Key Antecedents Influencing Intermediary Social Responsibility and Its Outcomes: Insights from a Transitional Economy

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate and determine the key antecedents of intermediary social responsibility (ISR) and its outcomes. Design: The conceptual framework was designed through exploratory research design where structural relationships were shown with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with smart PLS 3. Findings: The result showed that intermediary self -interest is the strongest predictor of intermediary social responsibility along with consumer ethical aspect has moderate impact but societal and environmental factors do not predict of intermediary social responsibility. Research Limitation/implication: The theoretical contribution of the study is to minimize the knowledge gap by widening the length of existing literature related to the aspect of consumer research. Intermediary social responsibility would help to build up nexus between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumer social responsibility (CNSR) which brings positive socio-economic development of the transitional economy. Originality: The novelty of this research is that it is the unexplored area of consumer research and is not commonly seen and researched by past researchers in the transitional country context.


Introduction
The journey of CSR is still on the rise (Quazi et al., 2016). It has been widely argued that business can achieve economic success by doing well to society (Falck and Heblich, 2007;Laszlo and Cescau, 2017). However, one vital issue which seems to have been often neglected is that socially responsible intermediaries as one of the key stakeholders of businesses can also play a significant role in ensuring the success of social initiatives undertaken by businesses leading to economic gains. The concept of stakeholder advocacy reflects the urgency for intermediaries to play their roles accordingly in ensuring corporate citizenship. Intermediaries are the gatekeepers. They have responsibility to create favorable social impacts by wielding their power in the market place. Intermediaries play a vital role for bringing manufacturer and consumers closer.
They play positive role to reduce the transaction cost which potentially impede sales. Retailers and all the members of distribution channel can be seen as the gate keeper. Thus conceptualizing and assessing ISR is essential, as it can be catalyst for the success of CSR and intermediary social responsibility is a part of social responsibility. In business world both corporation and Intermediary has their responsibility toward society. Both parties have to be responsible as they are working in the society. In sustainable business practice, social responsibility is considered as long term benefit for industry, intermediary, consumer and society. Simply Intermediary social responsibility is Intermediaries' responsibility toward society, such as following social desirable principles, supporting consumer activism, making judgment about product quality, packaging and production process, considering environmental issues, supporting environment friendly products, purchasing green labeling product and making others aware The CSR journey that started centuries ago is still growing at any unprecedented pace with no sign of slowing down. The concept of stakeholder advocacy reflects the urgency for consumers to play their roles accordingly in ensuring corporate citizenship. According to Carroll (1999) CSR can be broadly defined as the activities making companies good citizens who contribute to society's welfare beyond their own self-interests. Vitell (2015) said that while consumer related issues have been widely researched in the extant literature in both conceptual and empirical terms, the issue of consumer social responsibility (CnSR) has received limited attention by researchers and practitioners, resulting in calls for advancement of research on CnSR, particularly in empirical terms. Research of Caruana and Chatzidakis (2014) has also stressed the need to broaden the current narrowly conceived scope of CnSR. CnSR as the individual and collective commitments, actions and decisions that consumers consider as the right things to do in their interactions with producers, marketers and sellers of goods and services . Tingchi Liu et al. (2014) demonstrated that CSR can increase the brand image. Consumers brand preference can be enhanced by CSR performance. There is a mediating effect of perceived brand quality on the relationship between CSR performance and customer's brand preference. Nes (2014) found that the relationships with terminated intermediaries that were replaced by sales subsidiary or home based direct sales were characterized having higher trust, communication and control than extended relationships before replacement. While it may be surprising that these quite successful relationships were terminated, this is in line with internationalization process theories. The replacements, both intermediaries that were replaced by other intermediaries and by sales subsidiary/home-based direct sales, were highly successful in terms of improvement in performance and behavioral relationship variables. Kuo and Kalargyrou (2014) described that consumers are aware of the social impacts of their actions and are willing to reward socially responsible business who, for example, hires staffs with disabilities. Giacalone and Thompson (2006) defined social responsibility in a way that socially responsible means that people and organizations must behave ethically and with sensitivity towards social, cultural, economic and environmental issues. Striving for social responsibility helps individuals, organizations and governments have a positive impact on development, business and society with a positive contribution to bottom-line results. Kansal and Singh (2012) said that CSR disclosures show less satisfactory social performance, mainly narrative and varies significantly among items and themes. He considered human element is the center of social performance. More focus should be given to the environment and to emission of harmful gasses which impact the greater interest of the world. The study of National Research center of Denmark ( 2011) confirmed that previous research by indicating that small firms are motivated for, and have a range of, activities that can be regarded as CSR, but these activities have a widely unrecognized character. Involvement in CSR activities is often based on less formalized business strategies and ethical rationales aiming for creating attractive workplaces. Granerud (2011) described that the CSR initiatives are mainly internally directed "employee activities" that