THE ROLE OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITYAND CORPORATE IMAGE IN TIMES OF CRISIS; THE MEDIADING ROLE OF CUSTOMER TRUST

Abstract

In the twenty first century, every organization are operating in a very competitive environment and banking sector's environment is also very competitive. In this situation, it is very important to build customer-based transactions and activities for the purpose of build good relationships with customers. This study is investigated the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Image (CI) in times of crisis; Mediating role of Customer Trust (CT). Therefore, the main aim of this study was to analyses the impact of customer trust on corporate image, analyses the level of corporate social responsibility, corporate image and customer trust, relationship between corporate social responsibility and customer trust. The mediation effect of customer trust on corporate social responsibility and corporate image in selected banks is analyzed. Structured questionnaire was used as the method of data collection and selected 350 bank customers in Batticaloa as the sample of this study. Convenience sampling method used to make the sampling frame and quantitative research approach used for this study. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis. The result indicates that Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Image and Customer Trust are in high level in banks and there is a strong positive relationship among all variables. There is a high positive impact of Customer Trust on Corporate Social Responsibility. And also results indicated that there is a partial mediation effect of Customer Trust towards Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Image in banks. This study supposed that the suitable usage of CSR will increases the number of customers trust or make long term healthy relations with the current or potential customers through managing information or improve the performance of banking activities that assist customer retention.