Assessing the marketing potential of communicating corporate social responsibility of a supply chain: method and application

Abstract This article provides a method to assess the marketing potential of communicating corporate social responsibility of (agricultural) supply chains. The willingness of small firms in agricultural supply chains to make available information about certain dimensions of CSR is measured and combined with the dimensions of CSR that are important for consumers. This will identify the CSR dimensions that are easiest to communicate and which are most needed by consumers. Moreover, small firms in agricultural supply chains are segmented based on the information they are willing to make available and consumers are segmented based on the CSR dimensions they consider to be important. The method is demonstrated for Dutch dairy supply chains but the method can easily be adapted to other (agricultural) supply chains. Transparency about the CSR dimension food safety has marketing potential for Dutch dairy supply chains and can be increased relatively simple. Transparency about the CSR dimension animal wellbeing also has good marketing potential but increasing the transparency about animal wellbeing is considered difficult. Transparency about the CSR dimensions environment, revenues and costs has little marketing potential for Dutch dairy supply chains. The existence of market segments with respect to needs for information about CSR shows that there are marketing opportunities for product differentiation because it is possible to match groups of farmers willing to provide information about CSR with market segments asking for information about CSR. Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Quality, Agricultur