International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 3 No. 3; February 2012 292 THE EFFECTS OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS ON CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Nazan YELKİKALAN Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University Biga Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Department of Business Turkey Can KÖSE Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University Biga Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Department of Econometri Turkey Abstract It is impossible to consider enterprises apart from the society in which they exist. The concept of corporate social responsibility, prescribing that organizations engage in responsible behavior towards each of their shareholders in the society, has become a necessity today for all businesses although not at the same level for all. Despite the important benefits corporate social responsibility practices have for businesses such as gaining competitive advantage by increasing brand awareness and thus increasing profitability in the long- term, they also require additional financial resources. Similarly, since periods of crisis bring along certain dangers and opportunities, their effects on corporate social responsibility may be in different directions. In this study, the effects of the crisis on corporate social responsibility activities have been evaluated in the light of the developments following the 2008 global financial crisis and a model is proposed. As a result of the identifications regarding the theoretical background for perception of the crisis as a threat or opportunity for corporate social responsibility activities, both two situations are presented together in the proposed model. Keywords: Global Financial Crisis, Corporate Social Responsibility, Crisis Management, Corporate Reputation Introduction During the period since the emergence of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, a large number of research studies has been conducted on primarily the causes of the crisis, including its development, its effects spread over various sectors and areas, and suggestions for solutions. Since the crisis raised the difficulty of finding and managing finance all over the world in the first place, businesses especially prioritized the liquidity management and their actions were shaped in accordance with the goal of overcoming the financial difficulties they experienced. It is possible to include saving strategies, which is one of the better-understood and more-heavily-applied financial management strategies in periods of crisis, among these actions. Saving strategies are also applied under normal conditions, but uncertainty brought by periods of crisis and significant increase in liquid values may direct both individuals and institutions to reduce or cut certain cost elements, which they had been spending previously. The order of the savings strategies logically starts from the farthest link, initially, from the activities necessary to maintain presence. In case the current difficult situation continues, it progresses towards the internal stages. It was observed that following the global financial crisis of 2008 enterprises pursued a variety of cuts and saving strategies in order to maintain their existence. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities were also influenced by these strategies exercised by enterprises due to the crisis. The aim of this study is to determine businesses' perceptions of CSR and trends of various CSR strategies they follow in times of crisis and identify major factors affecting this trend. In the study, primarily, we will make inferences about the reasons for the tendency to take measures and engage in savings as a natural response to the crisis on the basis of individuals and institutions. Afterwards, we will make various inferences within the scope of crisis- opportunity principle about the strategies of businesses that continued CSR even in times of crisis without any interruption and even increased their CSR activities. Finally, these two trends that are opposite of each other will be presented on a model.