1、中文 1900 字 Author： Magdalena berseder, Bodo B. Schlegelmilch, Verena Gruber Nationality： Austria Originate from： Journal of Business Ethics Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 10.1007/s10551-011-0925-7 原文 2 “Why Dont Consumers Care About CSR?”: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Role of CSR in C
2、onsumption Decisions“ 1.Introduction During the past decade, consumers have become progressively more interested in corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Carrigan and Attalla 2001； Maignan 2001). Several reasons for this have been advanced: On the supply side, firms are increasingly engaging in CSR
3、 activities and place more emphasis on communicating their CSR efforts while, on the demand side, consumer advocate groups are highlighting irresponsible corporate behavior and calling for boycotts (Snider et al. 2003). The increased attention placed on CSR also seems to affect consumers purchase in
4、tentions, as a number of surveys and experiments appear to show (e.g., Brown and Dacin 1997； Mohr and Webb 2005； Sen and Bhattacharya 2001). However, despite consumers interest in CSR and its ostensive impact on purchase intention, in reality, CSR still only plays a minor role in consumption decisio
5、ns (Mohr et al. 2001). This challenges many findings based on experiments and survey research, which suggest that consumers do take a companys CSR initiatives into account when making purchasing decisions. Possible explanations point to two shortcomings in this stream of research. First, the experim
6、ental setting of many studies induces artificial awareness for CSR. Thus, while such studies offer some useful insights, the effect of CSR on actual consumer behavior may not be fully captured. Second, most of these studies tend to suffer from a social desirability bias: When being asked, consumers
7、declare their willingness and motivation to consider CSR, but when it comes to real consumption, only very few take account of CSR (Auger and Devinney 2007； Devinney et al. 2010). The discrepancy between reported intentions and actual behavior calls for a better understanding of the limited role CSR
8、 plays in purchase decisions. Our article seeks to shed light on this issue and attempts to provide a better understanding of the process by which consumers integrate their perceptions of CSR initiatives as a purchase criterion. To this end, we use qualitative data from in-depth interviews. The find
9、ings show that the evaluation of CSR initiatives is a complex and hierarchically structured process during which consumers distinguish between core, central, and peripheral factors. This article is organized as follows. The next section discusses previous work on CSR and consumer behavior and identi
10、fies some of the common limitations inherent in extant research. Subsequently, the methodological approach is explained, and the findings are presented. Finally, the implications of the findings are discussed, and avenues for further research are suggested. 2.CSR and Purchase Intention The type of C
11、SR activity, consumers support of the initiative, and their beliefs about the tradeoffs a company makes for the sake of its CSR play a crucial role in consumers reactions to CSR activities (Sen and Bhattacharya 2001). Furthermore, the influence of CSR on consumers purchase intention can be direct or
12、 indirect. The effect is indirect when a corporate context for purchase intention is created, that is when consumers know the company and its CSR efforts. However, a companys CSR actions can also have a direct influence on the attractiveness of its products. Here, a companys CSR initiatives directly
13、 affect purchase intention, as the CSR initiative corresponds to the consumers CSR beliefs and his/her support for the initiatives (Sen and Bhattacharya 2001). Consumers who respond more positively to CSR activities have also been found to take more responsible purchase decisions and act more respon
14、sibly in their disposal behavior (Mohr and Webb 2005). Extant research also showed that CSR only has a positive effect on consumers purchase intention when consumers are interested in the CSR activity and support it. Moreover, there must be a good fit between the companys CSR activity and its busine
15、ss. Furthermore, irresponsible corporate behavior has been found to have a greater impact on consumers purchase intention than responsible behavior (Bhattacharya and Sen 2004). 3.Findings: Factors Influencing the Assessment of CSR as a Purchasing Criterion 3.1Core Factors Consumers perceive two core
16、 factors as decisive for a potential consideration of CSR as a purchase criterion: information and personal concern. They are both prerequisites for considering CSR in the purchasing process. The most important and complex one is information on a companys CSR position. Information consists of two di
17、mensions: level of information and type of information. The former describes the extent of knowledge (e.g., no, little, or extensive knowledge) consumers have about a companys CSR initiatives. The second dimension focuses on whether the CSR information consumers have is perceived as positive or nega
18、tive. 3.2Central Factor The interviewees stress that the financial situation of a consumer constitutes a central factor in this process. The factor not only describes the consumers price perception and willingness to spend money on products from socially responsible companies, but also the actual mo
19、netary resources of a person. With price being a very important criterion in decision-making among interviewees, the financial situation of the consumer is highly relevant when purchasing goods. These findings are in accordance with previous research on the importance price (Carrigan and Attalla 200
20、1) and the dominance of financial rather than ethical values in purchase decisions (Bray et al. 2011). Thus, sufficient financial resources are a prerequisite for considering a companys CSR activities as a purchase criterion. 3.3Peripheral Factors When all core factors are met and the central factor
21、priceis perceived acceptable, our interviews revealed that the respondents consider three additional factors before they incorporate a companys CSR initiatives into their purchasing decisions. These peripheral factors include the image of the company, the credibility of CSR initiatives, and the infl
22、uence of peer groups. The label “peripheral factors” indicates that these factors, by themselves, are not able to trigger an inclusion of CSR criteria in the decision-making process. However, consumers state that they might further enhance or decrease the probability of considering CSR in purchase decisions.
