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How corporate social responsibility initiatives affect the choice of a bank: Empirical evidence of Italian context
Author(s) -
Lagasio Valentina,
Cucari Nicola,
Åberg Carl
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
corporate social responsibility and environmental management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.519
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1535-3966
pISSN - 1535-3958
DOI - 10.1002/csr.2162
Subject(s) - corporate social responsibility , business , affect (linguistics) , marketing , purchasing , context (archaeology) , exploratory research , perception , demographics , sustainability , institution , empirical research , public relations , political science , psychology , paleontology , ecology , philosophy , demography , epistemology , neuroscience , sociology , anthropology , law , biology , communication
For all firms, it is imperative to identify and understand the factors that influence consumers purchasing behaviors and, specifically, identify how customer demographics relate to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. However, limited research exists on banking consumer's preferences and responses towards different CSR initiatives. Therefore, using an exploratory survey consisting of 250 received responses of attitudes and perceptions from customers of Italian savings banks, we investigate the interactions between three types of CSR initiatives ( ethical behavior towards the environment, social inclusion initiatives , and financing eco‐sustainable projects ) and respondents' demographic characteristics. We predict that different types of CSR initiatives influence the choice of banking institution among customers with diverse demographic characteristics (age, geographic origin, and type of employment). This research helps in making several important contributions to CSR research which can assist banks in developing effective CSR strategies.