The Mediating Role of Trust and Identification in the Relationship Between Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility and Commitment

As in other sectors in recent years, the banking sector has started to include for all its plans, strategies and projects the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which has been accepted as one of the tools for achieving a competitive knowledge-based economy. CSR activities have great importance in structuring the reputation and image of an organization and managing customer relations. In this framework, banks try to act with awareness of social responsibility. In this context, the purpose of this article is to examine the relationships between banks’ CSR practices and customers’ organizational trust, identification, and commitment in accordance with the perceptions of bank customers living in Pirishtina, the capital of the Republic of Kosovo. The study analyzes 321pieces of valid data collected using a questionnaire form from people who live in Kosovo and who have made at least one banking transaction. According to the analysis results, which are consistent with the relevant literature, bank customers’ perceived CSR is found to have a positive effect on trust and customer identification with the organization while having no significant effect on commitment. In addition, trust and customer identification are seen to mediate the effect of perceived CSR on bank customers’ organizational commitment. The findings reveal firms’ CSR activities to impact customers’ levels of feeling secure and part of the firm, and thus their loyalty to the firm. The study makes unique contributions in terms of generating knowledge about CSR in an emerging economy and examining the effects of different mediating variables in the relationship between CSR and commitment.