Authenticity Matters: Linking CSR Motives, CSR ‐Company Fit, and Engagement in Emerging Market Retailing

ABSTRACT As social and environmental awareness grows and post‐pandemic values shift, consumers' interpretations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) motives in shopping malls and hypermarkets remain underexplored. Drawing on attribution theory, this study incorporates CSR authenticity and CSR‐company fit into the perceived CSR motives framework to examine their influences on consumer social media engagement. Survey data from an emerging market reveal that value‐driven motives most strongly influence authenticity, followed by stakeholder‐driven motives, while egoistic‐ and strategy‐driven motives show no significant impact. CSR authenticity, in turn, enhances CSR‐company fit and directly drives engagement, with fit serving as a complementary mediator. These findings highlight authenticity as a key mechanism linking perceived motives to consumer engagement. The study extends attribution theory by clarifying how distinct CSR motives shape consumer responses on social media, offering new insights into CSR communication in emerging market retailing.