CSR practices and consumer perceptions

Abstract

In the face of growing worldwide interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR), this paper explores corporate practices and consumer perceptions related to CSR. Based on literature and qualitative data from interviews with managers and consumers, a conceptualization of corporate practice and consumers' perceptions of CSR is developed. More specifically, the paper offers a grounded theory of CSR domains that explains how corporations and consumers view CSR by explicating both for whom and for what corporations are held responsible. Furthermore, two tripartite classifications of corporate stages of CSR development and corresponding consumers' perceptions are presented. The conclusion contains a comparison of corporate and consumer perceptions and draws implications for marketing practice and future research.

Introduction

To date, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has primarily been treated as a corporate issue. The majority of the literature on this topic takes a management perspective. It discusses how companies can best respond to specific demands of largely external stakeholders, which CSR initiatives enhance corporate performance, and what motivates companies to become engaged in CSR (Basu & Palazzo, 2008). Notwithstanding the plethora of literature that surrounds the discussion of these issues, a comprehensive and widely-accepted conceptualization of CSR is still being actively debated (e.g. Devinney, 2009, McWilliams et al., 2006). Much of the argument is embedded in stakeholder theory in that it indicates relatively clearly for whoorporations should assume responsibility, but does not specify what a corporation is responsible for (Enderle, 2006). Beyond these conceptual issues, companies also appear to engage in CSR activities in very different manners. While some corporations appear to embrace CSR in a serious fashion, others use it as a rhetorical device confined to the domains of the PR department and without substance.

Treating CSR exclusively as a corporate issue neglects the voices of other stakeholders, aside from the company and its investors. This is a potential problem in that management needs to be aware of multiple stakeholders' expectations of CSR. Only active listening to stakeholder concerns enables a corporation to formulate comprehensive CSR strategies tailored to the respective stakeholders. Given the central role of consumers in marketing, marketers need to pay particular attention to consumers' views on CSR. In fact, to fully understand how and under what conditions CSR impacts consumer attitudes and behavior, marketing managers should integrate both corporate and consumer perspectives of CSR. Consequently, this paper aims to provide an in-depth comparison and understanding of CSR practices and consumer perceptions of these CSR initiatives.

CSR is elusive, malleable, and blurry (Devinney, 2009, Godfrey and Hatch, 2007, Smith and Langford, 2009). This viewpoint is largely a reflection of insufficient conceptualization. While normative contributions have been proposed regarding what a company's CSR should entail (Laczniak & Murphy, 2006), few scholars attempt to investigate this topic empirically. Panapanaan, Linnanen, Karvonen, and Phan (2003) and Spiller (2000) offered a conceptualization, but only considered the corporate perspective, without taking into account other stakeholder voices. In addition, they only focus on selective stakeholders — notably the community, employees, customers, and suppliers — and place more emphasis on ethics than on CSR. In contrast, Brunk (2010) looks exclusively at ethical expectations from a consumer's point of view, but merely focuses on ethics rather than on CSR. Moreover, she does not contrast consumer expectations in business ethics with corporate ethical practices. This paper attempts to overcome these shortcomings by developing a grounded theory of consumer and corporate CSR domains. More specifically, a stakeholder-based conceptualization of the CSR construct is developed along with a comparison of corporate practices and consumer expectations.

Finally, anecdotal evidence as well as research on corporate citizenship (Maignan, Ferrell, & Hult, 1999) suggests different degrees of CSR engagement. However, to date no systematic and empirically-derived classification reflects the extent to which companies practice CSR. In this paper, an attempt is made to establish a typology of corporate stages of CSR development by using a grounded theory approach. In addition, this corporate classification is mirrored by a corresponding consumer typology depicting their perceptions of different CSR practices.

Taken collectively, this research offers three main contributions for academia and practice. First, a contribution is made to the advancement of CSR and consumer behavior literature by examining how companies practice and consumers perceive CSR. For this purpose, CSR domains are identified and the overlap between the corporate practices and consumer perceptions of CSR domains is assessed. Second, the paper contributes to knowledge in the field of marketing and CSR by offering a clear conceptualization of CSR from both corporate and consumer points of view. Third, the typologies of CSR practices and consumer CSR perceptions provide a diagnostic tool that enables companies to assess their own CSR behavior. For researchers, it offers a systematic basis to track corporate CSR trajectories over time and compare these initiatives with resultant consumer perceptions.

The paper is organized as follows: The next section discusses previous work on corporate social responsibility and consumer behavior. Then, a brief overview of stakeholder theory is presented. Section 3 describes the methodological approach and the findings. Finally, Section 4 provides key results, conclusions, and avenues for further research.