Corporate social responsibility and its influence on consumer behavior

Abstract

The fast-growing concern with Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility has contributed to an unprecedented growth of non-financial business data. Companies around the world are committed to a more sustainable future and report the impact of their actions on the environmental social and governance criteria. Recent research data emphasizes the pressure that managers undertake by governments and numerous social groups such as investors, interest parties and consumer advocate. Only a few studies, however, have conducted research about business ethics under the customer perspective and whether corporate social responsibility can influence the black box of consumer behavior. For this reason, this study has investigated the purchase intention of 60 Greek customers in order to identify how specific corporate actions aiming at social economic and environmental contribution can impact people's perception and whether such policies can attire additional clients and profit. In fact, results have shown that people tend to support companies that contribute to society as a whole and that unethical and/or illegal actions can pose a negative impact on public's opinion leading to various protests, a phenomenon closely related to cancel culture.