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Exploring the Relationship between Suppliers’ CSR and Customer Satisfaction in B2B Context: The
Moderating Effect of Vertical Inter-Organizational Commitment and the Moderated Mediation Effect of
Competitor Identification

We distribute the questionnaire sample for this study in two stages to avoid Common
Method Variance (CMV). The first is issued to RT-Mart suppliers in East China in June
2019; the second is issued in December 2019 to RT-Mart purchasing supervisors who
paired with those suppliers. We collect a total of 210 dyad questionnaires.

The study also examines non-response bias using the chi-square test to compare the
food industry, market focus, ownership, and supplier size of the 210 suppliers who respond
to the questionnaires and the other 64 suppliers who do not answer. We find there are no

significant differences between the two groups.
We measure the significant variables as follows: CSR is developed following
Tashman, Marano, and Kostova (2019), including three items related to carbon reduction,
fair competition, and fair trade. Suppliers’ firm performance is measured using three
items based on Morgan, Vorhies, and Mason (2009). Customer satisfaction is developed

using four items based on Geyskens and Steenkamp (2000) and Cannon and Perreault
(1999). Vertical inter-organizational commitment is measured using three items based on
Yi, He, Ndofor, and Wei (2015). Lastly, competitor identification is measured using three

items based on Chen (1996) and Yu, Wang, and Brouthers (2016). In addition, the control
variables are industry type, market focus, ownership, supplier size, and speed of action.

3. Findings

For the study’s sample, 46% are from the food industry, while 54% are from other
industries. Most of the suppliers (90%) operate in China, and 84% of the included suppliers
are sole proprietorships. We test six hypotheses through Ordinary Least Squares (OLS).

The empirical results of this study suggest that (1) Suppliers engaging in CSR are more
likely to have better customer satisfaction; (2) The relationship between suppliers’ CSR
engagement and its firm performance is mediated by customer satisfaction; (3) Suppliers’
vertical inter-organizational commitments can strengthen the positive relationship between
suppliers’ CSR and retailers’ customer satisfaction; and (4) The moderated mediation

effects of competitor identification are more likely to moderate the mediating relationship
among suppliers’ CSR, retailers’ customer satisfaction, and suppliers’ firm performance.

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