1. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CONSUMER ETHICS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF YOUNG CONSUMERS IN CROATIA Blaženka Kneževi ć University of Zagreb, Croatia Faculty of Economics and Business E-mail: bknezevic@efzg.hr

2. CONTENTS IntroductionCorporate social responsibilityConsumer ethicsPrimary researchConclusion

3. INTRODUCTION ❖ yet in 15th century, topics such as: ethics, poverty reduction and responsibility of businessmen towards different stakeholders, were addressed by scientists (ex. Benedetto Cotrugli, 1458., Ancient Dubrovnik, devoted 2 large chapters of his book „On trade and prefrect tradesman” to those issues) ❖ corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumer ethics are now highly important as concepts and components being incorporated into or addressed by the corporate strategy ❖ there is a wide range of research studies in both areas around world, but there is a scarcity of primary research in CEE and SEE region, which would answer how future managers percieve issues in this field.

4. Corporate Social Responsibility ❖ Comprises initiatives and policies when companies integrate social and environmental issues in their business operations and strategies on a long run ❖ i.e. it refers to companies taking responsibility for their impact on society (European Commission, 2002 )

5. Corporate Social Responsibility ❖ in literature - various perspectives from the stakeholder view towards the triangle of sustainable development, including a bunch of studies on its impact on business performance EconomicEnvironmentalSocial Balancing between 3 imperatives and various stakeholders

6. ❖ ATBEQ (Attitudes Toward Business Ethics Questionnaire) that consist 30 statements on business attitudes was developed and applied on the sample of management students in USA and Israel (see Preble, Reichel 1988). ❖ Used by other researchers at other markets, see: Shields et al. (2013) Japan and USA; Fatoki, Chillya (2012) SME owners in South Africa; Nguyen, Pham (2015), US and Vietnam …

7. Consumer ethics ❖ refers to the ethical consumer’s behaviour of while purchasing in retail stores or online ❖ i.e. to the ethical issues that arise when ordinary consumers acquire, use, and dispose conventional consumer products ❖ Research streams: (1) consumer’s shopping malpractices, (2) ecologicaly related consumption or sustainable consumption, (3) consumer boycotts and their consequences

8. ❖ Consumer Ethics Scale CES developed by Muncy, Vitell (1992) ❖ succesfuly applied to research different markets: Egypt, Austria, Ireland, Lebanon, South Africa and USA (see Polonsky et al. 2001).

9. Primary research – methodology ❖ main objectives: (1) to understand how students as future managers perceive CSR in general; (2) to investigate what are their attitudes towards consumer ethics issues ❖ Electronic questionnaire ❖ 4 sections, 48 questions ❖ ATBEQ (sec. 2) ❖ CES (sec. 4)

10. Primary research – sample ❖ N = 224 CharacteristicOptions Relative Frequency Gender Males Females 22.3% 77.7% Study programme Bachelor Master Postgraduate Associate 38.8% 22.8% 0.4% 37.9% Employment I usually work I work occasionally I don't work 32.1% 37.5% 30.4%

11. Results – CSR

12. General attitudes towards CSR

13. Importance of stakeholders of CSR

14. Attitudes towards business ethics 10 Selected statements out of ATBEQ listAverageMOD agree + strongly agree The business world has it own rules.3.562agree 61.6% True morality is first and foremost self-interested.3.294agree 51.3% A good business person is a successful business person.3.048agree 37.9% Business decisions involve a realistic economic attitude and not a moral philosophy.3.036agree 38.4% For every decision in business the only question is "Will it be profitable?"…2.924disagree 35.7% Conditions of a free economy will serve best the needs of society…2.912neutral 31.7% The only moral of business is making money.2.807disagree 34.0% The lack of public confidence in the ethics of business people is not justified.2.474disagree 12.5% "Business ethics" is a concept for public relation only.2.259disagree 9.8% Moral values are irrelevant to the business world.1.684 strongly disagree 1.7%

15. Results – Consumer Ethics

16. Shopping malpractices

17. Expectation of return for active ethical behaviour

18. And what about Sunday? Do you shop on Sunday? Would you be willing to work on Sunday?

19. Conclusions Future managers in Croatia (nowadays students): ❖ understand that contemporary society demands from companies to solve social problems. ❖ perceive that companies committed to CSR have a potential to be more profitable on a long run. ❖ believe that Business Ethics is not a concept for public relations only (i.e. it is a real concept). ❖ think that companies have ethical responsibility towards all stakeholders. ❖ would prefer to work for a company with implemented Sustainability and CSR concepts. ❖ As consumers they have high personal ethical standards and majority of them do not expect any material reward when actively act ethically.

20. Thank you for attention Working on Sunday – In Croatia… Such a nice joke!!! HAHAHA -an undisclosed student, comment regarding the last question