Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming the subject of considerable interest in marketing research and practice. In general, it seems that consumers are becoming more and more interested in corporate activities beyond the merely economic, i.e. environmental and social activities. There are very few studies, however, able to corroborate this statement and, in this sense, further research on CSR from the consumers viewpoint is needed. The present exploratory paper is intended to contribute information on consumer perception in reference to CSR and its influence in purchase decision making. The objectives of the paper are: (i) to analyze the perception of the consumer on the activities of companies that are considered to be socially responsible; (ii) to study the possible differences introduced by gender, type of studies and level of information in the perception of the consumer in reference to socially responsible activities; (iii) to analyze the consumer perception in reference to pressure groups that are most influential in the adoption by companies of socially responsible practices, and (iv) to measure the importance of CSR elements in purchase decision making, on a general level as well as in two categories of specific products.