Understanding Consumer Behavior toward Social Enterprise Products

Social enterprise is an emerging global trend to solve society's major problems through the means of business. After microfinance, Yunus Social Business (Bangladesh) is now getting worldwide attention for its distinctive principles and application. This study attempted to investigate the impact of consumer knowledge and understanding about the social enterprises on their buying behavior. Moreover, consumers' perceived ethical and environmental awareness or rational considerations have also been investigated. Descriptive statistics shows that 26% respondents have clear understanding about social enterprise and 80% respondents believe that social enterprises can contribute to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). Findings of regression analysis show that consumers' purchase decisions are not influenced by their prior knowledge about social enterprise, ethical perception, and attitude, rather their decision is highly influenced by the information available on the product (P value.001, ?.602) and rational behavior that are stimulated through the rational pricing and availability of the product (P value.000, ?.258). Thus, the study draws conclusion that to get increased consumer response, social enterprises should provide adequate information about their social and environmental mission and must maintain highest quality and ethical standards to create a trusted brand for all ethical, ecological, and rational consumers.