Title: Clustering consumers according to their attitudes on corporate social responsibility

Authors: Aikaterini I. Vassilikopoulou, George J. Siomkos, John Mylonakis

Addresses: Athens University of Economics and Business, Department of Business Administration, 76, Patission str., Athens, 104–34, Greece. ' Athens University of Economics and Business, Department of Business Administration, 76, Patission str., Athens, 104–34, Greece. ' 10 Nikiforou str. Glyfada, 166 75, Athens, Greece

Abstract: This paper examines the consumer attitudes towards corporate social responsibility. Analysing a sample of 341 consumers, it was found that consumers have overall great expectations and a positive attitude concerning corporate social responsibility. They believe that corporate social responsibility is an important issue in business and are willing to reward socially responsible companies and punish socially irresponsible firms via their buying behaviour. Consumers who had a positive or very positive attitude towards socially responsible companies were segmented in terms of behavioural factors. The study proposes three distinct socially responsible consumer types in terms of attitudes towards corporate social responsibility: These are the Ambitious, Fanatic and Passive socially responsible consumers. A complete profile of each cluster is presented.

Keywords: cluster analysis; consumer attitudes; corporate social responsibility; ethics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBGE.2005.006715

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 2005 Vol.1 No.4, pp.317 - 328

Published online: 04 Apr 2005 *

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