Abstract

Port operators are logistics companies. When we look at port management in Turkey today; competition among these operators seems to be intensifying. Therefore, this competition is pushing the port operators for differentiate their services. In this context, it can be said that one of the strategies that will differentiate port operators is the sense of social responsibility. The aim of this research is to determine how effective the port management’s social responsibility understanding is among the factors that international commerce companies operating in Kocaeli / Turkey prefer to operate a port. For this purpose, a questionnaire was applied to 32 international commerce companies operating in the Kocaeli Region and according to the survey results, it was seen that social responsibility concept took the fourth place after the shortest time of cargo handling, the lowest cost of cargo handling and the undamaged and without any losses of cargo handling. According to this result, it is suggested that port operators should emphasize social responsibility concept more than other factors and emphasize social responsibility more in promotion activities.