Corporate Social Responsibility and Generation Y

When one says “Corporate Social Responsibility”, what is the first thing that comes to mind? In today’s world, companies are trying harder than ever to become socially responsible, and this is partially potentially due to the fact that one of the main characteristics of the Y Generation is well-known for caring a great deal about the environment. Furthermore, Reisenwitz and Iyer (2009) found that Generation Y customers are not as loyal to a brand as the previous generation is, and is more likely to try different brands when they do not suit their needs (p.92).

If the companies were not trying to target their product to Generation Y consumers or attempting to appear better than their competitor, where would the company fall in the ethical pool of their product-making? It seems that unless the company believes they can make a quick buck on appearing socially or environmentally conscious, their lack of effort to be a better business, operate better, or make a better product falls by the waste side. That being said, Jon Entine and Marianne M. Jennings, authors of Business with a Soul: A Reexamination of What Counts in Business Ethics, state that, “such a simplistic equation of social responsibility obscures the reality that business ethicists have failed to examine closely either what constitutes business ethics or whether these particular firms would qualify as ethical by standards other than those measured by political issues or self-defined parameters.”

In order for a business to be ethically, morally, and socially responsible (whether their product or business is doing well or not), the consumer must be partially responsible for holding them accountable. To be honest, though, it would take more than just the consumer to hold the business responsible - the responsibility also falls on the business themselves, as well as the government or overseeing agency to keep the company in line.

To conclude, I will leave you with a few questions to ponder:

Would you be more likely to buy from a business that was socially or environmentally conscious instead of one that wasn’t?
Who do you feel is responsible for keeping a company socially responsible?