The influence of select factors on consumer scepticism towards corporate social responsibility

Potrošniki po vsem svetu se čedalje bolj zavedajo, kako njihove nakupne odločitve vplivajo na svet, v katerem živimo in želijo nagraditi podjetja, ki do družbe in okolja ravnajo odgovorno. Vendar pa se je, kot posledica zelenega zavajanja in splošnega izkoriščanja tematik v zvezi z DOP za profit, med potrošniki pojavil tudi precejšnji skepticizem do DOP in komuniciranja o le-tej. V diplomski nalogi smo analizirali ta skepticizem ter poskušali ugotoviti, kateri dejavniki vplivajo nanj in v kakšni meri. V teoretskem delu smo naprej razčlenili pojma družbena odgovornost in komuniciranje le-te ter podali nekaj napotkov za učinkovitejše komuniciranje o DOP. Nato smo razčlenili tudi pojem skepticizem ter povzeli ključne dejavnike, ki vplivajo nanj. V raziskavi smo se osredotočili na slabše raziskani dejavnik samega sporočila, ton komunikacije, v povezavi z bolj raziskanim dejavnikom atribucije motivov. Empirična raziskava je temeljila na anketi, ki je zajela 297 slovenskih potrošnikov, pretežno ženskega spola. Pokazala je, da na skepticizem znatno vplivata tako ton komuniciranja kot atribucija motivov, ter potrdila vpliv tona na atribucijo motivov. Nenavadno odkritje je bil pozitiven vpliv atribucije altruističnih motivov na skepticizem, zanimivo pa je tudi, da je bil splošni nivo skepticizma potrošnikov do testnih komunikacij o DOP precej nizek.Consumers all over the world are increasingly aware of how their purchase decisions influence the world around us and wish to reward companies who act responsibly towards the society and the environment. However, the spread of greenwashing and cause exploitation for profit has led to increasing levels of consumer scepticism regarding CSR and the communication of it. This undergraduate thesis explores the scepticism amongst consumers and tries to explain which factors influence it and to what degree. The theoretical part first explains the concepts of CSR and CSR communication and gives some practical advice on how to communicate more successfully. Then it explores the concept of scepticism and describes the main factors which influence it. The empirical part focuses on an underexplored communication factor related to the message, the message tone, and compares it to a more established factor, motive attribution. The empiric research was carried out on 297 participants in the country of Slovenia, most of whom happened to be women. It showed that both message tone and motive attribution significantly influence consumer scepticism, and confirmed that tone does indeed influence attribution as originally assumed. An interesting discovery was the positive influence of altruistic motive attribution on scepticism. It is also worth noting that the general level of consumer scepticism towards the CSR messages was rather low