How companies leverage consumer responsibilities for sustainability: empirical insights into the consumer–company interplay

Given escalating sustainability concerns, the question of responsibility for and reduction of carbon emissions looms large. Despite efforts through corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumer social responsibility (CnSR), companies are still challenged to align, strengthen, and accelerate efforts to address scope 3 emissions beyond their direct sphere of influence. This explorative research focuses on consumer goods companies grappling with these emissions mainly attributed to consumers. We propose a framework to advance consumer responsibilization based on 69 in-depth interviews enriched with theoretical insights through the application of a grounded theory approach. We unpack how companies (1) engage in sustainability by allocating perceived value chain responsibilities, (2) use four interrelated mechanisms to shift responsibility to consumers, and (3) foster a continuous consumer-company interplay to manage the sustainability transformation and support shared responsibility. This research provides an advanced understanding of the theoretical overlap between the CSR and CnSR literature.