The responsible consumer – Consumer consciousness from idea to delivery : an exploratory study of consumers’ willingness to act socially responsible when purchasing fashion online

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate consumers’ willingness to act socially responsible in their online fashion purchasing behaviour. Three frameworks; Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Socially Responsible Consumer Behaviour (SRCB) and Consumer Social Responsibility (CNSR), constitute a foundation and have been combined in a conceptual framework. The research approach used is a qualitative research approach, and the empirical data was gathered in two semi-structured focus-groups with five and six participants. The participants were recruited by a convivence sampling method, with purposive sampling characteristics. The findings indicate that factors that influenced consumers’ willingness to act socially responsible was price, convenience, and time. Moreover, the findings show that SRCB is seen as a process, and that consumers’ stage in the process influence their willingness to act socially responsible. Lastly, it is shown that the TPB and SRCB must be considered before consumers can act socially responsible. This since consumers who have positive attitudes towards responsible actions, are susceptible to information of social and environmental issues related to their behaviour. These consumers can create enough awareness to take social- and environmental responsibility for their actions. Responsible consumers also aim to influence other consumers to take a greater responsibility. The findings of this study have contributed to further understanding within the research area of responsible consumers. Since the conceptual framework consider consumer behaviour in combination with their areas of awareness and responsibilities, this study contributes to deeper understanding of why consumers act socially responsible or not.