Corporate social responsibility or CSR is a phenomenon that has steadily been growing for the past decade. CSR is generally considered as activities performed by a company in order to strengthen its positive image. Previous research has indicated that there is a connection between a company’s CSR actions and its consumer’s reactions towards the company and its different product/s. However, few studies have investigated university students’ attitudes towards CSR as well as different CSR initiatives. Therefor the aim of this dissertation is to study the knowledge, attitudes and the importance of CSR initiatives among young university business students. A second aim is to study the influence of CSR activities on the decision making process when in a buying situation. 

In order to investigate this a quantitative survey was conducted among young business students at the University of Kristianstad. The survey consisted of 18 questions regarding CSR knowledge, attitudes and attributes. A total of 87 respondents participated and handed in the survey. The results demonstrated that even though the students were unsure as to what the abbreviation CSR stands for, when given examples the majority answered correctly. It also became evident that females considered CSR to be more important than the male respondents in many aspects. Especially the CSR initiative “Against animal testing” proved to be seen as much more important among the females than with the males. The results also reveled differences between the age groups. The age group 18-21 was the one that differed the most compared to the other three age groups (22-25, 26-30, 30+). In conclusion the students have a generally positive attitude towards CSR but it does not affect their purchasing decisions.