Do corporate social responsibility drive sustainable purchase intention? An empirical study in emerging economy

PurposeThe purpose of the research is to investigate whether corporate social responsibility awareness (pCSR), environmental concerns (EC) and consumer environmental knowledge (CK) will have an impact on sustainable purchase intention (SPI). Furthermore, this paper also contributes to surveying the mediating impact of consumer attitudes (CAs) between intention and the three factors mentioned above.Design/methodology/approachSmartPLS (version 4.0) structural equation modeling (SEM) and quantitative methods were used to analyze 457 responses from consumers. The survey sample consisted of individuals between the ages of 18 and 34, with a male-to-female ratio of 70 to 30. The study aims to examine and put into practice new directions for manufacturing firms in the fields of fashion, food and consumer products. At the same time, provide more convincing evidence about the use of these fields in the research.FindingsThe study showed a favorable link between pCSR, EC, CK and SPI through the proposed hypotheses. The research additionally showed that CAs mediate between the aforementioned variables.Originality/valueThe important and distinctive results of this study encourage both consumers and enterprises to make changes in their perceptions of society. Consumers should gradually change their daily lifestyle by consuming more sustainable products. As a result, this outcome will provide the impetus for manufacturing businesses to alter their operational procedures in order to support the shift from the production of products to more friendly processes, with the help of all levels of management within the business.