Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its Marketing Motivations: An Empirical Test of the Syrian Private Sector

CSR is as an emerging concept in the Syrian business society. In order to study CSR in Syria, the two dimensional model of Quazi and Brien (2000) was developed and tested. The model of Quazi and O’Brien suggests that CSR falls between two extremes: one that of the classical models that relates CSR to profit maximization which makes it of a narrow focus of the role of business in modern society while the second extreme or the second group of models see business as a part of the social matrix contributing to the welfare of society and announces CSR as a part of the greater society , pointing out to responsibilities that goes beyond the narrow perspective of profit maximization in the short term (Quazi and Brien, 2000). Different studies have used and developed Quazi and Brien’s (2000) model in different country context, (see Jamali and Sidani (2008)). This study investigates how Syrian businesses might fall between the two extremes of the CSR perspective (the horizontal axis of Quazi and Brien’s model) and the two extremes of the marketing motivations of CSR (a new dimension suggested by the study). Using a data set of 72 companies from Damascus, Aleppo, and Dair Ezzor and utilising factor and cluster analysis, the data set and analysis results prove the validity of the model and suggest Syrian businessmen and manages could be classified into two groups according to their CSR perspectives and their marketing motivations. Both these groups have around the same perspectives regarding CSR. The group of majority, however, does not perceive CSR marketing incentives.