Measuring Consumers' Preferences Towards Corporate Social Responsibility

The globalization of the economy and the spread of information about MNEs' have spurred the social consciousness of consumers around the world. This process has in turn stimulated firms' interest to know then value consumers attach to socially responsible activities. Despite growing interest, it is to a large extent unknown how much consumers value firms' actions considered socially responsible. In this paper we contribute to the answer to this question. The results of four focus groups as well as interviews to 54 individuals suggest that the willingness to pay for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is positive. Based on these results, as well as those of recent studies, we argue that multi-attribute stated preferences methodology is best suited to quantify consumers' willingness to pay for specific activities related to CSR. We briefly present this methodology in the context of CSR