Does Corporate Social Responsibility Matter in Buying Behaviour?—A Study of Indian Consumers

Abstract

Triple bottom line is making businesses increasingly conscious about the people, planet and profit. On one side where earning profits are crucial for organizations, the concept of sustainable corporate social responsibility (CSR) is also emerging as a major concern for the corporate strategy. How to strike a balance between the two is one of the major challenges ahead for organizations. Moreover, Indian consumers are also nowadays becoming more aware about the responsibilities that a firm should possess. They are not ignorant as they were earlier; media is more vigilant and companies have now started knowing about the escalating negative effects of neglecting society, dynamism, building brand reputation by incorporating CSR and increased competition in the marketing environment for being socially responsible. Therefore, this article is an endeavour to measure the extent to which Indian consumers are aware about CSR and whether CSR has any impact on Indian consumers’ actual buying behaviour. Data were collected from 232 respondents via a questionnaire. The results showed a significant positive effect of independent variables called intensity, intended loyalty and influence of socially responsible firms on dependent variables which is consumers’ actual buying behaviour. Regression analysis was carried out to arrive at the result. In addition to this, the study also found that Indian consumers are aware about the CSR activities of the organizations. The result also indicated that CSR is one of the determining factors while purchasing any product or services.