Does the Geography of Corporate Social Responsibility Matter to Consumers?

• In Event: Mass Politics of Trade Cooperation

Abstract

Americans have complex feelings towards offshore production. They dislike offshoring and bring that distaste to bear on their consumer behavior, but that distaste is also understood to be context-dependent, and sensitive to corporate framing. Offshoring is “bad,” but displays of corporate social responsibility (CSR) showing firms as “good” contributors to American society are often effective tools to overcome liabilities might otherwise accrue to offshoring. However, little is known the role of geography in the success of those efforts. Does it matter who is being helped? Are Americans reacting to the “goodness” of the firm or its display of loyalty to American interests? Does helping an unpopular population help or hinder efforts to overcome consumer reluctance to buy an imported good? Preliminary results from online survey experiments suggest that CSR aimed at Americans’ helps overcome the liability of offshore production, but that similar efforts aimed at people at the point of offshore production are counterproductive.

Authors

• Brian Kelleher Richter, University of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business

• Andrew Kerner, Michigan State University

• Jane Lawrence Sumner, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities