Influences on consumer attitudes towards CSR in agribusiness

Henrike Mueller and Ludwig Theuvsen

No 166108, 2014 AAEA/EAAE/CAES Joint Symposium: Social Networks, Social Media and the Economics of Food, May 29-30, 2014, Montreal, Canada from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: Research has highlighted a growing gap between public perceptions of farming and the realities of modern agriculture and the food industry. A number of food scandals have exacerbated consumers’ critical perceptions of the agribusiness sector. This can threaten the reputation and legitimacy of companies. For this reason, companies in the food industry strive to meet the expectations of society in order to safeguard their future license to operate. One proactive means of doing this is for a firm to make an active commitment to society and the environment; this commitment is known as corporate social responsibility (CSR). Arguing that consumers are a firm’s most important stakeholders and referring to Carroll’s distinction between economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibility, this paper seeks to empirically measure consumers’ attitudes towards the CSR commitment of agribusiness companies. The results do not confirm Carroll’s distinction between four responsibility classes; instead, they show that consumers distinguish between a firm’s economic, internal and external responsibilities. Furthermore, political support of a company’s CSR has a positive influence on consumers’ attitude towards that firm’s commitment. Other positive influences are the respondent’s age, buying behavior with regard to organic products and CSR knowledge. These results improve our understanding of what drives public perceptions of firm behavior and have interesting implications for agribusiness firms designing and implementing their CSR strategies.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Consumer/Household Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aajs14:166108

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.166108

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