Influence Of Consumer Behavior On Corporate Social Responsibility

or so many years our society has been thinking of forming new creative and innovative businesses, which would be more environmental and customer friendly. Nowadays a large number of different companies follow the social, ethical, as well as moral consequences when it comes to their decision making. One of the relatively new concepts involving economic and social concerns is Corporate Social Responsibility. Many of us apply this approach not only at work, but also in everyday life without even recognizing.

Moreover, the growing number of conscience consumers was highlighted in a recent Bursen-Marsteller report; “people will more likely choose a product that supports a social cause when choosing between otherwise similar products” (Penn, Schoen & Berland, 2010). These average consumers daily decisions are slowly but surely being influenced by social concern and responsibility. Finally, the critical issue for Company Q is the social responsibility to its customers, who looks to business to provide them with satisfying, safe products and respect their rights as customer.

Companies today are heavily influenced by the demands of customers and stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the social and environmental responsibility policies and practices developed by an organization to increase its positive influence and reduce its negative activity towards society (Parks, 2008). The business approach and corporate philosophy of an organization is easily altered due to economic pressures, technological improvement and stakeholder needs and demands. "Going green" or being eco-friendly is one such demand. Environmental and sustainability concerns originate most often from governments, consumer activists, and the general public (Schlosser, 2008). Thus, organizations must implement sustainability into daily practices. In addition, sustainability alters the nature of competition and drives companies to think differently about products, processes, and technologies (Parks, 2008).

All consumers should make every effort to make ethical purchases. This involves evaluating their morals and values in order to make sound decisions on their purchases. This also includes setting priorities and examining what is really important to the consumer. If a consumer cares about the wrongdoings of employees and expresses their concerns through purchases, then companies who do the right things would gain a large share of the market. However, consumers cannot change the world or fix social injustices totally through their purchases, some things are never seen by the consumer because companies have become great at hiding the unethical parts of business. Sometimes consumers have to make tough decisions because a sustainable brand may be too expensive and be a lower quality than other less sustainable brands.

Despite of buying power, more and more consumers take corporate social responsibility into account when purchasing. 66% of global respondents are willing to consume sustainable offerings, even the offering will costs them more. Among this 66%, over 58% are concerned whether the firm they consumed from is being eco-friendly, displayed in Appendix A (Nielsen Company, 2015).

In other words, these socially responsible companies will evaluate not only the short and long term economic outcomes of their present decisions but also the long-term environmental and societal outcomes of their current actions. This thus leads to the triple bottom line approach of reporting environmental, social, and economic performance. In addition, Wilson from the Ivey Business Journal argues about corporate social responsibility or the CSR. The CSR has been around longer than the term and implication of “sustainable development” but has similar guidelines. From about 1953 the on, the main debate was whether corporate managers had an ethical responsibility to consider the needs of society and by 1980, it was generally and consensually accepted that corporate managers should and did have this moral responsibility. So by incorporating sustainability plans or even creating a separate branch dedicated to doing so, the company’s reputation often is increased, which over the long term, will contribute to accentuate customer loyalty, market share, and brand value and awareness. (Wilson, 2003) This case study done on Johnson & Johnson published by the IMA Educational Case Journal analyzes the impact that implementations of these sustainability

An international research survey conducted by the National Geographic in 2014 measured and monitored consumer progress towards environmentally sustainable consumption with its Greendex report, to produce a quantitative study of consumer behavior and material lifestyles (National Geographic 5). The findings were used to rank 18 countries in order from most to least sustainable; The United States was ranked the least sustainable (6). The study also found that they were the “least likely to feel guilty about the impact the had on the environment” (6). This study demonstrates that consumers’ reckless behavior also contributes to their inability to reflect on the damage they are making on the environment. Julia B. Corbett, author of Communicating Nature, a thought provoking scholarly book, suggests that the lack of remorse is due, first and foremost, to the

Additionally, on a socio-cultural level, many consumers feel that restaurants partaking in green initiatives and operations are doing their part to not only help sustain the earth but also to conserving natural resources (Hu, Parsa & Self, 2010). “Going green” is not simply a trend in the food service industry but around the world and in all forms of business. Corporate companies consider “going green” as a sensible business strategy in building recognition for corporate social responsibility among consumers concerned with environmental conservation efforts. Lastly, technological initiatives such as Energy Star appliances (dishwashers, refrigerators, ice machines, etc.) and faucets that use less water must also be analyzed in their ecological conservation capability and weighed against their financial costs (University of Notre Dame, 2014).

According to Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the modern day corporate social responsibility goes far beyond the old philanthropy of the past that is donating money to good causes at the end of the financial year and is instead an all year round responsibility that companies accept for the environment around them, for the best working practices, for their engagement in their local communities and for their recognition that brand names depend not only on quality, price and uniqueness but on how, cumulatively, they interact with companies’ workforce, community and environment. It is necessary to move towards a challenging measure of corporate responsibility, where judgment results are not just by the input

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility is a relatively new in the management field and there is no single definition of it since everyone’s interpretation of the term is different. “Corporate Social Responsibility means something, but not always the same thing to everybody.” (Votaw, 1972, p.25) and from my understanding of the concept, CSR to me is “The voluntary business activities within the boundary of law that contributes to the wider community for a more sustainable environment”. Since everyone has a unique interpretation of CSR, the range of relevant CSR practices across businesses has been quite diverse as there is no such thing as features of CSR (Marcel van Marrewijk, 2003). Rising environmental and social concerns in

In a fiercely competitive economy, good social reputations are companies’ biggest asset. Copious recent research established direct correlations between companies’ social responsibility and consumer purchasing behaviours.

The purpose of this report is the comparison between the retailers The Coffee Club and The Three Monkeys Coffee & Tea House and contrasts the role of Sustainable Consumption. The paper will discuss the retailer 's responsibility with regards to influencing consumer-purchasing habits through the encouragement and facilitation of sustainable consumption practices within certain product lines (Danish Ministry of the Environment, 2015).

One of the leading companies that adopted CSR as a pioneer of ethic is The Body Shop. The company has used CSR as a competitive strategy in order to succeed in business. The shop owner knows what she does best. So, products are developed based on a specific group of customers in order to create a strong brand preferences and unique way with a perception of enormous customer groups, called sustainability ideals. The source of The Body Shop success is to utilize the benefits of CSR by selling products based on natural ingredients, paying a fair price and no testing on animal. According to porter (1985), he claimed that sustainability of differentiation depends on two things: "it is continued perceived value to buyers and the lack of competitor ability to imitate it" (Porter 1985 cited in Mallin 2009, p.71). It requires a transparency of work process with stakeholders. From this example, it explains why CSR is important to modern businesses like The Body Shop (Mallin 2009, pp.59-78),(Kwapong 2005, p.89).

ABSTRACT. The findings of this article increase our understanding of corporate social responsibility from the consumers’ perspective in a Chinese setting. Based on primary data collected via a self-administered survey in Shanghai and Hong Kong and results of similar studies conducted in Europe and the United States, we provide evidence to show that Chinese consumers are more supportive of CSR. We also show that Carroll’s pyramid of responsibilities can be applied in China. We evaluated the importance placed by Chinese consumers on the four

Overtime,stakeholder demands for corporate social and environmental responsibility have been greatly increasing."According to Girod and Michael (2003,cited in Jones etal,2007 ) CSR is ‘a key tool to create, develop and sustain differentiated brand names".