Clustering consumers according to their attitudes on corporate social responsibility

Abstract

This paper examines the consumer attitudes towards corporate social responsibility. Analysing a sample of 341 consumers, it was found that consumers have overall great expectations and a positive attitude concerning corporate social responsibility. They believe that corporate social responsibility is an important issue in business and are willing to reward socially responsible companies and punish socially irresponsible firms via their buying behaviour. Consumers who had a positive or very positive attitude towards socially responsible companies were segmented in terms of behavioural factors. The study proposes three distinct socially responsible consumer types in terms of attitudes towards corporate social responsibility: These are the Ambitious, Fanatic and Passive socially responsible consumers. A complete profile of each cluster is presented.