PERSPECTIVES ON CONSUMERS’ RESPONSE TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Keywords:
Corporate social responsibility, consumers' response, methodologies/approaches.Abstract
Purpose: This study presents a review of literature on consumers' perception and responses towards the perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) of companies, with a view to provide additional insight into the phenomenon.
Methodology/Approach: The study is essentially a review of existing literature, which entails the identification, review and synthesis of existing studies on the phenomenon.
Findings: The review of previous studies on the subject matter reveals that there is no general consensus on the findings regarding consumers' perceptions and response to CSR. The findings from previous studies have been equivocal and largely inconclusive as to whether consumers reward companies CSR efforts with positive responses.
Research limitations: The research is basically a review and synthesis of previously conducted studies, and no new data was collected.
Practical implications: The findings and conclusions of this study have practical implications for research on the topic of consumers' perceptions and response to perceived social responsible behavior of companies. Essentially, the findings point to the fact that the field of study relating to how the consumers perceive and respond to CSR remains a fertile ground from research to enable management theorists and practitioners get a better understanding of the phenomenon.
Originality/Value: The study highlights some important reasons for the mixed findings in previous studies, and further points to the need for researchers to adopt varied methodologies/approaches when conducting researches on how consumers perceive and respond to CSR in contextually different environments.
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