Issues in corporate transparency from the perspective of a sustainable consumer

Abstract

This paper aims to research the issues related to corporate transparency from the consumer perspective. The larger theme behind this research is sustainability and more specifically sustainability from the consumer perspective. As more and more consumers are informed of the sustainability issues that are happening, many consumers want to make more effort to make purchase decisions that align with their values. In order to succeed in this process, consumers need more transparency. However, having a total transparency is not possible.

There are many issues that effect both how transparent companies can be and whether the added transparency can truly claim its promises. In this reseach, we are researching different issues related to transparency and how do they effect to the consumer. The common transparency issues that we have discovered and researched in this paper were divided onto five different categories: volume of transparency, lack of universal measurements, transparency on a competitive field, labels and certificates as indicators of transparency and lack of regulation with CSR.

This paper seeks to gather information about these issues and how these issues effect to the consumer. In addition to that the possible solutions are considered. The aim is to offer both practional and academical information for further research in the future.