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The top three most important responsibilities for companies today, in the eyes of consumers, are proving good jobs for people, producing good quality products or services and being environmentally responsible.
That is according to over 27,000 internet users across 22 countries, who were asked to select the three most important company responsibilities from a list that ranged from protecting the health and safety of workers to having programs that address social issues and causes.
By drilling into the full findings, businesses can identify what areas truly matter to their target audiences (i.e. where do the various nationalities or age groups differ) and focus their corporate advertising and corporate social responsibility (CSR) budget on activities that will score highly with their core consumers.
Men, in general, favor environment over health and safety
For example, men and women agree in believing that providing good jobs for people and producing good quality products and services come at the top of the list of the three most important corporate responsibilities. But there is divergence on what comes third. Slightly more women select ‘protecting the health and safety of workers’ than ‘being environmentally responsible’, while for men it’s the other way around.
There is also a strong gender difference seen further down the list. Significantly more men than women select ‘investing in research and technology’ as one of the three most important responsibilities for companies today – standing at 21 percent and 13 percent respectively.
UK and Belgium lead in wanting companies to pay fair share of taxes
And it’s the same for individual countries. The UK and Belgium stand out as having the highest percentages who see ‘paying their fair share of taxes’ as being in the top three most important responsibilities for a company. Over a third of the online population in each country selected this as one of their three choices – making it the second highest focus in Belgium and the third highest in UK.
By contrast, Sweden and China have the highest levels who see protecting the health and safety of its workers as one of the top three company responsibilities – standing at around a half of the online population.
Download our complimentary report showing findings for each of the 22 countries by gender and age group.
Please email me to share your thoughts at Amanda.Martin@gfk.com.
Footnote:
The survey question asked, “Which three of these things do you think are the most important responsibilities of companies today?”
• Providing good jobs for people
• Investing in research and technology
• Being environmentally responsible
• Producing good quality products or services
• Paying a fair share of taxes
• Protecting the health and safety of its workers
• Having programs that address social issues and causes
• Supporting the local community
• Advertising honestly
• Charging reasonable prices for products and services
• Providing a good return to shareholders
• Helping to educate people
• Being involved with charities