include work environment aspects. The author assumed that there seems to be a potential for motivating small firms for increased attention to OHS through a more formalized and strategic use of CSR, either through sharing of knowledge and experiences in the social enterprise networks or through more attention to the requirements from large customers. According to Ditlev-Simonsen (2010) CSR activities have a positive impact on society and environment. Granerud (2011) showed the CSR initiatives are directed at employees' health and the psychosocial issues. Brandellero and Kloosterman (2010) defined that innovation in creative industries is a new and emerging topic, not yet precisely investigated. According to author innovation is a mean of reaching to the consumers that is innovation works as intermediary. Das (2009) described that social that businesspeople are focusing on business to community development, socially responsible product and socially responsible employee relations. The relationship between CSR and social impact and expected to connect this activities with health and safety at the firm (Montero et al., 2009;Zwetsloot et al., 2008). Caruana and Crane (2008) said that this is the core responsibility of consumers recognizing the very existence of corporations and their sustainability which is deeply rooted in the philosophical under pinning of a number of theories that interface businesses, societal and consumer interests: the triple bottom line perspectives. Chen and Popovich (2003) said that marketing intermediaries, also known as middlemen or distribution intermediaries, are an important part of the product distribution channel. Intermediaries are individuals or businesses that make it possible for the product to make it from the manufacturer to the end user, essentially facilitating the sales process. Laroche et al. (2001) found that consumers are willing to pay a premium price for environmentally being products. Ozanne and Vlosky (2003) found evidence of up to 18.7% premium for ecologically labeled product. According to Lubbe (2000) the term the term intermediaries can be defined as any dealer who acts as a link in the chain of distribution between the company and its customers. Throughout the past several decades, numerous aspects of CSR have been the subject of investigation in academic and business literature, and according to the framework of Sehwartz and Carroll (2003) economic, legal and ethical domains can be epitomized as the most common components of CSR. Striving for social responsibility helps individuals, organizations and governments have a positive impact on development, business and society with a positive contribution to bottom-line results. Intermediaries play a vital role in business and bringing the manufacturer and consumers closer. So they have major responsibility for society. CSR cannot be completed without the participation of intermediaries by undertaking their social responsibility.
A number of CSR researchers have provided useful evidence in favor ISR and called for empirical examination. Based on various literatures about CSR and the discussion that follows as well as decades of research experience and the personal observations of the author six intermediary responsibilities are proposed. Intermediaries should act responsibly to minimize the impact of their behavior on the community as well as on fellow citizens implying an obligation maintaining a sense of responsibility and attention to how their business activities that might impact on citizen and society. Intermediaries also support socially responsible business as long as it does not interfere with their interest. For examples intermediaries should choose their business which is supported by the society. Socially responsive producers get premium prices for their products due to the incorporations of social dimensions that ensure social well-beings. (Burke and Logsdon 1996;Husted and Allen, 2007). Campbell (2000) argued that business organizations are responsible to the society in the form of a social context. Intermediaries ought to ensure that their decisions do not have adverse effect on the environment and they give priority in doing their business with environmentally friendly products. Thus further socially responsible practices by corporations benefitting both intermediaries and the community. For example intermediaries can use green products in their business activities.
They can reduce the use of plastic products for keeping the environment free from pollution. Thomas (1989) showed that consumers are willing to pay 10% premium price. These examples showed that consumers are willing to pay for the product or services those for the companies take initiatives that are environment friendly. They can make aware the consumers about various environmentally friendly initiatives taken by the manufacturer. Wagner and Schaltegger (2004) demonstrated that CSR impact on the economic and performance of organization. Friedman (1983) said that intermediaries are a large portion in business and they should assume this responsibility for the sake of upholding their own interests. Most CSR studies focus on the relationship between CSR and the financial performance (McWilliams and Siegel 2000; Margolis and Walsh 2001;Orlitzky et al., 2003). Liu et al. (2014) studied how corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance (i.e. to the environment, society and stakeholders) and perceived brand quality influence brand preference. Nes (2014) demonstrated that there is a close relationship between role of intermediaries and improvement of performance and employee behaviors. Lee and Cho (2005) said that an information intermediary is a human or a nonhuman party designed to assist consumers in information processing. It should be kept in mind that consumers have the right to provide right information about product or services. CSR can be broadly defined as the activities making companies good citizens who contribute to society's welfare beyond their own self interests (Hart 1995;Holme and Watts 2000;McWilliams and Siegel, 2001;Nicolau, 2008;Tsoutsoura 2004). For conducting the business in socially responsible way intermediaries should also maintain the responsibility for self-interest. Business is a field where the motive of people is to earn profit and profit. So it should be kept in mind that for earning profit intermediaries should not do anything that is not supported by the society. They should maintain their business by maintaining the rules and regulations provided by the society as well as the govt. of the country. Intermediaries and corporations are part and parcel in business. It is not possible for most of the business to reach the consumers without help of intermediaries.

