The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Purchase Intention: Evidence from Banking Sector

The relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and company performance has been examined by many scholars, but this relationship is affected by many factors making the tests imprecise. Therefore, this study considers corporate ability and consumer identification as probable constructs in the relationship between CSR and purchase intention. This relationship is underestimated by many scholars and has not been much investigated in the literature. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on Turkish banks customers and on their responses using the customer - company identification which is affecting the purchase intention. A personal survey on 1934 banking customers was carried out and structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses. The results confirmed the positive relationship between the constructs showing that CSR activities should take into account the different aspects of social identity of the banks to attract and retain customers. The study also suggests that CSR can be a source of competitive advantage for the banks improving their financial performance as suggested in the related literature (e.g. Bhattacharya and Sen 2004) by enhancing reputation and customer satisfaction.