation of affective commitment to empirically investigate the underlying psychological mechanisms. In addition, the study explores the moderating effect of gamification affordance on these mechanisms. This study contributes to the literature on CSR and customer engagement in digital environment. The study findings also provide a guidance to DSR initiatives on how to optimize the sustainable outcomes of customer engagement in their interaction strategies.
6. Discussion
Our research explored the customer response to DSR through the commitment process, drawing on the social exchange theory. Beyond investigating the direct effect, our study aimed to identify an underlying mechanism through the mediating role of affective commitment for customer engagement and CCB, customer engagement and customers’ intention to continue in DSR. That is, our research proved the indirect impact of affective commitment on the relationship between customer engagement in DSR and the diverse sustainable outcomes of it, as well as the positive amplifying impact of gamification affordance on the relationships between customer engagement and their double sustainable outcomes via affective commitment.
Correspondingly, 94.1% of respondents were under the age of 40, and 58.7% were under the age of 30. As for monthly expenses, 60.1% of the respondents had monthly living expenses under 2000 yuan. DSR is now applicable to a larger group than CSR due to its lower participation cost and greater convenience. Moreover, in our study, 70.6% of the respondents were students. Furthermore, the majority of the respondents’ highest education level was a bachelor’s degree, accounting for 82.1%. Given that the DSR program is a new type of ICT-based green and philanthropic behavior application that typically operates in an online setting, we suspect that the student group seems to have more spare time to devote to DSR than the professional group. The engagement of individuals in DSR can stimulate their interest in sustainable programs. The long-term success of DSR depends on CCB and customers’ continuous participation. Similarly, changes in the behavior and thought processes of individuals contribute to the sustainable development of society.
The research model was supported by the final results. H1a presented that customer engagement has a significant positive influence on CCB. The result verified the previous conclusion that CSR programs promote CCB [
9], and sustainable customer engagement drives customer citizenship behavior [
5]. Additionally, the continuance intention of customers was enhanced due to the integration of ICT and CSR programs [
6,
23]. H1b in the current research proposed that customer engagement is positively related to customers’ intention to continue participating in DSR, which is consistent with the previous findings.
Findings related to H2a and H2b demonstrated that the link between customer engagement and CCB, as well as the link between customer engagement and customers’ intention to continue participating in DSR, are both mediated by affective commitment. Affective commitment is a crucial outcome of customer engagement [
21,
24], which has a direct bearing on customers behavior. Customers’ perceptions of CSR can influence their affective commitment and induce CCB [
26,
45], as well as their participation intention [
9].
Moreover, our study proved that gamification affordance increased the mediated mechanism between customer engagement and their sustainable outcomes of DSR via affective commitment. That is, gamification affordance moderated the relationship between customer engagement and CCB via affective commitment. In addition, gamification affordance also moderated the relationship between customer engagement and customers’ intention to continue participating in DSR via affective commitment. Gamification affordance increased the customers’ satisfaction and psychological ownership of CSR initiatives, which led to a greater intention to participate in CSR continuously and CCB [
6,
28]. Therefore, the results backed up our theory about the outcomes of customer engagement in CSR.
6.1. Theoretical Implications
Our study extends the existing research on both CSR and customer engagement since it is designed to connect customer engagement with customer sustainable reactions through the sense-making process. Prior studies have paid little attention to the outcomes of customer engagement in DSR. Some researchers demonstrated the relationship of some customer extra-role behaviors (e.g., feedback, assistance and word-of-mouth) with customer engagement [
20,
21], but CCB as a comprehensive conception of customer extra-role behavioral reactions was neglected. Moreover, the continuance intention and long-term application of a program is crucial when considering the sustainability. Our study introduces the customers’ continued intention to participate in CSR as a significant outcome of customer engagement, which aims to broaden the understanding in several streams.
Second, our study shows the mediating role of affective commitment. The psychological mechanisms that underlie customer response to CSR initiatives is unclear [
5]. Although there is already literature about the relationship of customer engagement with affective commitment in virtual communities [
20], they fail to account for the mediated mechanism of affective commitment in customer engagement and the outcomes in a DSR context. To overcome the limitation, we introduced affective commitment as a psychological mechanism that influences CCB and customers’ continued participation intention in the context of CSR. Thus, our research provides novel insights into the knowledge of when and how customers respond to DSR.
Unlike prior studies, our research explored the moderating role of gamification affordance in the mediated relationship between customer engagement and their diverse sustainable outcomes via affective commitment. Gamification elements are increasingly embedded into CSR programs with the developing of information and digital technology [
28]; however, we know little about the interaction of customers’ motivational factor (gamification affordance) and their planned behavior regarding the CSR initiatives. Given that the main advantage of games is that they contribute to perceived enjoyment, gamification CSR programs can make the whole process more attractive and stickier [
6]. Our findings also lend support to the existing literature that suggests gamification affordance can influence various customer behaviors in CSR programs [
23].
6.2. Managerial Implications
Although most companies realize the preponderance of customer engagement in achieving both CSR and business goals, their awareness of specific outcomes of customer engagement in DSR is misty. The research results suggest that firms should evaluate the extent to which their customers conduct citizenship behavior and repeat participation behavior if they are to achieve the expected profits from their DSR initiatives. In order to obtain the benefits of CCB, managers should target certain customer groups with comparable values in their DSR programs. For example, for environmental-conscious groups, CSR initiates should provide adequate information to explain the objective and a fully functional platform in order to help customers easily support each other, communicate new DSR ideas and recommend the DSR programs to others. Therefore, businesses can both assist customers in making their lives worthwhile and help themself develop a good reputation. Another purpose of businesses is to maintain the intention of customers to participate in DSR programs repeatedly so that they can accomplish the long-term development of firms and society. To enhance the intentions of continuance of customers, they should be given the freedom to select how they participate in DSR programs, including what type of DSR programs they want to support and how they prefer to fund those programs [
5]. In short, the diverse outcomes of customer engagement in DSR depends on customers’ satisfaction with DSR programs’ significance, convenience and autonomy.
In addition, our research found that higher levels of CCB and customers’ continued intention are achieved when customers set affective commitment to the company. Therefore, the key challenge for businesses is to better the overall experience of customers [
26]. One approach to doing so is by raising the transparency and credibility of DSR programs; another is by improving the service quality through ICT, such as optimizing the platform’s functionality. Therefore, customers who have their psychology requirements met are more likely to behave in a socially responsible manner and support the DSR programs in the long term.
The gamification affordance of DSR was proven to strengthen customers’ awareness of social issues and responsible behaviors, thereby promoting CCB and customers’ continued intention of DSR. Businesses can develop DSR projects that combine interesting gamified elements to attract customers to participate in, spread positive commendations and maintain the relationship. One method is to develop new games that communicate CSR information, provide customers with a convenient means to participate and boost the games’ sociability and competitiveness to encourage interactions between customers. At the same time, the reward mechanism of DSR games should be adjusted to the various groups of customers. For example, the customers who participate less frequently in DSR programs could receive a slightly greater reward than customers who were actively involved for a long time, and the actively involved customers could obtain a special reward based on participation length.