Perceived corporate social responsibility affects airline passengers’ service evaluation and loyalty

We explored the role of passengers’ perception of airline corporate social responsibility in the generation of customer loyalty by considering the mediating effects of cognitive and affective evaluations and the moderating effect of gender. Participants were 310 randomly chosen people who had been airline passengers within the past 12 months, and they completed an online survey. Results of structural equation modeling revealed that passengers’ perception of airline corporate social responsibility contributed significantly to eliciting positive cognitive and affective evaluations and to enhancing passenger loyalty. Further, cognitive and affective factors significantly mediated the impact of airline corporate social responsibility on loyalty, and the results of a metric invariance test showed that gender moderated the association between airline corporate social responsibility and affective evaluation. Our findings will help airline practitioners develop effective strategies to improve passenger loyalty.