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• Awareness and Effect of CSR on Consumer Decisions

  15-27

  Tünde Csapóné Riskó

  Ádám Péntek

  Troy Wiwczaroski

  Views:

  259

  Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a common topic, both at national and international levels. Profit maximisation is essential for companies, but they should not forget the social and environmental impacts of their activities. The question of sustainability is also a common topic requiring examination. The future of the Earth, our natural resources and the generations that will come after us also impact on the responsibilities of companies. For many companies, this kind of responsibility is natural and they take such CSR and sustainable steps that are worth following. From modern society, there is a high expectation and even strong pressure on companies to conduct responsible business practice. The number of responsible companies is increasing due to this pressure. What do we mean by CSR? What sorts of activities and steps are covered by CSR? What are the motivators of the CSR strategies, CSR activities of companies? What are their reasons? Many researchers investigate the motivators of CSR. From them, opinion on the company, image of the company, “consumers will prefer us”, are among the most frequent ones. However, are the CSR actions of companies appreciated by consumers? The results of many researchers demonstrate that they are not appreciated. In general, responsible business practise is a high expectation from consumers, but when purchasing a product, this aspect is one of the least important factors. The aim of this paper is to collect some of the most relevant research findings on CSR, to introduce the informedness of Hungarian respondents on CSR in general, to find out the main influencing factors of their purchasing decisions, and also find correlations between the received results and the demographic variables based on our primary research. Our results support the present practice in terms of the definition of CSR. Almost all the listed alternatives are strongly associated with CSR by the respondents. The highest average received for the “creating workplaces, employment” alternative indicates the importance of this activity. Regarding the different factors influencing purchasing decision, our results underline the importance of price and price value ratio. This research finding is in line with other research findings, which shows that CSR actions of companies, responsible business practice is not the number one influencing factor of actual consumer decision.

• Forms of Conscious Consumption

  73-80

  Tünde Csapóné Riskó

  Ádám Péntek

  Views:

  299

  Globalization and its effects can be found almost everywhere. Among the effects of globalization the improvement of international trade, the technological progress, the increasing influence of multinational companies, the strengthening power and influence of international institutions such as the WTO, IMF, and World Bank, greater mobility of human resources across countries, greater outsourcing of business processes to other countries have to be pointed out. As one of the results of globalisation we can buy even such products that have been produced somewhere on the other side of the world. It is not always clear for the consumers where, how and by whom the product has been produced. For conscious consumers the information provided on the packaging of the product, labels, trademarks can help a lot when making their purchasing decision. Of course there are several other ways to collect the necessary information. For these consumers the origin of the product, the producer, the production process, the ingredients, the environmental and social impacts of the production, as well as ethical concerns are really important questions.

• Overall Introduction of the Fair Trade Initiative

  35-43

  Eszter Tóth

  Views:

  126

  Fair trade is a bottom-up initiative whose objective is to make reasonable conditions for the poor producers of the Third World and to enable them to follow a sustainable model of development. This realigned commercial partnership aims to modify the rules of traditional international trade between the producers of the southern nations and the purchasers of the northern hemisphere, and to replace them with a novel alternative. The goal of fair trade is to change the rules of the game that have controlled the dominant economic model. The main tool of the movement is the development of an awareness of socially responsible consumer behavior.