Consumer Social Responsibility

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. We investigate the emergence of socially responsible (SR) production through consumer decisions. Our experimental treatments vary market competitiveness and consumers' information on social responsibility in production. We show that -irrespective of consumers' information -SR production reduces monopolistic supplier's profit and is therefore unlikely to emerge. With supplier competition, SR production positively influences consumers' buying decisions and suppliers offering SR products achieve significantly higher profits, as long their price is not too high. Our results yield valuable insights into the possibilities and limitations of promoting SR production through consumer behavior, and provide evidence for positive effects of competition on moral behavior. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may

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