Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Media Communications

First Advisor

Mr Emmett Coffey

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to find out how the consumers' loyalty to a particular retailer is affected by the involvement of the company to various CSR activities. Companies engage in a number of CSR activities not only for an instant increase of sale but also for a good reputation and to fulfil their commitments to the community. At least three different but integrated research methods were used in this thesis to find out what CSR activities the mentioned company is engaged in and the extent of customers' loyalty is achieved. In a word, the correlation of these was investigated. Nowadays, CSR is conducted by various kinds of companies, reported on their websites and also in the media. However, the motivations for the practice of CSR have been criticized and questioned by many. The criticism of CSR, especially in retail industries, is particularly notable due to practices that many companies engage in which may be seen as unsustainable and unethical. Therefore, an exploration of consumer attitudes towards CSR was deemed to be a sufficiently important and interesting field of study. Moreover, due to the fact that little is known about retail consumers' awareness of CSR and again this is why the exploration of the consumer knowledge about CSR is also of critical importance. In this study customers' response to various CSR activities practiced by Debenhams was examined and the data was then analysed using proper techniques to justify the hypothesis that consumers' loyalty to the company increases as they know about company's involvement to CSR. The measurement was done in the context of Public Relations metrics. Throughout this study, the author used various qualitative research methods in order to collect and analyze data of consumer's awareness and attitudes towards CSR when it comes to their purchasing decisions. The results of the primary research were then analyzed and discussed. In addition, secondary research was also undertaken to add strength and validity to the overall study. Subsequently, findings of the primary research were then interpreted and placed in the context of the literature review. The analysis of collected data showed that the consumers are well aware of CSR activities in general but are not sufficiently aware of focused company's CSR activities. Reasonably, this 3 issue has been mentioned in the recommendation section so that the company utilizes a more effective strategy to inform customers of their CSR activities. For CSR campaigns to be truly effective, it is crucial for customers to fully understand the importance and aim of CSR activities in order for CSR to have an impact on customers' purchasing decisions.

Comments

Archiving note: The appendices of this thesis were removed for digital sharing due to copyright and personal data restrictions.

Access Level

info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess

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