Evaluating the impact of corporate social responsibility programs on consumers

Abstract

This paper critically reviews and analyses the empirical and theoretical literature relating to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs and their impact on the attitudes and behaviours of consumers. Given the increasingly important and influential role that corporations are playing in society, this review considers the contrasting arguments surrounding the extent to which a well-designed and implemented CSR program will impact consumers. In doing so, this review improves our understanding of the importance of corporate socially responsible action and identifies gaps in the field of CSR research that need to be addressed in order to help organizations more effectively adopt CSR programs.

A case study in Hawaii: who will pay more for organic cotton?

“…Other researchers found that men report more organic purchases than women (Butler and Francis, 1997). Still other researchers determined no difference between genders in reported willingness to pay more for organic products (Buttel, 1979;Tilikodou and Zotos, 1999;Moon et al, 2002;Smith and Langford, 2009).…”

“…Some researchers found that education plays no role in the consumption of environmentally friendly products (Balderjahn, 1988). Others reported a positive relationship between level of education and consumption of environmentally friendly products (Butler and Francis, 1997;Fraj and Martinez, 2006;Smith and Langford, 2009). Still others reported an inverse relationship between level of education and environmentally friendly product consumption (Banerjee and McKeage, 1994;Butler and Francis, 1997).…”

Doing Good Does Good? Sustainable Marketing of CSR and Consumer Evaluations

“…Theoretical and empirical literature that defines CSR has been somewhat elusive in defining its scope and argued for either a broader or a narrower point of view (Marrewijk, 2003;Smith and Langford, 2009). Early works by Carroll (1979Carroll ( , 1991 proposed CSR as a pyramid that could encompass the economic (on the bottom as a base) and legal, ethical, and philanthropic concerns (at the top) as responsibilities moved toward the recent development of corporate sustainability.…”

The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility Towards Purchase Intention: The Mediating Effect of Brand Image and Corporate Reputation

“…Although a lot of researches has been done on the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility, [7] argued that specific on the topic of customers response towards CSR activities were far from being settled and still debatable. There were several researches that found CSR activities had a strong and direct influence towards customer responses [8], [4], [6], [9], [10], [11]. However, there were other researchers that found such relationship as weak and even non-significant [12], [13], [14], [15].…”