The Influences of Corporate Social Responsibility to Customer Repurchases Intentions, Customer Word-of-Mouth Intentions and Customer Perceived Food Quality of Fast- Food Restaurants in Hong Kong and the Mediating Effects of Corporate Reputation

Aims: Market studies indicate that Hong Kong consumers are affluent and generally live a trendy, refined lifestyle. As such, besides traditional food markets, Hong Kong’s free market economy has spawned various forms of food retailers, such as supermarkets, fast foods chains and fine dining restaurants, that contribute tremendously to its economy. In the face of fierce competition, companies in the food retail service industry are moving to differentiate themselves by embracing non-traditional, contemporary means of demarcation. One such means is by adopting corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a strategy for evoking positive customer behaviour towards the service. However, there is a dearth of research on CSR’s contribution to corporate reputation and its direct relationship with service industry eminent marketing concepts. This research investigated the role of CSR in building a better brand through corporate reputation and its effects on word of Original Research Article British Journal of Economics, Management & Trade, 4(11): 1655-1678, 2014 1656 mouth intentions, repurchase intentions and customer positively perceived food quality in Hong Kong’s fast food industry. Study Design: The research adopted a positivism paradigm and quantitative cross sectional approach. Place and Duration of Study: The study was taken in Hong Kong between 2012 and 2013 of fast food restaurant patrons. Methodology: Five constructs were adopted from previous studies to identify the relationships between various antecedents and to test ten hypotheses. Data were collected from 384 fast food restaurant patrons in Hong Kong. Results: CSR is found to be directly related to corporate reputation, which is considered to be an important tool for business sustainability. Furthermore, the research revealed the partial mediating effects of corporate reputation on the relationship between CSR and customer behaviour and intentions. CSR provides a competitive advantage to fast food businesses as it plays a huge role in inducing positive word of mouth, repeat purchases, and positively perceived food quality. Conclusion: The research has raised issues concerning the importance of CSR in changing customer behaviour and the pertinent partial mediating role played by corporate reputation in influencing CSR’s impact on customer behaviour and intentions. Findings from the research provide marketing information concerning CSR initiatives as well as verifying CSR-related theories, corporate reputation and marketing concepts. As service is known to vary according to the context in which it is offered, it is best for retail managers to identify CSR activities that best reflect their particular product or service. This will make it easier for customers to comprehend and evaluate, which will ultimately benefit Hong Kong’s fast food industry as a whole.


INTRODUCTION
Service retailing contributes tremendously to the economy of most Asian countries [1,2]. Hence, the service retail industry is moving to differentiate itself in a non-traditional manner by embracing contemporary means of demarcation. The theoretical framework derived for this research from a broad perspective of relevant seminal and current literature indicates the power of corporate reputation in influencing consumers' trust in products and services [3]. The framework also describes consumers' trust in products and services purchased from retailers based on consumers' perceived quality of the products and services [1,4,5]. Other trust building factors include consumers' repeat purchases or repeat visits to retailers and dissemination of positive word of mouth [6,7,8,9]. Deeply rooted service theories revolve around quality of service as the primary contributor to a retailer's ability to attract customers, ignoring other significant issues around the globe.
One such pertinent issue is CSR and its ability to evoke positive behaviour toward the service retailers. There is a dearth of research on CSR's contribution to corporate reputation and its direct relationship with eminent marketing concepts in the service industry [10,11]. This research therefore explores the influence of CSR on corporate reputation and the its direct influence on word of mouth (WoM) intentions, repurchase intentions (RPI) and perceived food quality (PFQ) in Hong Kong's fast food retail industry, drawing upon theories and scales established by [11,12,13,14].