Research Objectives
The purpose of this study was to determine the key antecedents that influence the intermediary social responsibility among retailers and wholesalers to investigate the structural relationship between intermediary social responsibility and some key factors. More specifically this study aimed to achieve the following specific objectives: • To determine the key factors that influence the intermediary social responsibility • To identify the most significant antecedents that impact on intermediary social responsibility • To investigate the structural relationship between the internet adoption and key drivers • To test the structural relationship among dependent and independent variables.

Research Hypotheses
Factors Development of Hypothesis 1.Societal H 1 = There is a relationship between societal aspects and Intermediary social responsibility 2.Economic growth H 2 = There is a relationship between economic growth and Intermediary social responsibility 3. Environmental H 3 = There is a relationship between environmental aspects and Intermediary social responsibility 4. Customer ethical aspect H 4 = There is a relationship between ethical aspects and Intermediary social responsibility 5. Self interest H 1 = There is a relationship between self-interest aspects and Intermediary social responsibility 6. Company moral aspect H 2 = There is a relationship between company moral aspects and Intermediary social responsibility

Research Methodology and Materials
Research Design: The data and information for this study were collected from primary and secondary sources. Primary data were collected through survey with questionnaire for the purpose of statistical analysis and secondary data for the sole purpose of literature review analysis which was gathered from articles, journals and reports, media publications and various periodicals and Internet search engines. The target population of this study was determined with the help of the following key components where elements were all the male and female retailers and wholesalers who are doing business in the old Dhaka. Sampling Units were various retail and wholesale markets of Dhaka city such as Chawlk Bazar, Moulovi Bazar, Imamgonj, Patuatuli, Islampur etc. Responses were collected from those of markets. Different places of Old Dhaka were considered as extent and the duration of the study was-January to April, 2017. Sampling technique was probability in the form of Simple Random Sampling techniques was used in this study. Sample size was 200 which were determined by the nature of research and nature of analysis. Source: Adapted by the Authors through Literature Review Analysis (LRA).

