RT Article
T1 Corporate Social Responsibility Failures: How do Consumers Respond to Corporate Violations of Implied Social Contracts?
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 136
IS 4
SP 759
OP 773
A1 Russell, Cristel Antonia
A1 Russell, Dale W.
A1 Honea, Heather
A2 Russell, Dale W.
A2 Honea, Heather
LA English
YR 2016
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1785658271
AB This research documents consumers’ potential to monitor corporations’ License to Operate through their consumption responses to corporate social responsibility failures. The premise is that the type of social contracts or standards in place may determine how consumers, through their individual and collective behaviors, can play a direct role in influencing corporate behavior, when corporations fail to meet social responsibility standards. An experiment conducted with a large sample of consumers in the United States shows that consumers respond differently to a company’s failure in its social responsibilities depending on whether the violated standard is a government mandate or a voluntary commitment and depending on the consumers’ own environmental consciousness. The findings highlight the potential power of individual consumers and consumer collectives in narrowing the governance gaps relative to social and environmental issues and reducing the likelihood of CSR failures.
K1 Collective Action
K1 Social Contract
K1 Individual boycotts
K1 ethical consumers
K1 Corporate Social Responsibility
DO 10.1007/s10551-015-2868-x