Background of the Study
Hong Kong is one of the world's strongest economies with a Western influence that has stimulated the expansion of Chinese style fast food chain stores and Western fast food franchises [8]. Though not known for their loyalty, Hong Kong consumers have an affinity toward the concept of eating out [15] thereby providing fast food restaurants with ample opportunities to expand [8,16,17,18].
Conversely, the expansion of fast food chains merely creates higher competition and less recognition. Therefore, fast food retailers seek competitive advantages with concepts such as CSR incorporated into retail management. Hong Kong consumers are increasingly conscious of what they buy and where they buy, placing importance on social and environmental sustainability [19,20], forcing retailers to acknowledge societal-oriented marketing and incorporate CSR in their business strategy.
Brand image and reputation are very important in the fast food industry where consumers prefer to frequent restaurants recognised for serving good quality, tasty food that is hygienically prepared and served in clean surroundings [4]. Such restaurants must therefore have a good reputation in order to provide the recognition necessary to provoke revisits and recommendations. As competitiveness intensifies, food retailers face huge challenges in sustaining profitability and growth. Reputable fast food restaurants find positive word of mouth important for attracting new customers, and positively perceived food quality is crucial to entice return customers who are imperative for business sustainability.

Fast Food Retailing and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Retailers brand themselves to tap into consumers' need for retail uniqueness [6,21]. Brand preference is a significant antecedent of customer loyalty in Hong Kong [22]. Branding aids in developing a discernible retail business, which assists customers with recognising and choosing a retailer to shop at. New strategies such as business sustainability through successful CSR activities are being rapidly introduced into the retail arena [23,24,25,26].
Fast food retailers adopt CSR in their business strategy as it assists in building a brand of retail, helps recognition and provides distinction [27,28]. CSR would be particularly beneficial to fast food retailers as they are involved in a business where there is enormous concern over consumer health, supplies that affect animal rights, free range farming, pesticide-free products, and organic supplies. Word of mouth (WoM) is a free walking advertisement for an organisation. However, while a positive WoM can benefit an organisation greatly, a negative WoM can cause the organisation to collapse [29,30]. It is therefore important for organisations to develop strategies that will help build positive WoM. Studies indicate that CSR directly contributes to WoM, as customers who see CSR activities benefiting the causes that are close to their hearts will either preach positively or participate in those programmes [30,31,32].
Customers' repurchase intention is useful for retailers as it indicates the retention of customers. Peelen [33] claimed that it is five to ten times more costly to obtain a new customer than it is to retain an existing one. Repurchase intentions improve due to customers' satisfaction with something or everything that is offered by the retailer. Studies suggest that CSR's influence on repurchase intention is closely associated to customers' level of awareness [32,34,35,36]. The more aware customers are about the CSR activities conducted by the retailer, the more confident they are of the brand of retailer. This research empirically investigated the contribution of CSR to corporate reputation, WoM intentions, repurchase intentions (RPI) and perceived food quality (PFQ). This phenomenon, coupled with the current interest in CSR, gives rise to the aim of the present research whereby the contribution of CSR activities to brand reputation and the mediating role of retail brand reputation on factors that would influence retail sustainability, namely customers' repurchase intentions or customer retention is examined. This research further explored the influence of CSR and retail reputation on perceived food quality of fast food retails, which also contributes to the retention of consumers. Finally, the research examined the influence of CSR and reputation on the direction of word of mouth that would influence the gain of new customers and returning customers.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT
The following provides an overview of the literature concerning the fast food retailing in Hong Kong and investigates the relationships among corporate social responsibility, corporate reputation and consumer behaviour and intentions, in particular the concepts of repurchase intention, perceived food quality and word of mouth intention in the fast food retailing industry.

Fast Food Retail in Hong Kong
Foreign fast food retailers are striving to convince consumers that their business is ethically sound, earning credibility for their responsible behaviour towards the environment, society, and its employees [37,38]. Fast food consumers in China and Hong Kong further show an inclination to brand consciousness, with the younger generation leaning towards well established brands of fast food retailers compared to local fast food restaurants that are yet to establish their brand names [8]. Therefore CSR is an excellent tool to establish a strong brand image and build a reputation that consumers will have no doubt about when selecting a fast food restaurant. The fast food retail industry is more sensitive to brand recognition as it provides psychological benefits such as hygienically prepared food that is safe for consumption if prepared and consumed at a recognisable brand of retail outlet [4].

