The effect of corporate social responsibility on consumers buying decisions : An empirical study of a Swedish grocery retailer

Abstract: Aim: The aim of this study is to analyze how CSR affects consumer behavior and how consumers are affected by, act on and behave as a result of the CSR strategies implemented by Coop grocery stores. If people are aware, have knowledge and what they know about Coop´ CSR work will be analyzed and compared with the help of survey investigations conducted in both Stockholm and Gävle. Like most big food retailers, Coop has a stated policy, but we will investigate if their CSR work makes a difference and if so - how, in the mind of the consumers. Method: A survey with 16 questions was constructed and these questions were adjusted to previous research made about CSR and its impact on the consumers and their buying decision process. The data was collected at the entrance of two Coop food retails stores, one in Gävle and the other in Stockholm. People that were at least 18 years of age were asked to participate. A total of more than 200 questioners added together in both cities were willing to participate. The data was analysed with the help of the statistical analyse program SPSS, where a regression analysis was made which we combined with a thematic analysis. Result and Conclusion: Our research indicates that consumer doesn't engage in the grocery stores work with CSR. Consumers do consider the ecological assortment but they find the price to be an obstacle when it comes to actually buying ecological products. Our study shows that there is no link between buying ecological products and loyalty towards Coop. For Coop to sell more ecological products, we suggest they should lower the prices or increase the knowledge among consumers to motivate a higher pricing. Suggestion to further research: Our study could easily be made on other food retail stores as it would be interesting to investigate if and how the end results would differ. Contribution of thesis: Our thesis gives Coop the opportunity to evaluate their CSR work and more importantly, its impact on its consumers, where suggestions are made on how to improve their CSR strategy.