Abstract: In recent years, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an emerging logic of brand meaning reconstruction. However, most of the existing researches are mainly based on quantitative empirical research, which not only leads to contradictory understanding of the relationship between CSR and brand meaning reconstruction, but also fails to reveal the complex relationship between them from the perspective of the process of vertical evolution. To solve this issue, this study takes Dong'e Ejiao as the research object and employs exploratory case study method to explore the process of brand meaning reconstruction under the view of CSR from the dynamic perspective of vertical evolution. It is found that the process of brand meaning reconstruction under the view of CSR consists of four key sub-processes: the chaotic period of brand meaning with CSR recession, the return period of brand meaning with CSR reversion, the dimensional expansion period of brand meaning with CSR embedding and the conflictive period of brand meaning with CSR deviation. CSR recession leads to vague brand meaning, CSR deviation leads to conflictive brand meaning, and both of them are not conducive to the brand meaning reconstruction. CSR reversion leads to brand meaning refocusing, CSR embedding leads to multi-dimensional brand meaning, and both of them are conducive to brand meaning reconstruction. The research finding reconciles the existing theoretical conflicts, reveals the black box of brand meaning reconstruction process under the view of CSR, describes the complex mechanism in the process, and provides theoretical implications and case reference for enterprises to implement brand meaning reconstruction.

Key words: brand meaning, corporate social responsibility, Dong'e Ejiao, case study