Effects of corporate social responsibility actions on South Korean adolescents' perceptions in the food industry

Abstract

Our objective in this study is to understand how adolescents respond to the food industry's corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, especially the effects of such activities on consumers' emotional responses, perceived authenticity, and attitudes toward the company. Understanding which types of CSR actions most influence adolescents is important for managers. This study examines adolescents' responses to three types of CSR actions (career-related, environment-related, and wellbeing-related) across two types of products (unhealthy and healthy foods). We find that CSR actions related to career issues have the greatest effects on adolescents' emotional responses, perceived authenticity, and attitudes toward a company under the condition of healthy food products. In other words, when a healthy food company offers a career-related CSR program, adolescents have better responses than when an unhealthy food company offers the same CSR program.