Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Image, and Word of Mouth Communication: A Maritime Organization Customer Perspective

Abstract

Responsible behaviour by businesses while providing their services might affect customers and result in long-term customer relationships. For this reason, corporate social responsibility is seen as a critical marketing strategy for the sustainability of businesses. Corporate social responsibility can be classified according to employees, customers, and society. This study explores the impact of corporate social responsibility on behavioural intentions from the customers' point of view, based on a model that supports stakeholder theory and results in word-of-mouth communication. Therefore, the study aims to determine the relationships between customers' perceptions of corporate social responsibility in the maritime sector and corporate image, satisfaction, loyalty, and word of mouth communication. Research data were obtained from 353 customers of a Turkish shipowner company through a survey. Reliability and validity analyses were applied to the data using IBM SPSS 24.0, and AMOS 21.0 and hypotheses were tested. The findings showed that the company's corporate social responsibility activities for customers strongly positively affect customer satisfaction and corporate image. In addition, it has been determined that corporate image positively affects customer satisfaction and loyalty, and customer satisfaction and loyalty positively affect word of mouth communication.

Keywords

• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Corporate Image
• Customer Satisfaction
• Customer Loyalty
• Word of Mouth Communication

Kurumsal Sosyal Sorumluluk, Kurum İmajı ve Ağızdan Ağıza İletişim: Bir Deniz İşletmesi Müşteri Perspektifi

Öz

İşletmelerin hizmetlerini sunarken sorumlu davranışları müşterileri etkileyebilir ve uzun süreli müşteri ilişkileri sağlayabilir. Bu nedenle kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk işletmelerin sürdürebilirliği için kritik bir pazarlama stratejisi olarak görülmektedir. Kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk çalışanlara, müşterilere ve topluma göre sınıflandırılabilmektedir. Bu çalışma, müşterilerin bakış açısından kurumsal sosyal sorumluluğun davranışsal niyetler üzerindeki etkisini paydaş teorisi ile destekleyen ve ağızdan ağıza iletişim ile sonuçlanan bir model temelinde araştırmıştır. Dolayısıyla çalışma, denizcilik sektöründe müşterilerin kurumsal sosyal sorumluk algıları ile kurumsal imaj, memnuniyet, sadakat ve ağızdan ağıza iletişim arasındaki ilişkileri belirlemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Araştırma verileri bir Türk armatör şirketinin 353 müşterisinden anket yoluyla elde edilmiştir. Verilere IBM SPSS 24.0 ve AMOS 21.0 kullanılarak güvenilirlik ve geçerlilik analizi uygulanmış ve hipotezler test edilmiştir. Bulgular firmanın müşteriler için kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk faaliyetlerinin müşteri memnuniyeti ve kurum imajı üzerinde pozitif yönde güçlü bir etkiye sahip olduğunu göstermiştir. Ayrıca kurum imajının müşteri memnuniyeti ve sadakati, müşteri memnuniyeti ve sadakatin ise ağızdan ağıza iletişim üzerinde pozitif yönde etkili olduğu tespit edilmiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Kurumsal Sosyal Sorumluluk
• Kurum İmajı
• Müşteri Tatmini
• Müşteri Sadakati
• Ağızdan Ağıza İletişim

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