Title: Food companies' work with CSR and its impact on consumer purchases of organic products

Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration

Author: Maria Nilsson and Mikaela Jaredal

Supervisor: Agneta Sundström

Date: June 2015

Aim: The study aims to understand and describe how food chains affect consumer choice to buy organic food and how it affects their buying behaviour.

Method: Firstly a qualitative study was conducted. It consisted of six semi-structured interviews with store managers and employees on Willys and Coop in Sala and in Nyköping. Secondly a quantitative study was performed in the form of a questionnaire with 80 consumers in Willys and Coop stores located in Sala and Nyköping.

Result & Conclusions: We have seen that price is important when consumers decide whether to buy organic food or not. This has been noticed by the food chains who work actively with being able to offer organic food at lower prices. Other factors that affect the consumers choice to buy organic products are offers, displaying and advertising. We have seen that consumers of the food chain that has worked a long time with sustainability are more willing to pay a higher price of organic food than consumers of the food chain with shorter tradition of working with these issues.

Suggestions for future research: Future research could focus on the attitude towards and awareness of organic food of different age groups. It would also be interesting to continue our research but in a larger geographical area and/or include more food chains.

Contribution of the thesis: The contribution of the study is that we show which CSR activities that actually influence consumers of buying organic products.