Conceptualizing and measuring consumer social responsibility: a neglected aspect of consumer research Ali Quazi 1 , Azlan Amran 2 and Mehran Nejati 2 1 School of Management, University of Canberra, Australia 2 Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia Keywords Consumer social responsibility, scale development, scale validation, CnSR, consumer issues, consumer social impacts, consumer environmental impacts. Correspondence Mehran Nejati, Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. E-mail: mehran@usm.my doi: 10.1111/ijcs.12211 Abstract Despite the availability of extensive research on a wide range of consumer-related areas, some socially sensitive consumer issues have still remained relatively unexplored. Since literature review revealed a gap in the conceptualization of consumer social responsibilities, this article conceptualized, developed and validated a measurement scale for consumer social responsibility (CnSR), using a rigorous methodology suggested in the scale development literature. The study responded to the scholarly calls for further research in this area. Using a total sample of 491 respondents (53 respondents for pilot, 207 for exploratory survey and 231 for confirmatory survey), the study proposed a six- dimensional measurement scale for CnSR, including: (1) social impacts, (2) solidarity, (3) critical appraisal, (4) supporting business growth, (5) environmental impacts and (6) action. It is argued that with ever growing impacts of corporate social responsibility on business practices, the validated measurement scale will contribute to the advancement of research in this nascent consumer area. Introduction The past four decades have witnessed a remarkable growth in research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in both con- ceptual and empirical terms. The CSR journey that started cen- turies ago is still growing at an unprecedented pace with no sign of slowing down (Quazi et al., 2015). It has been widely argued that businesses can achieve economic success by doing good to society (Falck and Heblich, 2007; Laszlo, 2008). How- ever, one vital issue which seems to have been often neglected is that socially responsible consumers, as one of the key stake- holders of businesses, can also play a significant role in ensur- ing the success of social initiatives undertaken by businesses leading to economic gains. The concept of stakeholder advo- cacy reflects the urgency for consumers to play their roles accordingly in ensuring corporate citizenship. While consumer related issues have been widely researched in the extant litera- ture in both conceptual and empirical terms, the issue of con- sumer social responsibility (CnSR) has received limited attention by researchers and practitioners, resulting in calls for advancement of research on CnSR, particularly in empirical terms (e.g. Quazi, 2013; Vitell, 2014). Research has also stressed the need to broaden the current narrowly conceived scope of CnSR (Caruana and Chatzidakis, 2014). Consumers have responsibilities to create favourable social impacts by wielding their power in the marketplace (Dickinson and Car- sky, 2005). Thus, conceptualizing and assessing CnSR is essen- tial, as it can be the catalyst for the success of CSR. Since advancement of research in any new area requires con- ceptualization and definition of the key issues, and development of measurement scales as a starting point, the current research initiative provides insights into initial conceptualization of CnSR, followed by the development and validation of measure- ment scales. This research briefly outlines the theoretical devel- opment of CnSR and then conceptualizes CnSR. It also proposes and validates a scale to measure CnSR, by following a methodologically rigorous way. To this end, we propose three main objectives for the study: 1 To define and conceptualize CnSR 2 To develop measurement scale for CnSR 3 To empirically validate the scale following standard scale vali- dation procedures Consumer social responsibility Definition and scope Research has linked CnSR to ethics (Vitell, 2014). Muncy and Vitell (1992) defined consumer social responsibilities as ‘the moral principles and standard that guide the behaviors of indi- viduals as they obtain, use, and dispose of goods and services’. Mohr et al. (2001) defined socially responsible consumer as ‘a person basing his or her acquisition, usage and disposition of products on a desire to minimize or eliminate any harmful effects and maximize the long term beneficial impact on soci- ety’. Fazal (2011) proposed a five-point characterization of 48 International Journal of Consumer Studies 40 (2016) 48–56 V C 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd International Journal of Consumer Studies ISSN 1470-6423