A Different Look To Perception Of Corporate Social Responsibility In Terms Of Salespeople: A Research In Sivas

Studies about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) generally handle the subject in terms of firm aspect. Salespeople have great importance on embodiment of customer’s attitude and establishment of customer reputation on the customer as firsthand. Considering CSR activities in terms of healthy communication and productivity, the CSR perception of salespeople become more important. From a relatively different viewpoint, this study aims to investigate the CSR perception of salespeople who labour both in sectors of white goods and consumer electronics in the province of Sivas. Due to the fact that sectors of white goods and consumer electronics are technology intensive and innovative complementary sectors and that there is an industrial convergence between them, their salespeople were determined as sample group of the study. For this purpose, a survey was prepared with included 22 questions and was applied to 111 salespeople. Data derived from the survey were subjected to Clustering Analysis and clusters were built via K-Means method using Euclidean distances. By this way, CSR profile and features of salespeople were determined and it was found that CSR perception has a discriminative effect by determining a salesperson’s profile. Numbers of clusters reflect accurate discrimination was found as three and it was also revealed that salespeople with higher CSR perception are at the age of 21 and below. It is thought that this study guide further studies focus on salespersons’ CSR perception.

Keywords

Corporate Social Responsibility of Salespeople, Clustering Analysis, K-Means Method