This study investigates the marketing motivations of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of Syrian businesses, and classifies Syrian businesses within the two extremes of (CSR) perspective of the horizontal axis of Quazi and Brien’s (2000) model and the two extremes of the marketing motivations of CSR (a new dimension suggested by the study).

The study results are based on data collected from a sample of 72 companies from three pilot Syrian governorates (Damascus, Aleppo, and Dair Ezzor). A survey designed in Arabic for the purpose of the study. Factor analysis and cluster analysis are both employed in this study in order to test the proposed model and address the research questions. Companies of the study are assigned to a predetermined four groups grid using nearest centroid sorting based on Euclidean distances. Syrian businessmen and managers could be classified into two groups according to their CSR perspectives and their marketing motivations.

The two groups have similar perspectives regarding CSR. The group of majority, however, does not perceive CSR marketing incentives. Moreover, the dataset suggests that marketing is a weak motivation for CSR. This suggests that most Syrian businessmen and managers do perceive CSR as a matter of ethics but do not see ways to benefit from CSR practices as a marketing tool. Companies in Syria should be more supported by the government in order to bear the short term costs of CSR practices. Managers should seek ways to meet societal needs and development.

The study should have taken the corporate incentives towards CSR with regard to each stakeholder group in order to identify the power and/or importance of each of these groups from Syrian managers’ perspectives. This study is reported to be the first study undertaking the perceptions of Syrian private business owners and managers towards CSR concepts and issues and examining the managers’ marketing motivations for adapting CSR practices.