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
CSR was introduced as early as the 1950s as a simple declaration to establish a business's commitment to produce and sell in accordance with society's beliefs, values and economic expansion [39]. However, CSR is now clearly a 21st century phenomena that has initiated a variety of opportunities and complications for retailers.
CSR at fast food retails is more convoluted than at retails selling tangible products. As established earlier, retail is part of the complex service industry. Here, food poses more complexity as it carries all of the service industries' characteristics, thus the quality of the food and the service rendered can only be measured using customer perception [40]. This implies that food service retailers need to place great importance on customer satisfaction, the measures of which include nutritional, palatability and hygiene factors. The present research places CSR as a unique stimulus for fast food retailers in Hong Kong to gain a good reputation, positive word of mouth, repeat visits and purchases, and increased positive perception of the overall food quality. Consumers are generally keen to be socially responsible and therefore seek ethical businesses to trade and build relationships with [41]. As this group of consumers grow in number, it is imperative for fast food retailers to proactively practice CSR in order to achieve a competitive advantage [27,28]. There are an increasing number of studies that suggest consumers in developed and developing countries are quickly converting to users of socially and environmentally friendly services and products [21,28].

Relationships between CSR, Reputation and Perceived Food Quality
Studies show that consumers are influenced by the CSR initiatives of a company and this influence is seen as positive in the way they perceive the quality of the service [34,42,43,44]. However, this is arguable as the sheer fact that the service characteristic is unique, indicates the difficulty one would face in evaluating service quality [35]. [45] advocated that customers do not judge service quality based on its outcome. In fact, a customer perceives quality based on several indicators depending on the type of service. The quality of service at a fast food retail can be judged based on the food, packaging, front-line service, outlet ambiance, convenience, consistency, bundled meal, and reliability [46]. This evaluation of quality includes the retailers' initiatives to serve quality food with reference to healthy ingredients, such as pesticide-free, organic, and raw material production complying with animal rights protocols. For the purpose of this research, the perceived quality indicator was taken to be customers' perception of the food quality in Hong Kong fast food restaurants. [35] affirmed that customers of fast food are fundamentally bound to a retailer when they positively perceive the quality of food, which shows that CSR activities may not directly contribute to customers' commitment to a particular retailer. Moreover, CSR is assumed to play a bigger role as a crisis management strategy rather than an influence of buying intentions [47].

Relationships between CSR, Reputation and Word of Mouth Intention
Positive WoM is a pertinent factor to measure current customers' willingness to talk positively about the product or retailer and is a free form of advertising. Customer experience with products and services experience leads to external communication, [5,48,49], primarily WoM, which can be a boon or a bane. Positive WoM is warmly welcomed by the retailer while negative WoM is something the retailer needs to rectify, either using public relations or CSR as a crisis management tool [47]. Empirical studies show that satisfied customers disseminate positive WoM, which subsequently turns into better sales [6,30]. WoM is a pertinent evaluative tool as it helps potential buyers to purchase confidently, reducing their uncertainty due to unknown risk [50,51]; it is also an influential source of information, affecting the choice of brand and brand loyalty [51,52,53,54]. Customer satisfaction and brand preference on loyalty in Hong Kong's service industry makes a significant contribution by helping managers of the service providers better understand their customers and manage their products [22]. [48]advocated that the greatest gift a consumer can give the retailer is their unconscious deliverance of positive messages regarding the retailer. This would augment brand image, recognition and retail traffic [55]. Likewise, employees who are happy, satisfied and proud of being part of the retail will pass positive WoM to friends, family and other customers, rendering better business and, in the case of fast food retailers, better store traffic and sales [56].

