Customer participation in brand environmental responsibility is necessary for enterprises and consumers to co-create value. However, it is not yet clear why some corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications are more effective in attracting higher customer participation in a digitally transparent environment. Based on signal theory and social identity theory, this study examines the impact of the interactive effect of CSR strategy (proactive vs. reactive) and transparency signals (high vs. low) on customer trust (perceived integrity and perceived competence), customer–brand identification, and participation intention in brand environmental responsibility. We conduct a 2 × 2 study with 140 respondents. The findings reveal a significant interaction effect of CSR strategy and transparency signals on perceived integrity, perceived competence, and participation intention in brand environmental responsibility. Mediation analysis reveals that the impact of CSR strategy on participation intention is serially mediated via perceived trust and customer–brand identification and varies across different transparency levels.

Corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) seriously damages the rights and interests of stakeholders, particularly consumers. This study analyzes the consumer response to food performance irresponsibility and food corporate ethics irresponsibility by moral emotions. A situational simulation experiment was conducted with the following results: (1) Food performance irresponsibility has the greatest impact on consumer boycotts, while corporate ethics irresponsibility more often leads to consumers’ negative word of mouth (NWOM). (2) Moral emotions play a strong mediating role between CSI and consumers’ NWOM and boycott behavior. (3) Gender significantly moderates the propagation path from moral emotions to NWOM, and female consumers react more strongly to food performance irresponsibility. In conclusion, the paper offers empirical evidence of the effect food corporate social irresponsibility has on consumers’ different responses. Furthermore, it can help food enterprises to identify different CSI types and develop corresponding governance strategies.