CONNECTING CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ON THE RETAIL SECTOR OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Many companies are unaware of the influence of CSR activities on customer buying decisions, its correlation with building trust towards the company and its long-term effect on customer loyalty. By focusing the research towards examining the familiarity of customers with the CSR concept and evaluate its general influence on consumer behavior on the retail market of Bosnia and Herzegovina the end goal was to determine possible connection between CSR, trust and customer buying decisions. Survey data demonstrate, CSR activities are a motivating factor for purchasing decisions in favor of the company implementing them. CSR activities influences the grow of trust which customers have towards the company but not at a much larger scale then the affect on purchasing decisions. Result that seems slightly surprising is that trust towards the company does influence purchasing decisions but at a very low volume. The influence of CSR would grow with consumers comprehension of the concept and information transfer from companies and their activities.