Relationship between CSR, Reputation and Repurchase Intention
Sociological studies suggest that CSR programmes significantly change the willingness of managers to repeat purchase [32,34,35]. Therefore, willingness to repeat purchase in response to CSR programmes of a retailer may be linked to awareness of customers. In other words, customers who are aware of the impact of various social and environmental issues on the future of healthy living, react positively toward socially responsible organizations [36]. CSR programmes that are close to the causes that customers are keen on, can influence customers to be altruistic [57]. Furthermore, [23] and [7] found significant relationships linking CSR to positive perceptions that lead to loyalty and repeat purchases. Studies show that as affluent customers become more aware of the increasing environmental and social problems, the CSR notion could become pertinent to customers and a significant stimulus to repurchase [7]. Customers will repeat purchase at the retails that fulfill their expectations [58]. Hence, with more businesses involving themselves in CSR activities, there is an increased customer awareness of CSR's importance that will drive them to anticipate CSR practices by all the retailers they visit.
Literatures how an indirect relationship between a business' involvement in CSR activities and on both repeat purchases and perceptions of service quality [35,42,59]. There is a dearth of studies translating CSR directly into WoM or into increasing perceived quality and repurchase intention. There are studies looking into the contribution of WoM to the intention to purchase, mainly taking WoM as a positive attribute to purchase and more so if the business involvement in CSR activities is not immediately apparent to customers [29,60].Studies have been undertaken using CSR as a moderating factor to enhance reputation and brand image, while others indicate that businesses use CSR simply because others are doing the same [61,62]. Similarly, literature on CSR's contribution to marketing services is complex, inconsistent and contradictory [35,63,64]. Therefore, this research set out to investigate the contribution of fast food retailers' CSR involvement to building a strong reputation that would instigate positive WoM, and increase perceived service quality (PSQ) and repurchase intention (RPI). There is little doubt that CSR significantly strengthens the reputation of a retail brand, however it is less certain if retail reputation plays a direct role in influencing positive WoM, PSQ and RPI, as reputation is developed over a long period of time based on customers' experience of various service factors.

Hypotheses Development
This research studies the theoretical relationships derived from the foregoing analysis of the relevant literature. Marketers will benefit from knowing the exact purpose of CSR in fast food retail and precisely which of the marketing variables are affected or influenced by CSR. This study aims at evaluating whether the success of CSR activities could be reflected in the positive reputation of the retailer, which results in positive WoM intentions, positive RPI and positive PFQ. This subsequently improves the retailers market positioning and ability to sustain market leadership. Hence, the following hypotheses are posited to examine the contribution of CSR to the behaviour of consumers in Hong Kong's fast food retail industry.
Hypothesis H1. CSR activities of a fast-food restaurant in Hong Kong increase customer WoM intentions. Hypothesis H2. CSR activities of a fast-food restaurant in Hong Kong increase customer RPI. Hypothesis H3. CSR activities of a fast food restaurant in Hong Kong increase customer PFQ.
Hypothesis H4 below postulates the direct relationship between fast food retailers' involvement in CSR activities on their reputation as a responsible and ethical retailer. This hypothesis reflects the notion that CSR practices of an organisation have the ability to build and strengthen the reputation of the organization [11,34,62]. This allows marketers to leverage CSR activities with the purpose of building their reputation and consequently H5, H6 and H7 show the direct relationships between the reputation of fast food retailers and customer WoM intentions, customer RPI and customer PFQ. As in H1, H2 and H3, these hypotheses test to see if corporate reputation has more influence than CSR on the identified marketing concepts [65,66]. This comparison allows marketers to undertake CSR activities that are suitable for the purpose they propose. For most businesses, reputation is the traditional organisational concept that the entire business will work on building. However, few relate this to CSR, as in many instances CSR has been misconstrued as a crisis management tool used for public relations in the organisation rather than a tool used by marketers to build reputation [47,67].
The final hypotheses H8, H9, and H10 have been postulated to depict the partial mediating influence of fast food retailers' reputation on the relationships between CSR and customer WoM intentions, customer RPI, and customer PFQ [34,68]. These hypotheses are intended to test the importance of fast food retailers' involvement in CSR activities in order to build a reputable retail that would gain positive customer WoM intentions, positive customer RPI, and positive customer PFQ.
Hypothesis H8. Corporate reputation of a fast-food restaurant in Hong Kong partially mediates the relationship between CSR and customer WoM intentions. Hypothesis H9. Corporate reputation of a fast-food restaurant in Hong Kong partially mediates the relationship between CSR and customer RPI. Hypothesis H10. Corporate reputation of a fast-food restaurant in Hong Kong partially mediates the relationship between CSR and customer PFQ.

