RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IDEOLOGICAL PREJUDICES ABOUT PRIVATE ENTERPRISE AND CUSTOMERS' PERCEPTION OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: A STUDY IN PERU.

This work explores the impact of ideological biases about private enterprise as an economic actor on customers' perceptions of socially responsible behavior directed towards them, on an individual level. The aim is to answer the question: do these biases hinder or limit customers' ability to accurately perceive socially responsible behavior by their service providers towards them? Research on the relationship between perception of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and consumer behavior has generally focused on the impact of this perception on issues such as corporate reputation, brand image, propensity to purchase certain brands, or customer loyalty. However, little research has been done on whether such perception is influenced by negative ideological biases that exist in contemporary societies about private enterprise as an economic actor. To answer this question, information was gathered from a database resulting from a survey of a representative sample of citizens in Peru (n=1524). The survey was conducted through in-person interviews in the participants' homes. The questionnaire included eight indicators of CSR practices directed towards customers and two indicators of ideological biases. The first eight indicators were used to evaluate customers' perception of the 13 service companies in Peru. These companies belong to four sectors: banking (4), department stores (3), hypermarkets (3), and telecommunications (3). The first eight indicators refer to different aspects of social responsibility towards customers. The indicators of ideological biases evaluate the degree of agreement with the following statements: 1) this company influences the government to create laws only for its benefit and 2) this company is more interested in making money than in offering a good quality product or service. Both sets of indicators were measured using five-point Likert scales. Factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha were used to verify that the eight indicators represent a single dimension. Therefore, the construction of an index that measures the perception of CSR towards customers was validated, resulting from the combination of the eight indicators. Using ANOVA analysis, it was found that the correlation between perception of CSR towards customers and ideological biases is non-existent or very low. These results are important for companies because, if confirmed in further research, they would indicate that customers can identify their CSR practices towards them independently of their ideological biases about the company as an economic actor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]