Let’s examine your own shopping habits. Does corporate social responsibility affect your purchasing behaviour? Research evidence suggests that it does:

‘According to a recent report, 94% of GenZ consumers (the age of traditional college students currently) believe companies should help address social and environmental issues and 89% would rather buy from a company supporting social and environmental issues. Additionally, both Millennial and Generation Z consumers overwhelmingly agreed that they are willing to pay more for products and services produced by companies that are committed to social and environmental causes’

(Beitelspacher and Rodgers, 2018, p.2).

You may have to look beyond the organization and consider its suppliers, too. Is child labour, for example, involved in the manufacturing of the company’s products? What are working conditions like in the company’s manufacturing plants, warehouses and call centres? What is this organization doing to limit its environmental impact: cutting pollution, waste, use of plastics and carbon emissions?

Now let’s imagine that you can get the item that you want from a company with a strong reputation for corporate social responsibility. However, you can buy the same item more cheaply from a company which has a reputation for not acting in a responsible manner. What will you do?