ABSTRACT
In recent years, the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for managing a company's reputation has increased substantially. CSR has also becoming increasingly important in the business-to-business market, with an increasing number of companies taking CSR into account in their purchasing decisions (Kolk and Van Tulder, 2002; Maignan et al., 2002). While a few previous studies have examined such reasons for taking CSR into account (Carter and Jennings, 2004; Drumwright, 1994; Park, 2005), none of these studies examined the way in which companies actually go about taking CSR into account in their buying decisions. For example do they care what type of CSR a potential supplier addresses? And do they take into account the supplier's contribution to the overall product? Answering such questions would be important for suppliers as it can give them guidance on which types of CSR they should focus. Given that companies often invest substantial amounts of money in CSR activities (e.g. Economist, 2009), it would be helpful for them to know whether they are investing in the ‘right’ activities, i.e. those that are likely to be beneficial for them in attracting more (business) customers. The current study addresses these issues, thereby increasing insight into the process through which CSR affects business purchasing decisions. Specifically, we address the following research questions:
To what extent is the CSR expectation of a company toward their supplier based on the form of its own CSR activities?
Does the CSR expectation of a company toward their supplier depend on the size of the physical contribution of that supplier to the end product of the company?
