Corporate social responsibility and consumer behavior in the cosmetics sector: a study in the Spanish context

In current marketplaces, Corporate Social Responsibility is a new expectation to be fulfilled by all sort of organizations in order to build a positive reputation and send a signal to their stakeholders. In this respect, analysis of the consequences of perceived firms’ responsibility on consumer behavior has been a common topic in recent marketing literature. Major evidences indicate a positive link between involvement in social and environmental causes and consumer goodwill towards firms and brands. In the context of these results, this paper analyzes the consideration of responsibility criteria over the different stages of the consumer decision-making process in the cosmetics sector. Particularly, a self-administered questionnaire was conducted with a representative sample of consumers in Spain. Descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses were performed to identify relevant dimensions of consumer decision-making based on responsibility criteria and their incidence on men and women separately and on different age ranges. In general, findings support a moderate impact of perceived business responsibility over the consumer decision-making process, while some discrepancies can be observed between individuals within gender and different age groups. In this sense, young consumers were found to display a lower consideration of responsibility criteria in their purchase decisions whereas the 51–75 age group pointed to an overall lack of knowledge about them. Additionally, women, in contrast to men, tend to be more responsibility-conscious when acquiring cosmetics. Lastly, a final discussion is carried out gathering some interest considerations as direct reflection of results obtained and further lines of future research are indicated.