Socially conscious consumerism: a systematic review of the body of knowledge

Consumer personal consumption decisions can help maintain the environment or contribute to its deterioration. As firms strive to limit the impact of their operations on society and the environment, this paper asks whether consumers are willing to reward firms for their CSR by paying a higher price for products and services which enhance social or environmental well-being or through increased purchases.

The paper reviews 30 years of research on whether consumers are willing to reward firms for their positive sustainability actions either by changing their behaviour or by paying a price premium. It finds that:

• Consumer willingness to change their behaviour towards the socially conscious choice is more common than their willingness to pay a premium
• Consumers often appear to expect the socially better choice to be of the same quality and price - it does not appear that they will trade-off functionality
• The average premium for socially conscious products and services is 10%
• Some consumers will demand a discount for ‘unsustainability’, even greater than the premium for sustainability.

The paper finds some evidence to suggest that factors other than sustainability attributes are more important in driving consumer behaviour. For example, prompting consumers, making their purchases decisions visible, and making them feel like their purchases will make a difference may be more important than having the right sustainability attributes to the products and services.