•Firms’ adoption of CSR initiatives positively affected organizational CSR climate.•Organizational CSR climate shaped employees’ CSR-induced intrinsic attribution.•CSR-induced attributions had influences on organizational commitment.•CSR climate and CSR-induced intrinsic attribution had serial mediation effects. Using a multilevel cognitive approach, this study elaborates how firms’ adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives influences employees’ organizational commitment. This study integrates both strategic human resource management (SHRM) and attribution theory to explain the cognitive process by which objective CSR initiatives work as social cues to initially shape a firm’s organizational CSR climate, which then affects individuals’ explanations of the motives behind CSR initiatives (i.e., CSR-induced attributions). Finally, employees’ CSR-induced attributions will influence employees’ organizational commitment. Data were drawn from survey and archival data and were collected in two waves. A multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) analysis of data collected from 474 employees of 25 firms supported most of our hypotheses. The results revealed that organizational CSR climate and employees’ CSR-induced intrinsic attribution could serially mediate the relationship between firms’ CSR adoption and employees’ organizational commitment. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.