Research Model
Ten hypotheses have been developed based on the literature on the corporate social responsibility, corporate reputation, word of mouth, repurchase intention and perceived food quality. Based upon these ten hypotheses developed, a research model (Fig. 1) was devised by adapting the following sets of constructs from prior studies.

Sample and Data Collection
As this research investigates the customers of fast food restaurants in Hong Kong, the unit of analysis is individuals. Therefore, questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 400 fast food customers, who were 18 years old and above. The research began by setting up a database with locations of all the fast food restaurants in Hong Kong. In order not to be bias when selecting restaurants, the researcher randomly selected several locations using a simple lottery method. In addition, in order to ensure these are fast food restaurants that have high traffic, the correct timing and days to visit the restaurants were determined from a publicly available database. The questionnaires were distributed to the restaurant patrons outside the restaurants where the restaurant owner's consent to interview patrons was not required. A total of 20 locations were selected randomly and visited by the researcher to distribute the research questionnaires. 400 self-administered, personal survey questionnaires for this study were randomly distributed to customers of fast food restaurants in the public areas of identified fast food restaurants in these 20 locations.

Consumer Behaviours and Intentions
Customer Repurchase Intention

Customer Perceived Food Quality
Ethical issues during the data collection process were considered. The information statement together with the questionnaires helped to address participants' concerns over confidentiality. Firstly, the questionnaires were distributed in a public place to customers of fast food restaurants who were given the freedom to choose to participate or not. A completed and returned questionnaire was taken as consent of the respondent to participation. Secondly, in order to address the ethical issue on anonymity, respondents' personal information was not required on the questionnaire and the places where the questionnaire was distributed remains confidential to the researcher. The researcher feels that the information statement provided to the respondents assuring them of anonymity strengthened the response rate. Thirdly, the questionnaire design took into account the sensitive nature of the research topic and avoided questions that may lead to falsification of responses or to an increase in social desirability [69]. Scaled items were adapted to accommodate self-administered survey and evoke fair responses. Finally, completed questionnaires and all other information that could link directly or indirectly to respondents will be kept securely by the researcher and disposed of after five years.

Research Instruments
This research has a total of five constructs: corporate social responsibility, corporate reputation, customer word of mouth intentions, customer repurchase intentions, and customer perceived food quality. The items chosen to measure these constructs were borrowed from various established literature as shown in Table 1 below. Corporate social responsibility was represented by five items, corporate reputation was measured using three single dimensional item scales, six items represented customer word of mouth intentions, customer repurchase intentions was measured using five single dimensional items, and three items represented customer perceived food quality. A summary of measuring items is shown in Table 2 below.

Data Analysis
The measures used in this research were cleaned and assessed using validity and reliability tests to establish accuracy of data collected. In the current research, these assessments were performed via Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) which is then confirmed using Confirmatory Factory Analysis (CFA) to ensure the data is suitable to run Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). This assessment relates to ensuring that items used to measure one construct hang together or are closely related to each other. Table 3 below shows the characteristics of respondents in respect of age, marital status, level of education, monthly salary and respondents' nationality.

Validity Test
In running Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to assess the items used to measure CSR and CR, the principal component method was used, rotating the data with varimax rotation and suppressing loadings below 0.5. This research assumes the CSR and CR are nonrelated in order to draw out the actual benefit of CSR in enhancing CR. Thus a Varimax method of rotation was used. Table 4 below shows all five items for CSR loading highly in component 1 which is named CSR, while all three items for CR loaded highly into component 2, and is now named as CR. The five items measuring CSR and three items measuring CR loaded, fulfilling conditions for convergent and discriminant validity.     Fig 2 below shows the measurement model for CSR and CR used to assess the validity. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to verify the measurement assessment performed above. As such, measurement models of latent variables are drawn and confirmed the findings above using structural equation modelling (SEM). Table 7 below shows a summary of model fit which shows that the model does not quite fit as CMIN=45.01, df=19, and p-value=0.001. However, CIM/DF=2.37 shows a model fit [73,74]. This is corroborated by the coefficients GFI=0.97, AGFI=0.95 and CFI=0.97, all of which are >0.9 indicating an acceptable model. As RMSEA<0.08 is the rule of the thumb to accept a model fit, the RMSEA=0.06 and PCLOSE=0.0021 (PCLOSE<0.05) show an acceptable model. The Factor Score Weights in Table 8 below and Standardised Total Effects in Table 9 show the clear loading of CSR items and CR items into two distinctive columns, indicating the convergent and discriminant validity of items. .000 .660

