The Corporate Social Responsibility path to bridge the consumer expectations gap : A study of how Swedish fresh food producers commit into environmental and social actions

Research Questions: How should Corporate Social Responsibility actions support Swedish fresh food producers to bridge the consumer expectations gap? How do Swedish fresh food producers acquire information about the consumer expectations? Which environmental and social actions within the CSR concept do Swedish fresh food producers take and why? How should Swedish fresh food producers further develop and extend their environmental and social actions? Purposes: The purposes of this study are to describe how Swedish fresh food producers acquire information about consumer expectations, to analyse which environmental and social actions within the CSR concept these producers could handle to bridge the consumer expectations gap and to suggest what environmental and social actions Swedish fresh food producers should undertake to do more and to do better. Method: This study carries out a qualitative research with a deductive scientific approach. The empirical findings were gathered through semi-structured interviews with six respondents from the Swedish fresh food industry. Conclusion: The results indicated that all the studied companies are involved in some environmental and social actions to meet the consumer requirements. The CSR concept should support the Swedish fresh food producers by providing a framework and a scope of possible actions. Depending on the company, different methods to acquire consumer information are used, from outsourced surveys to direct contact. Concerning the CSR actions, a reference to Carroll’s pyramid enables to demonstrate the current degree of companies’ commitment, while the empirical findings indicated that the level of involvement will keep on increasing and be further developed.