Self-interest aspect (x 5 )
Company oralAspects(x 6 ) Societal In order to develop data collection technique, a structured and self-administered questionnaire was developed and designed using subjective rating scale. The scaling technique of the study was non-comparative scales in the form of itemized rating scale mainly where respondents were asked to rate their valuable opinions on 7 points Likert scale 1= Extremely Disagree and 7= Extremely Agree for all the independent variables.

Data Analysis Strategy/ Techniques/ Methods for Data Analysis:
Quantitative research methodology is used to assess particular features by the using structured data through representative sample so that the outcomes can represent population concisely (Creswell and Creswell, 2017). In this study, quantitative data were coded and analyzed by using SPSS version 23 software with PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares structural equation modeling) with the help of smart PLS-3 application. KMO test for reliability test, First generation multivariate statistical tool like factor analysis were conducted using multiple regression, CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) in the approach of structural equation model (SEM) for convergent and discriminate validity respectively and to test the conceptual framework model and examine structural relationship among variables. Finally, CFA and SEM functions would be conducted using PLS which is an advanced second generation multivariate statistical analysis techniques because combine aspects of factor and regression analysis to simultaneously examine the relationship among measured variables and latent variables and between latent variables (construct) which also demonstrates the structural relationships among determinants of intermediary social responsibility because there is no strong established theory for the study and factors are clearly identified earlier. The structural equation approach is especially useful for understanding multiple and interrelated dependence relationships simultaneously (Hair et al. 1998). Therefore, using PLS-SEM would enable the researchers to measure the model's predictive potential and competences to judge the quality of the model (Hair et al., 2016). This study applied partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) particularly partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) or variance-based SEM using reflective measurement model as the overall statistical approach for data analysis. .000

Data Analysis and Findings
The table 1 shows that the KMO measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity where Kaiser (1974) advocated accepting values greater than 0.5. The factorability sample size adequacy was assessed through Bartlett's test of sphericity Bartlett (1954) and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure (Kaiser, 1970). The factorability of the data and sampling adequacy was confirmed, as the Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant (P<0.05) and the KMO measures was 0.878, which also exceeded the recommended threshold of 0.6 (Tabachnick and Fidell 2001). Furthermore values between 0.7 and 0.8 are good. So our KMO measure of sampling adequacy test is reliable and acceptable for further computation. For these data Bartlett's test is highly significant (p<0.05), and therefore further analysis is appropriate for this study. The model summery provides the R, R 2 , adjusted R 2 , and the standard error of the estimate, which can be used to determine how well a regression model, fits the data. The value of R represents the multiple correlation coefficients. It is seen from the table that the value of R equals .647 indicates a moderately good level of prediction and moderate model fit of the data set. The R 2 value represents the coefficient of determination which is the proportion of variance in the ISR that can be explained by the six independent variables which means that about 42% of the variance in the ISR can be accounted for by a variation in the six independent variables. In other words, all the six independent variables jointly influence the intermediary social responsibility.

Model
Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. The F-ratio in the ANOVA table also tests whether the regression model is a fit for the data. The table shows that the six independent variables statistically significantly predict the dependent variable, F (6, 93) = 11.147, p < .0005 (i.e., the regression model is a good fit of the data). Relative individual contribution of the factors that influence the intermediary social responsibility

