The relationship corporate social responsibility, service quality, corporate image and purchase intention: A study on retail stores

One of the priorities of corporations is being successful at their areas, to continue their presence and to gain profits. But, today's business environment has different challenges for companies and it is very hard for them to be competitive with only their specific products, services and marketing activities. In today's highly competitive and marketing oriented business environment these basic marketing investments such as products and services are enhanced with concepts like corporate social responsibility, service quality, technology integration and customer focused corporate image to create a unique corporate identity. To reach this competitively distinctive corporate image companies put some social objectives as well as their economic objectives and thanks to this approach they try to create strong image in their customers' mind. The aim of this study is to find out whether there is a significant relationship among corporate social responsibility, service quality, corporate image and purchase intention. To reach this aim, firstly, theories and previous findings related to corporate social responsibility, service quality and corporate image were reviewed and presented in the theoretical part of the study. For the empirical part, a field study was conducted and data was collected by a questionnaire from customers of five big supermarkets in Adana (n=537). Customer responses were analysed and examined with descriptive statistical methods and hypothesized relationships were tested using multiple regression analysis. The findings show that corporate social responsibility has positive effect on corporate image, service quality has positive effect on corporate image, and corporate image has positive effect on purchase intention. Keywords: Corporate social responsilibity, service quality, corporate image, purchase intention