Briana Anderson - Cornell University

66
Another limitation of the study is that only one issue (breast cancer research)
was used as a stimulus for the CSR message. This affects the external validity of the
study. People may have different attitudes and expectations depending on the type of
social activity the company is involved in. Additionally, this issue tends to be more
female-oriented. Consequently, these results may only be generalizable to companies
involved in breast-cancer or female-oriented medical research. Future studies would
need to test other types of social responsibility activities to determine whether the
same results hold true to different types of CSR initiatives/activities.
Another issue to consider in this thesis that may affect the generalizability of
its results is the fact that the endorser was a person (Human Resources Manager) from
within the company. People may have pre-existing attitudes about the credibility of
an internal endorser, i.e. they may be more likely to view that person as less credible
because he or she works for the company. Furthermore, an HR manager was chosen
rather than a CEO to represent the endorser. This person may not have as much status
or credibility in endorsement as a CEO. It is also fairly unlikely that an organization
would use an HR manager for endorsement. Future studies could test attitudes toward
using a person other than a CEO (internal) as an endorser. For example, future studies
could test an external ‘expert’, such as a physician (in the case of medical research as a
CSR activity). Testing an external endorser would be beneficial for two reasons. First,
there is more of a choice in choosing a more or less attractive endorser in the real
world (in the case of an internal endorser, the person looks how they look, e.g. the
CEO has a certain look and cannot be substituted with another person). Second, the
results could be compared to the results of this study to see if overall external
endorsers get different ratings of credibility (with attractiveness being the same level).
The visuals themselves present some issues related to the internal validity of
this study. The clothing style and possible perceptions of differences in age could be