Buyer social responsibility: a general concept and its implications for marketing management

The inclusion of sustainability concerns in consumer decision-making poses new challenges to marketing. The existing literature contains a variety of concepts and definitions that pertain to social issues in consumption but lacks an overarching conceptualisation of buyer social responsibility (BSR) that identifies its basic features. This article proposes a general BSR concept as a problem-solving consumer-decision process. It draws from the social dilemma and social issue literature streams to develop a conceptual framework on consumers’ consideration of social issues in purchase decisions, its potential consequences and boundary conditions. The article formulates propositions and elaborates on how companies, governments and non-governmental organisations can strengthen BSR and draw on it to relieve social issues and create profitable market offerings.