Model
Unstandardized By considering standardized coefficient beta value and t value, the more the value, the better the relative importance of the factors. It is clearly shown from the table that self-interest of the middlemen is the most contributing factor which holds standardized beta value .324 which is the highest with t value 2.524, followed by consumer ethical aspect bearing value .306, economic growth, company moral, societal and environmental matters. With the help of the principal component analysis (PCA) techniques, the loading and cross-loading of items, as well as the internal reliability of constructs using Cronbach Alpha coefficient, were tested as well as total variance explained were also assessed. Based on the results without rotation some items were deleted because Factor loading less than .50 have not been considered /reproduced. Highest loading indicates the relative significance of the items that were used to build up the respective construct. Factor rotation is a process of manipulation or adjusting the factor axes to achieve a factor solution (Hair et al., 2009) and is often used for factor analysis where the researchers can explore the potential for data reduction and obtain a preliminary estimate of the number of factors to extract. Convergent validity can be measured with the help of two parameters the first one is the outer loading/factor loading/item loading of the indicators which is also called indicator reliability / communality. Hulland (1999) prescribed that outer loading should be 0.70 or higher. Indicators with very low outer loadings below 0.40 should always be eliminated (Hair et al., 2011). The reliability of the data had been examined to check the consistency for all questions of this study through conventional way of testing internal reliability that is Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. According to Hendrickson et al. (1993) and McGraw and Wong (1996) the alpha of a scale should be greater than .700 for items to be used together as a scale. The value is .752 and can be regarded as acceptable. Construct validity is a validity measure that considers the extent to which a test measures an intended hypothetical constructs (Kumar and Phrommathed, 2005). Convergent validity can be defined when indicators or items of a specific construct converge or share a high proportion of variance (Hair et al., 2009). We also measured convergent validity under construct validity of the study with the recommendation of Hair et al. (1998) with three particular parameters for item reliability with Cronbach's Alpha, construct (composite) reliability, and average variance extracted. All the constructs had satisfactory internal reliability is achieved through a Cronbach's alpha coefficient which is greater than 0.70 (Nunnally, 1979). However, the threshold for item loadings is 0.6 (Lee et al., 2017). The t-values associated with each standardized loadings were significant (P<0.01) for all items under their respective and individual constructs.
Composite reliability is also provided as a measure of construct reliability, that is, the degree to which items are free from random error and therefore render consistent results. Composite reliability over the cutoff point of .70 are suggested in the literature (Hair et al., 1992); (Schwab, 1980). Similarly, it is also accepted that the composite reliability for all constructs was higher than the recommended value of 0.6 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988) and Another parameter for measuring convergent validity was the average variance extracted which means sum of the squared loadings divided by the number of indicators which is equivalent to the communality to the construct. AVE is the tool that measures the quality of the measurement model. (AVE) for each construct exceeded the accepted threshold of 0.5 (Hair et al., 1998). The average variance extracted (AVE) for each factor was more than 0.5 (ranging from 0.529 to 0.593), which further ensured convergent validity. Therefore, the convergent validity for all the assigned constructs was justified and verified. Two ways were used to assess discriminant validity under construct validity of the study. Firstly, cross loading of the indicators were used for indicating discriminant validity is by examining the cross loadings of the indicators where outer loading should be greater than cross loadings. In our study the outer loadings were greater than the cross loadings of the constructs which are listed in table of rotated component matrix. Secondly, Another one is the Fornell-Larcker Criterion which considers the square roots of the AVE values with the latent variable correlations. Chiu and Wang (2008) and Ramayah et al. (2010) which encapsulated that discriminant validity is established when the diagonal elements (square root of the average variance extracted) are greater than the off-diagonal elements (correlations among the constructs), we thus affirm the discriminant validity of the study which was shown in the above table with bold marks.

Explanation of Endogenous (Dependent Variable) Variance:
The coefficient of determination, R 2, is .447 for the endogenous variable intermediary social responsibility (ISR) which is latent variable which means that six independent/exogenous/ latent variables namely societal, economic growth, environmental, consumer ethical aspect, company moral aspect, and self-interest moderately explain 44.70% of the variance in intermediary social responsibility phenomenon. Together the six independent variables explained 44.70% of the change of the intermediary social responsibility whereas the remaining 65.30% was due to unidentified variables and also indicate the model fit of the data is moderately strong.

