经济 营销 英文翻译 外文文献 英文文献 探索企业社会责任如何影响消费者决策的定性研究.doc

Author：Magdalena berseder, Bodo B. Schlegelmilch, Verena GruberNationality：AustriaOriginate 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 Consumption Decisions“1.IntroductionDuring 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 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 intentions, 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 decisions (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 experimental 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 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 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 findings 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 identifies 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 IntentionThe type of CSR 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 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 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 responsibly 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 business. 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 Criterion3.1Core FactorsConsumers perceive two core 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 dimensions: 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 negative. 3.2Central FactorThe 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 monetary 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 2001) 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 FactorsWhen all core factors are met and the central factorpriceis 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 influence 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. 译文2“为什么消费者不关心企业社会责任？”：探索企业社会责任如何影响消费者决策的定性研究 1.导言在过去的十年里，消费者已经变得对企业社会责任越来越感兴趣（卡里根和阿塔拉2001，麦格纳2001）。这几个原因推进了这一现象：在供应方面，公司正在越来越多地参与企业社会责任的活动中，更加强调企业社会责任的沟通努力，同时，在需求方面，消费者倡导团体强调呼吁抵制不负责任的行为（施耐德等。2003）。一些调查和实验似乎表明增加对企业社会责任的注意力似乎也影响到消费者的购买意向（例如，布朗和达西1997；摩尔和韦伯2005，森和贝塔2001）。 然而，尽管消费者关注企业社会责任，也表明其对消费者购买意向的影响，在现实中，企业社会责任在消费决策仍然只扮演一个次要角色（莫尔等人2001）。这是在许多调查结果和调查研究的基础上作出的挑战，而其中研究也发现消费者在作出购买决定是会考虑公司企业社会责任倡议。可能的解释，这些调查研究中有两个缺点。首先，实验中设置了许多研究诱导人意识到企业社会责任。因此，虽然这些研究提供一些有益的见解，实际上企业社会责任对消费行为的影响可能无法充分反映。其次，大多数这些研究往往带有社会认可的偏见：当被问到对企业社会责任态度时，消费者会宣布他们的意愿和行动，但说到真正的消费，只有很少考虑企业社会责任（Auger 和 Devinney 2007， Devinney 2010）。更好地了解企业社会责任对购买决策的所发挥的作用，需要了解其中表明意图和实际行为之间的差异。本文试图阐明这个问题，并试图对消费者将企业社会责任倡议作为购买标准这一现象提供一个更好地了解的过程。为此，我们通过深入访谈得出定性数据。研究结果表明，对企业社会责任倡议的评价是一个复杂又有层次的过程，其中需要辨别消费者的核心因素，重要因素和外部因素。 本文的组织如下。下一节讨论以前对企业社会责任和消费者行为的研究工作，确定在现有的研究中一些共同固有的局限性，。随后，解释该方法论的方法并提出调查结果。最后，对调查的结果进行了讨论，并作进一步的研究。 2.企业社会责任与购买意愿 企业社会责任活动的类型，消费者对倡议的支持以及他们对信仰的权衡是源于消费者在对企业社会责任活动的反应时，一家公司的企业社会责任起到了至关重要的作用。（森和巴塔2001）。此外，影响企业社会责任对消费者购买意愿可以是直接的或间接的。当消费者知道公司和企业社会责任，在企业范围内对购买意愿的创建，其中的效果是间接。然而，一个公司的企业社会责任行动对有吸引力的产品也有直接影响。如果企业社会责任倡议所对应的消费者也具有企业社会责任的信念并且支持这些倡议，那么这个公司的企业社会责任倡议直接影响购买意愿，（森和巴塔2001）。作出更积极的社会活动的消费者也被发现，他们会采取更负责任的购买决定，在他们的处事行为中会负起更多的责任（莫尔和韦伯2005）。 现存的研究还表明，只有当消费者对社会责任活动有兴趣