Fig. 2. Measurement Model for CSR and CR
Note: A1s -items measuring CSR, A2s -items measuring CR

Measurement model and CFA for WoM, RPI and PFQ
The CFA used to verify the validity of items measuring WoM, RPI and PFQ is portrayed in the measurement model displayed in Fig. 3 below. Although the model summary in Table 10 indicates that the model does not quite fit because CMIN=108.04, df=41, and p-value=0.0001, the ratio of CIM/DF=2.6 (CIM/DF<0.3) shows a model fit [73,74]. This acceptable measurement model fit is further supported by the >0.9 values of GFI=0.95, AGFI=0.92 and CFI=0.98. Moreover, RMSEA<0.08 is the rule of the thumb to accept a model fit while the RMSEA for this data shows RMSEA=0.065 and PCLOSE=0.05 (PCLOSE<0.05) show an acceptable model. As [73] and [74] assert, at least four of the various measure are sufficient to accept a model fit. The Factor Score Weights in Table 11 and Standardised Total Effects in Table 12 show the clear loading of WoM items, RPI items and PFQ items into three distinctive columns. Finally, the removal of two items from RPI and one item from PFQ has allowed other items to load distinctively and highly into the respective latent constructs. Thus the validity and reliability of the items concerning WoM, RPI and PFQ are confirmed with the Critical Ratio (C.R.) values as seen in Table 13, whereby all CRs are >1.96, [73,74,75]. The relationship between the latent variables are confirmed as seen in Table 14 whereby the covariances and correlations show strong relationships as all Critical Ratios are above 1.96 and correlations are above 0.5. Thus, the data collected is valid, reliable and now suitable to test significant of the hypotheses.

Hypotheses Testing by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)
Testing of the hypotheses for this research is carried out by using SEM as displayed in Fig. 4 below. The research's focus is on the influence of CSR on CR, and CR's influence on WoM intentions, RPI and PFQ. Hence, more importantly, the present study verifies the mediating role played by corporate reputation, intervening the relationship between CSR and WoM, RPI and PFQ. The research further verifies the direct influences of CSR on the three dependent latent constructs of WoM, RPI and PFQ.

Significance Tests
The Regression Weights displayed in Table 15 below shows that the relationships postulated in Figure 4     indicates that the relationships in (c) above exist. The mediation effect of CR on the relationships suggested above is confirmed. However, in SEM, since the full model is represented, the Indirect Effect is used to suggest whether the mediation impact is full, partial or non-mediating. Therefore, using Table 16 above and the rule of the thumb suggested by [76], the following conclusion is made on the mediating effect of CR:

