When doing the right thing goes wrong! Causes, effects, and dimensions of corporate social responsibility scepticism

Stakeholder scepticism is becoming more prevalent surrounding organisations’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation and communication processes. This study provides a systematic literature review of 73 studies, published from 2007 to 2024, to determine the status quo of the CSR scepticism scholarship by specifically exploring the underlying causes, effects, and salient dimensions of CSR scepticism. The findings illustrate that the process nature of CSR scepticism is multi-dimensional. There are both CSR-related and non-CSR-related causal factors that determine and induce negativities in stakeholders’ evaluations and perceptions towards certain CSR actions and communications. Additionally, the content analysis of the literature dataset also depicts the adverse impacts of CSR scepticism and emphasises various implications and measures of CSR scepticism mitigation. This study contributes a conceptual insight into the pervasive issue of scepticism in the CSR context, whilst also informing management, marketing, communication, and public relations professionals about the complexity of CSR scepticism as a barrier to effective CSR implementation and communication processes.