Inner Model Path Coefficient Sizes and Significance:
The inner model suggests that self-interest variable has the strongest effect on intermediary social responsibility (.367), followed by consumer ethical aspects (.265), economic growth (.211), company moral aspect (.104), societal (-.149), and environmental (-.082) by considering regression weights which are shown in the above graph1.
• The hypnotized path relationship between intermediary social responsibility and self-interest factor is statistically first most significant • The hypnotized path relationship between intermediary social responsibility and consumer ethical aspects factor is the second most statistically significant • The hypnotized path relationship between intermediary social responsibility and economic growth factor is third most statistically significant • The hypnotized path relationship between intermediary social responsibility and company moral aspect factor least statistically significant • But the hypnotized path relationship between intermediary social responsibility and societal factor is not statistically significant because its standardized path coefficient is lower than .10. • And the hypnotized path relationship between intermediary social responsibility and environmental factor is not statistically significant because its standardized path coefficient is lower than .10.
Thus, we can infer that intermediary self -interest factor is the strongest predictor of intermediary social responsibility and consumer ethical aspect and economic growth factors are moderately strong predictors of Intermediary social responsibility, but societal and environmental factors do not predict intermediary social responsibility.

Conclusions
Both manufacturing and service industries have become active and progressive development partner in the path of economic growth and growing prosperity that contribute a lot to the socio economic development of the country and there is a huge prospect to effectively uphold this promising sector by becoming socially responsible. The findings of this study would assist producers and to design and upgrade their existing market offerings as quality one to create more competitive advantage than others in the competitive market by becoming socially responsible orientation. Both the customer centered corporations and ultimate utility taker consumers should think profoundly about these key aspects that impact on ISR and both parties should design and develop middle men marketing strategies to get more customers with win-win philosophy in this competitive market. From above findings it can be said that intermediaries do their business ethically but they are not aware of the responsibilities for the society. Research on ISR as, an emerging issue of far-reaching significance has been scanty. Intermediaries have power over manufacturer as well as consumers. With this power comes responsibility hence the social responsibility of consumers and their power in the market to be investigated. Literature shows a limited power of intermediaries. If the intermediaries are reminded about their responsibilities they would be more sensible in their behavior in the marketplace, and would be willing to maintain a balance between power and responsibilities. More initiatives should be taken to create intermediaries' interest for doing their business in a socially responsible way. Thus creation of an atmosphere of cooperation markets and intermediaries would be beneficial for both parties. Furthermore, CSR programs can often be difficult without ISR.As the purpose of the study is to analyze the key factors that impact on intermediary social responsibility. It has been found that there are lots of factors that intermediaries consider in case of doing their business in socially responsible way. The study has found that self-interest, consumer ethical aspect economic growth factors considered by the intermediaries. All the factors do not have same effect on their mind because different people think in different way. For implementing the CSR companies as well as consumers have to be responsible toward the society. Despite some constraints, it is thought that this report reflects intermediary's involvement in social responsibility and will be helpful to understand the actual scenario and provide significant help to future researches on the similar topic.

Implications and Future Research:
The generalization of the output of the study must be demonstrated with care because the contextual difference and the sample size are relatively small. The theoretical contribution of the study is to minimize the knowledge gap by widening the length of existing literature related to intermediary social responsibility which is really very vital aspect of consumer research and key antecedents regarding this arena. In addition to its theoretical contributions, this research study has some practical implications also. Four out of six factors have found significant in terms of influence that largely impact on intermediary social responsibility aspect among retailers and wholesalers. Self-interest of the middlemen aspect is one of the critical factors that influence most on ISR. Intermediaries need to draw more vivid attention to the benefits of the consumers and corporations which may be effective in convincing both parties interest. Furthermore, consumer ethical aspect has to be more effective to make this nexus between corporations and consumers more sufficiently successful. The relationship between societal aspects and environmental aspects seems to be negative relationship that result can be further studied in order to get further valid justification. Another opportunity for future research can be stated as a crossnational study, which compares the similarities and differences in the intermediary social responsibility criteria between transitional economy and developing economic perspective. The model could be extended to include other factors that could affect ISR apart from the mentioned six key factors. Major limitations of the study was that the small sample size that lacks the generality and in terms of the outcomes of the study, six independent variables which explained around 44 % of the change of the ISR while the significant majority was due to unidentified variables which leads to further rigorous studies in order to scan the other undefined variables that impact on ISR.