Turkey: CSR in practice

Abstract

Companies which use societal resources in order to provide goods and services and consequently improve their financial performance are now being required by society to account for their actions. Several smaller businesses are growing into larger companies and changing their status from family owned business into a formal and well organized structure. This rapid change in structure is transforming companies into becoming more transparent, accountable, fair and credible. The governance of these entities which is often confused with the corporate social responsibility is the system adopted by those at the helm of their affairs to effect the entities' proper management, it also involves an application of the rule of law, accounting standards and ethics necessary to obtain social trust and improve the methods and techniques applicable in running the affairs of these companies (Di Piazza and Eccles, 2002). In this chapter, after a short definition of CSR, we propose to demonstrate what Turkish companies believe corporate social responsibility entails and how these entities apply the concept of CSR in their day to day operations. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.