CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY and CONSUMERS’ PERCEPTIONS of SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ACTIVITIES

Changing and developing consumer markets of our time are not contented with solely right quality and right price of goods and services in buying decisions; they also take into account corporate social responsibility activities of producing companies. In this study, firstly corporate social responsibility (CSR) concept is reviewed and its historical development also taken into account brief. Along with the development globalization, responsibilities of business companies to contribute social goals have increasingly been more important and companies have increasingly adopted social responsibility activities as a business strategy.Then, main CSR components “economic†, “legal†, “ethical†and “philanthropic†responsibilities are reviewed. These are grouped as CSR components and has been shown on a figure which has been named Pyramid of CSR. These four components are explained in fourdomain Pyramid has enjoyed wide popularity. In the last part of the study, the effects of consumers’ perceptions of CSR activities of business companies are reviewed. In this framework, as one of most important stakeholder groups, consumers’ perceptions of CSR activities of business companies are analyzed.