Mediation influence of CR
a. The direct relationships between CSR and WoM, CSR and RPI, and CSR and PFQ are all significant. b. The indirect effect of CSR on WoM=0.306 (>0.085) and IE DE, hence CR is a partial mediator for the relationship between CSR and WoM. c. The indirect effect of CSR on RPI=0.287 (>0.085) and IEDE, hence CR is a partial mediator for the relationship between CSR and RPI. d. The indirect effect of CSR on PFQ=0.310 (>0.085) and IEDE, hence CR is a partial mediator for the relationship between CSR and PFQ.
The above conclusion indicates that CR is a partial mediator for the relationships between CSR and WoM, RPI and PFQ. Thus, the hypotheses H8, H9 and H10 are supported as well.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
This research was built on a strong platform of literature that produced the main research question and ten hypotheses for the purpose of verifying theories relating to the effect of CSR on consumer behaviour. The retail industry is evolving at a rapid pace, thus requiring an incessant flow of relevant new knowledge. The practical and theoretical implications of the findings from this research add such new knowledge by enriching understanding of the value of practicing CSR to build an organisation's reputation.
The impact of CSR on perceived quality [8,35], corporate reputation and RPI have traditionally been studied as direct relationships [34,77], and CSR's direct impact on WoM intentions has been discussed separately [13]. Also, much of the CSR literature has been dedicated to CSR's influence on reputation and image [40] while neglecting the mediating role played by corporate reputation in the relationships between CSR and consumer intentions and behaviour. This research therefore adds to the existing knowledge of CSR's role in marketing by finding that a good corporate reputation together with relevant and integrated CSR provides a much stronger impact on the behaviour of consumers than CSR on its own may have.
As a partial mediator, corporate reputation plays a direct role in consumer actions. This being the case, the findings from this research indicate that nonconforming CSR activities may be a mover of certain consumer behaviour but it may not be very convincing nor is there an assurance that this will last long, as only incessant CSR activities contribute to sustainable behaviour. This suggests that in order to benefit most from CSR practices, businesses ought to develop a reputable brand using CSR as this would bring about a long term and sustainable positive impact on consumer behaviour and intentions. Therefore, this research's theoretical contribution is the introduction of corporate reputation as a long term benefit to the relationship between CSR and customer behaviour and intentions.
Retail managers and service managers in general are able to build a strong reputation for their business. However, due to competitive pressure, CSR is beginning to be recognised as a resilient tool for enhancing reputation via positive consumer behaviour and intentions [6]. As service lacks consistency, it is difficult to maintain customer interest and buying behavior [78]. This research found that CSR components that are more focused toward retailing may have either a strong direct relationship or a strong relationship that is partially mediated by reputation. Thus, managers could either build the brand name of retail or add to their corporate reputation by employing CSR activities that are found suitable for their type of retail. Therefore, managers of the fast food retail industry may need to implement CSR activities or programmes that are capable of continuance and of building corporate reputation. This may be done by carrying out CSR programmes that are generally closer to customers' interests. This research found that consumers are more likely to appreciate CSR activities that are visible to them, thus treating employees well will result in satisfied employees who will face customers with a happy disposition and a positive attitude [39].

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
The main limitation of this research is the sample used which is a subset of fast food restaurant customers in Hong Kong. The respondents may not have had any knowledge of CSR or may not have been aware of the CSR activities carried out by the retailer where they were interviewed. Hence generalizability may be distorted, as some of the respondents may have participated without fully knowing the reasons for CSR. The present research limited the influence of CSR and CR on three marketing concepts, however, there may be more than these concepts that may be affected by CSR and CR, such as corporate image that could mediate the abovementioned relationships.
Further related research might consider developing items for CSR that are more suitable for the type of retail being examined. Consideration might also be given to interviewing a group of visitors to Hong Kong, possibly from mainland China, in order to provide a comparison of CSR knowledge between local fast food retail customers and those from other jurisdictions. Lastly, future research might consider investigating whether new purchases are made due to customers' knowledge that the retailer is practising CSR and how much of that knowledge is gained by WoM.

CONCLUSION
This research shows that Hong Kong fast food customers are young adults who have limited spending power and can only frequently consume fast food. CSR is found to be directly related to corporate reputation, which is considered to be an important tool for sustainable business. Furthermore, the research revealed the partial mediating power of corporate reputation between the relationship of CSR and customer behaviour and intentions. CSR provides a competitive advantage to many businesses and should not be taken for granted as it plays a huge role in inducing positive word of mouth, repeat purchases, and positively perceived food quality. This research has undertaken a quantitative approach to evaluating the contribution of CSR to customer behaviour and intentions. In doing so, the research added the corporate reputation of the retailer as partial mediator in the relationship between CSR and customer behaviour and intentions. It has raised issues concerning the importance of CSR in changing customer behaviour and the pertinent partially mediating role played by corporate reputation in influencing CSRs' impact on customer behaviour and intentions. As service is known to vary according to the context in which it is offered, it is best for retail managers to identify CSR activities that best reflect their particular product or service. This will make it easier for customers to comprehend and evaluate, which will ultimately benefit the retailer.