Journals Proceedings

Abstract

This paper aims to present Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a differentiation tool to achieve competitive advantage. Two fundamental outcomes of CSR activities; corporate reputation and organizational commitment can become sources of competitive advantage for a company using CSR as a differentiation tool. This paper discusses the theoretical side of this approach and identifies successful applications of CSR differentiation strategies by examining cases from some Turkish companies. The findings indicated that CSR activities provided valuable resources to the companies such as positive reputation, increased brand value, committed workforce and “free” advertisement provided by the media. The paper concludes that CSR can be a valuable tool for differentiation strategies and can help companies to achieve competitive advantage.