Nowadays, environmental and social problems are very important for modern consumers and firms, which cannot operate only in accordance with the logic of profit. In this paper, by administering a questionnaire to consumers, we have tried to assess the impact of the solidarity of responsible initiatives on consumer preferences: the conclusions are also a matter for thought for further discussion. The investigation was conducted through a sample size survey. The analysis was carried out considering a representative sample of more than 300 families, selected on a functional relation to the objectives of the work in one of the most important and representative Italian cities. This study has two main aims: to investigate consumer preferences regarding responsible initiatives of a company; and to develop and validate a structural equation model, in order to formalize the origins of behaviours regarding consumer preferences towards responsible initiatives and detect the drivers of their purchase. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment