Aligning Corporate Digital Responsibility Engagement with Consumer Expectations

Digitalization holds chances but also risks that managers need to address. Within this context, the concept of corporate digital responsibility (CDR) emerged, aiming to ensure responsible digitalization that benefits affected stakeholders. CDR engagement is often stakeholder-driven and some companies already pursue CDR activities. So far, however, research and practice have only a disconnected understanding of the potential alignment or deviation of consumers’ and companies’ views on CDR. This paper employs a mixed-methods approach with 665 German-speaking consumers and 32 German companies to address this knowledge gap. The results indicate some alignment regarding the importance of the CDR dimensions data privacy and security and information and transparency. But there is a considerable gap between the perceived importance of the dimension product safety and liability and the concrete implementation of information and transparency. Based on the results, this research proposes recommendations for initiating or altering a CDR strategy.