Advertising disclosures and CSR practices of credit card issuers

This paper aims to test the relations among consumers' attitudes toward disclosures in credit card issuers' print ads, attitudes toward credit card issuers' CSR practices, and attitudes toward credit card issuers in general, with a survey study.

A survey study with a convenient sampling consisting of college students is used to test the relations among consumers' attitudes toward disclosures in credit card issuers' print ads, attitudes toward credit card issuers' CSR practices, and attitudes toward credit card issuers in general.

The results suggest that students' positive attitudes toward disclosures positively enhance their attitudes toward credit card issuers and credit card issuers' CSR practices. More importantly, students' attitudes toward credit card issuers' CSR practices mediate their attitudes toward disclosures on enhancing their attitudes toward credit card issuers.

Disclosures are increasingly common in advertisements for a range of products, including banking, cigarettes, over‐the‐counter drugs, and diet products. Thus, the study's results can also be applicable for corporations that advertise financial and health‐related product or services. Despite the inherent limitations of this study (e.g. context‐specific, convenience sample, and limited product types) that have to be confirmed in future research, future research should examine the relationship between various practices of disclosures and different aspects of CSR practices.

Based on this study's results, credit card issuers should improve their practices of disclosures and communicate their disclosures better to college students. Since a positive relationship between consumer responses and CSR practices is evident, projecting good CSR practices can also enhance credit card issuers' corporate images.

The paper primarily studies the impact of advertising disclosures and CSR practices on corporate image from college students' perspective. The research adds value to the existing literature on CSR, which is important to both academic researchers and practitioners.