Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Customer Satisfaction and the Organisational Attractiveness of the Clothing Industry in the UK
This research examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on customer satisfaction and organisational attractiveness within the UK clothing industry. Given the industry’s prevalent issues of unsustainable practices, such as poor working conditions, labour exploitation, and environmental degradation, many organisations have embraced CSR initiatives to address these challenges. However, there is a lack of research that explores how CSR practices specifically influence customer satisfaction and organisational attractiveness, employing a well-developed theoretical framework. To bridge this gap, this study adopts a qualitative approach, conducting 22 semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews. The data analysis utilises NVIVO 2, employing thematic analysis to identify and explore key themes and patterns within the data. The analysis reveals four main themes in this research: the types of CSR activities, challenges/barriers to organisations, providing organisational attractiveness, and ensuring customer satisfaction. The types of CSR activities encompass philanthropic-, ethical-, legal-, economic-, and environmental-based practices. Challenges/barriers include managerial, organisational, legal, and production-related factors. Providing organisational attractiveness highlights adopting positive consumer orientation and consideration for the external environment to the organisation. Lastly, ensuring customer satisfaction includes institutional pressure mechanisms, responsibility focus, and community focus as sub-themes. Building upon these themes, this research proposes a conceptual framework that outlines a three-stage plan to address the knowledge gap on how CSR influences customer satisfaction and the attractiveness of businesses in the UK clothing industry. These stages involve promoting CSR activities, identifying obstacles, and proposing solutions. Thus, this research contributes to the CSR literature by elucidating the mechanisms through which customer satisfaction and organisational attractiveness are achieved.
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