Consumers’ responsible attitude: discovering the role of demographical characteristics

Research on the growing importance attributed by consumers to Corporate Social Responsibility has emphasised the need to study the features of consumers who are aware of social and environmental issues (i.e. Responsible Consumers). Our research aimed to investigate whether the demographical characteristics distinguish between Responsible Consumer Attitudes, and gather useful information both from a business and academic point of view. Building on previous research into ethical consumers, initially we developed a responsible attitude scale, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. In a second phase we tested five hypotheses on relation between gender, age, educational level, income, geographical with responsible attitude and data collected from a sample of 5,098 Italian consumers The results show that age, average income and level of education exert a consistent and positive influence on Responsible Attitude. A positive, though smaller, effect of gender and geographical areas can also be seen to affect the appeal CSR holds for consumers. The research improves understanding of consumers who have a Responsible Attitude, who are mainly the final target of CSR initiatives and are probably interested in social and environmental products. It gives two contributions to research of social and environmental consumers. The first is the development a single measure to evaluate the attention given by consumer both to social and environmental concerns in the purchasing (Responsible Attitude). The second is the development and test of five hypotheses on relations between demographics and responsible attitude on a sample of 5.098 Italian consumers. The research is the first large analysis conducted on these issues based on Italian consumers.