The Importance of Consumer Perception of Corporate Social Responsibility to Meet the Need for Sustainable Consumption: Challenges in the Sportswear Sector

The main objective of this chapter is to contribute theoretically to the literature on consumer perception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable consumption by investigating the possible relationships between them. First, this chapter presents a theoretical overview of the importance of investigating the perceptions of CSR as a three-dimensional construct from a consumer perspective and explores the crucial theme of sustainable consumption. Second, this chapter illustrates the quantitative empirical research carried out on Italian consumers. The results confirm the relevance of deepening consumer perceptions of CSR by using a multidimensional scale (Alvarado-Herrera et al., 2017) and its relationship with sustainable consumption while focusing on a specific firm and category of sustainable products. Only in this way can the social responsibility of consumers and firms be integrated and, hence, constitute the basis for building a sustainable industry

Consumer Generated Advertising in Blogs

Blogs are the newest and potentially most attractive online media available to marketers. This chapter discusses the unique nature of blogs and the growing power of consumer generated content. This raises a number of questions as well as new opportunities. As the authors point out that existing literature on blog marketing only discusses the possible advantages of using blogs as a marketing tool and the addition of blogs into the marketing mix. However, the problem is that these studies totally ignored consumers’ perception towards blogs that carry advertisements. The rise of advertising companies that have stepped in to fill the gap between companies and bloggers, are discussed. Some examples of successful blog advertising campaigns are also provided. This chapter also presents a conceptual model that examines the salient factors that are likely to influence consumer attitude towards blogs and towards advertising in blogs, and more specifically on sponsored posts on blogs. It is hoped that this chapter would encourage other researchers to take a look at this unique media which in turn will help shed new light on how blogs are enabling a new model of consumer collaboration and consumer generated advertising