Millennial's Involvement in Corporate Social Responsibility

Introduction

In recent years, CSR has come to be regarded as a great strategic marketing tool and an important part of the business paradigm (Supanti and Butcher, 2019). This is because consumers do not ask companies for only a high-quality product, but they are “characterized as being satisfied with products that are developed by socially responsible firms” (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006, Mohammed and Rashid, 2018 p. 360). Moreover, several authors (e.g. Choi and La, 2013; Kucukusta et al. 2013; Othman e Hemdi, 2015, Paulìk et al., 2015) studied CSR as a driver of satisfaction and loyalty. Indeed, Sogari et al. (2017) proved that consumers in their purchase choices focusing on the product/process dimension of environmental sustainability. Many authors recently (e.g. Formánková et al., 2019; Cavaliere and Ventura, 2018; Bonadonna et al., 2017) concentrated on analyzing the behavior of a precise target of individuals concerning the CSR policies implemented by firms, i.e. Millennials. This generation is composed of individuals born between 1980 and 2000 and they are called Millennials because of their closeness to the new millennium and being raised in a more digital age (Kaifi et al., 2012; Smith and Nichols, 2015). Formánková et al., (2019) claimed that for Millennials, CRS is an integral part of their life and there are more aware of CSR. In fact, in line with the research conducted by Frey (2018) on the topic of Millennials Generation (MG), “one of the long-term trends that continued with millennials [has been] the increase in education attainment” (p. 12) based on an education-oriented to sustainability (Bonadonna et al., 2017). The millennials, therefore, as students, possess extensive knowledge of basic principles of ecology and sustainability and adopt environmentally responsible consumption practices (Earl et al., 2003; Emanuel and Adams, 2011). According to a study led by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2011, 88% of Millennials prefer companies that emphasize CSR and 86% would consider leaving if their employer’s CSR no longer met their expectations. These data are also confirmed by research conducted in the literature. Catano and Morrow Hines, (2016) developed an experimental design in which analyzed how Millennial generation applicants evaluated the firm concerning implementing CSR policies. The results showed as good advertising of such policies increases the initial attractiveness of the organization to job seekers. Instead, Supanti and Butcher (2019) proved that CSR participation has a strong influence over work-related outcomes in the Millennials.

However, in the literature, there are no studies that analyze the topic of CS and CL in the Millennials concerning firms that implement CSR policies. Indeed, based on a literature search conducted on SCOPUS databases (Keywords— TITLE-ABS-KEY “corporate social responsibility” AND TITLE-ABS-KEY “millennial” AND TITLE-ABS-KEY “customer satisfaction” OR TITLE-ABS-KEY “customer loyalty”), no documents were found. While modifying some keywords (TITLE-ABS-KEY “corporate social responsibility” AND TITLE-ABS-KEY “millennial” AND TITLE-ABS-KEY “loyalty” OR TITLE-ABS-KEY “satisfaction”), search provided 3 papers. Eveland et al., (2018) analyzed the CSR topic and study the necessary drivers in order to build a trust-based consumer relationship. The authors proved that Millennial consumers expect organizations/brands to engage in CSR activities and if these policies do not reflect the customer's value system (shared values), the long-term relationship can be impacted negatively. Amoroso and Roman (2019) evaluated the importance of CSR in Millennials and how this can influence their intention to purchase. The results showed that loyalty and trust appear stronger among older-age consumers than among the younger-age consumers. Finally, Lerro et al., (2019) studied the attitude of Millennial consumers towards several CSR activities carried out by food companies. The findings showed that loyalty plays a crucial role in affecting consumers’ willingness to support CSR initiatives.