The Next Frontier of Corporate Social Responsibility: Discovering Consumer Expectations

Abstract: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a broad area of management study and practice that has become increasingly important for business practitioners and academics alike. While the majority of authors who have written on the subject, including ourselves, are proponents of CSR in general, there is an emerging viewpoint that it is simply not enough for corporations to singlehandedly address CSR thus it is important that others, such has NGOs and Consumers, play a defined role in CSR as well. Simply stated, demanding that corporations practice CSR is not the magic solution that will address the myriad of social issues that affect the world’s diverse population. In this thesis we will look at CSR from both the corporate and consumer perspective (which will specifically be referred to as CNSR once that term is introduced) and present the argument and implications of what it means that these two entities may have very different perspectives of what CSR actually is. To do this we conduct a case study of Starbucks Corporation, a multinational coffee retailer with a global coffee brand, and closely compare its broadcasted CSR initiatives with the voice of individual consumers who have taken the time and effort to publicly state their expectations. We hope that by shedding light on a new aspect of CSR, corporations and academics will further investigate and utilize the insights we have gained from our research to benefit society at large.