16. The Financial Implications of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Banking Sector

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a recent and popular term used to establish an understanding between corporations and social environment. Fundamentally based on the framework of Two Way Symmetrical Model, these activities conducted to raise corporate reputation and thus, ensure credibility have gained importance in public relations. This research aims to analyse corporate social responsibility activities of deposit banks operate in Istanbul Stock Exchange based on various financial indicators. The main objective, however, is to identify the importance banks place on institutionalization in their promotions and its consequences. This research observes that banks that do not place importance on promotional activities have lower profit margins, whereas those that only make effort for advertising and public relations hardly compensate their expenses; the highest profit margin is achieved by banks that co-ordinately use both promotional methods.