How corporate social responsibility initiatives affect the choice of a bank: Empirical evidence of Italian context

Abstract

For all firms, it is imperative to identify and understand the factors that influence consumers purchasing behaviors and, specifically, identify how customer demographics relate to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. However, limited research exists on banking consumer's preferences and responses towards different CSR initiatives. Therefore, using an exploratory survey consisting of 250 received responses of attitudes and perceptions from customers of Italian savings banks, we investigate the interactions between three types of CSR initiatives (ethical behavior towards the environment, social inclusion initiatives, and financing eco-sustainable projects) and respondents' demographic characteristics. We predict that different types of CSR initiatives influence the choice of banking institution among customers with diverse demographic characteristics (age, geographic origin, and type of employment). This research helps in making several important contributions to CSR research which can assist banks in developing effective CSR strategies.