Consumer Attitudes and Intentions Regarding Environmental Behaviors: Effects of Firm-Stated Motives

As many as 90% of Fortune 500 companies have integrated explicit corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives into their marketing actions, taking visible steps to communicate their socially responsible actions to consumers (Lichtenstein, Drumwright, and Braig 2004*). One of the most dominant recent CSR platforms is adopting environmentally friendly practices. This increasingly popular CSR initiative of “going green” has been adopted as a marketing platform by major companies such as Honda, Toyota, GE, Bank of America, Starbucks, REI, Whole Foods, and Home Depot (Frazier 2007; Makower 2008), with the obvious hope of increased patronage of consumer segments in appreciation of such behaviors.