Consumer ethics, religiosity, and consumer social responsibility: are they related?

Denni I. Arli and Fandy Tjiptono

Social Responsibility Journal, 2018, vol. 14, issue 2, 302-320

Abstract: Purpose - In the past few years, companies have made significant contributions towards Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) as a strategy to improve business image. Nonetheless, many of these strategies have been unsuccessful because companies have failed to recognise the importance of consumers’ ethical beliefs and their religiosity in forming their perception towards CSR. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the level of importance of consumers’ ethical beliefs and social responsibilities (CnSR) and to examine the impact of consumers’ religiosity and ethical beliefs on CnSR. Design/methodology/approach - Data were derived from a sample of undergraduate and postgraduate students at three large universities (i.e. one public and two private universities) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (N= 416). Indonesia is the largest Muslim population in the world. Findings - 7The study found that consumers value social responsibilities differently and that not all dimensions are important. Moreover, consumer ethical beliefs and religiosity significantly influence CnSR. The results of this study will contribute to the debate on consumer ethics and social responsibility research. Research limitations/implications - The current study has some limitations which, in turn, provide avenues for future research. The research context (one city in one country) may limit its generalizability. Future studies may focus on more cities and/or cross-country sections (developed versus developing countries) as well as use non-student populations. Practical implications - Companies operating in Indonesia need to respect and value religiosity in Indonesia. Collaborating with a faith-based institution may help improve the effectiveness of CSR programmes launched by companies. Originality/value - This is one of the first few studies exploring CSR in Indonesia.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; Indonesia; Developing country; Consumer ethics; Consumer social responsibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:srjpps:srj-03-2016-0036

DOI: 10.1108/SRJ-03-2016-0036

Access Statistics for this article

Social Responsibility Journal is currently edited by Prof David Crowther

More articles in Social Responsibility Journal from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().