THE EFFECTS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ON CONSUMER DECISION MAKING

Abstract

The paper attempts to explore CSR and consumer behavior and the relationship between them, as
it still is a comparatively young study and there persists an ever increasing interest in unfolding
this relation between CSR and the impact on consumer decision making. Furthermore, there is
considerable amount of recognition for the role of ethics and its responsibility towards our
society. In the Indian market customers are now aware about pursuing their business endeavors
and companies now have to show more responsibility towards the society and environment to
gain more customer loyalty, where they are seeing CSR activities as a major marketing tool to
help create a competitive advantage. The paper attempts to study the role of company’s
engagement in CSR for a social cause on consumer decision making. There has been almost
negligible research about CSR and its role on consumer buying behavior. The paper studies
Indian consumer support to CSR strategy of various companies. Consumers make the choice of
products based on their quality, quantity and price, brand ambassador etc, and remain unaware
about CSR practices of the company, but are progressively interested in it. Thus, if more
innovative methods are implemented in future by the companies there could be a positive
relationship between perceived CSR activities and consumer purchasing behavior.