Aging society: A study on the role of philanthropic corporate social responsibility in the quick service restaurant industry

In recent years, the issue of poverty among the elderly has become an issue that the Korean government has made great efforts to solve. For example, the Korean government planned to create about 430,000 new jobs for the elderly by 2017. At this point, finding a role of the elderly in the food service industry is very important. Thus, this study examined the important role of philanthropic corporate social responsibility (PCSR), focusing on restaurants where people aged 65 and over provide services. For this, a theoretical model was developed in order to find the impact of PCSR on customer citizenship behavior (CCB). In addition, based on the existing theoretical background, it was proposed that brand preference moderates the relationship between PCSR and CCB. Data were collected from 259 customers who had visited a McDonald’s restaurant where those aged 65 and over had provided services in the past three months in Korea. The data analysis results indicated that PCSR has a positive influence on all four dimensions of CCB including tolerance, advocacy, helping, and feedback. Lastly, this study found the moderating role of brand preference in the relationships between (1) PCSR and advocacy and (2) PCSR and feedback. The important theoretical/managerial implications that were derived from the data analysis are presented and discussed in the last part of the paper.