Abstract:

This research aims to determine the profiles of consumers' perceptions about corporate social responsibility practices from the perspective of skepticism and whether the brand loyalty of consumers with different profiles differed. In research, the skepticism tendencies of the consumers towards social responsibility practices were examined in terms of the "Persuasion Knowledge Model". In the analysis of the data, explanatory factor analysis, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, and one-way variance analysis were used. It is determined that the dimensions of skepticism as agent knowledge, topic knowledge, persuasion knowledge and opposition of promotion, dimensions of brand loyalty as cognitive, affective, action, and multi-brand loyalty. Participants are divided into four clusters according to the tendencies of skepticism: social responsibility opponents, moderate skeptics, social responsibility supporters, and non-skeptics. Significant differences are also found among the four clusters in terms of brand loyalty dimensions. Among the features that distinguish the clusters from each other best the first powerful function is agent knowledge, the second is persuasion knowledge. In the direction of the results, suggestions were offered for implementation and future research.

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