Introduction
Recently, the expectations of society for companies have increased more than before (Craig, Bhattacharya, Vogel and Levine, 2010), so one significant issue that most firms have been actively involved in is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Some may debate that it decreases company’s profits by spending much money on CSR. However, according to Needle (2004), ‘good’ CSR is also good for business, a firm could benefit from doing CSR. Thus, this paper aims to explain its importance. It begins with the definition of CSR and its four responsibilities, then presents how it influences a business and benefits it can bring. Finally, I am going to describe strategic CSR and discuss why firms have social responsibility.
…show more content…
Therefore, the best way to perform it is combining CSR and firm’s strategy to be a strategic CSR. Baron (2005, in Craig, Bhattacharya, Vogel and Levine, 2010) presents a definition of strategic CSR: “the use of CSR to capture market value”. It seems to be that companies can acquire competitive advantages and opportunity by regarding CSR as a strategic tool, so they could gain more benefits from strategic CSR.
For instance, Nestlé’s Milk, cooperates with small farmers to produce milk in Moga in India. The company not only taught them technology and professional knowledge but also invested in local infrastructure and education, it improved the quality of milk and the standard of living. Nestlé’s Milk succeeds in integrating CSR with value chain, today Nestlé buy high quality milk from small farmers, and there is an increase of 50 fold in milk production (Porter and Kramer, 2006, p. 90).
Discussion
Some people believe that the major duty which a company has is making profits and satisfying shareholder’s need. However, companies rely on the contribution of stakeholders rather than shareholders, they have responsibility to render not only shareholders but also stakeholders. In addition, companies are powerful social actors, some corporate activities could make great impacts on society (Crane and Matten, 2004). Furthermore, companies cause some social and environment problems (e.g. air pollution), they have duty to solve those
The benefit to business of good Corporate Social Responsibility is difficult to quantify as it varies depending on the nature of the enterprise. Some scholars believe that there is a business justification for CSR. That is, what is good for the environment and society will be good for company profitability. And studies have shown a slightly positive correlation between CSR and financial gain (Steiner and Steiner, 2006). However, as Freidmanism claims, the first responsibility of business is to make enough profit to cover the costs for the future. If this social responsibility is not met, no other responsibilities can be (Hargreaves, 2006). Therefore it is critical that CSR activities are included in strategy formulation and that the level of resources devoted to CSR is determined like any other strategy through cost/benefit analysis. Corporations will not throw money away they need to see it
The purpose is to highlight the complexities in operating a company in a socially responsible manner while remaining profitable. In addition, outlining key areas essential to meeting evolving needs of stakeholders. Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) is broken down into four responsibilities: economic, ethical, legal, and philanthropic. (Carroll & Buchholtz, 34) Moreover, companies’ responsibilities are evolving in regards to society and the global industry as a whole.
Corporate social responsibility has been defined, according to the European Commission, as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society. They should have in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical human right and consumer concerns into their business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their stakeholders”.
Background to CSR - In this environment, the impact of behaviour, values and ethics on achieving a company's strategic vision represents a timely and valuable undertaking. This behaviour, often called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a new focus on ethical and social issues (Sen & Bhattacharya 2001). CSR leads marketers to the notion of both global and stakeholder responsibility, and an organizational system that begs for sustainability not just to outlast the competition, but to increase customer loyalty, presence in the global market, and a stronger unification with the political bureaucracies. There is a clear integrative framework involved that impacts the idea of sustainable marketing concepts (Maignan & Ferrell 2004). Indeed, at the same time, "culture" has changed, too; there is likely not a country in the
CSR plays a very important role in the sustainability of every department in the corporation including marketing and management. Corporations are very particular in maintaining a sustainable corporate socially responsible environment. While marketing a product they make sure that they endorse it in the right way as it is the responsibility of the company to provide the right facts of the product to the society. In the same manner with regards to Management corporations make sure that they are socially responsible.
With the spread of social marketing and CSR in the world, organizations tend to not only consider the consumers’ demands and the companies’ profit, but also take the consumers’ and societies’ long-term benefit into account. Hildebrand,D,et,al (2011) demonstrated that the CSR activities can make up the central, special and core characteristics of the company identity, the identification of the corporate can also be aroused due to CSR activities. Moreover, Porter and Kramer (2006) highlighted that CSR can aid companies create the ability to achieve corporate resource so as to build a sustainable and defensible competitive position. So the companies should consciously undertake corporate social responsibility.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a firm’s decision to accept responsibility for its social, environmental and ethical actions. A firm’s decisions whether to adopt and rank importance to CSR should be due to a variety of reasons, like the financial stability of the company aswell as the culture of the organisation. But one definitive factor would be a firm’s corporate objectives, corporate objectives are a quantifiable statement of a business’s goals which should include measurable targets. Essay will look to examine the relative importance of CSR in relation to other corporate objectives.
Social responsibility is an idea that has been of concern to mankind for many years. Over the last two decades, however, it has become of increasing concern to the business world. This has resulted in growing interaction between governments, businesses and society as a whole. In the past, businesses primarily concerned themselves with the economic results of their decisions. “Today, however, businesses must also reflect on the legal, ethical, moral and social consequences of their decisions” (Anderson 15). This paper will discuss the concept of corporate social responsibility. It will give the definition of the phrase, and identify some of the global factors that necessitate corporate social responsibility. It will discuss the importance of corporations setting up corporate social responsibility projects, and the impact these have on society. Social corporate responsibility and the maintenance of high ethical standards is not an option but an obligation for all business.
“CSR is now intertwined with international development and the related goals of poverty alleviation and sustainability,” (Blowfield, 2005). There are many benefits for a company who develops a high CSR profile. Although the costs of implementing a CSR strategy can be high, the overall outcome can prove most beneficial for both the bottom line and reputation of the company; as well as the development of third world countries and as stated above, the alleviation of poverty.
This essay will evaluate the relationship between Corporate Strategy, Corporate Social Responsibility and will give some examples in order to give an idea to companies why they should engage in CSR and the consequences of engaging on it. It has been told that engaging on Corporate Social Responsibility is a cost, but recently has been demonstrated that if it is well managed the money that you put on CSR implementation can be taken into account as an investment. Companies engage in CSR not only because moral questions, it has been demonstrated that CSR is a door to an increase in the reputation of the company. In the long term companies realize that customers really appreciate the engagement of the company to social or environmental activities. Managers nowadays realize on how the consumers mind are changing towards a more responsible consumption and how these consumers look for information on how the products they consume have been produced. So these managers in order to increase in a long term base the good reputation of the company are investing nowadays on changing their strategy and trying all the company to engage in responsible practices. As explained in more detail in this paper the consequences of engaging in CSR are worth more than the cost of changing the company’ strategy. Some of them are the increase of consumer loyalty, investor attractiveness, political stability and economic benefits.
To assure how CSR can be implemented in corporate, some researchers uses a developmental platform to show changes in strategy , public awareness and posits the stages of CSR . In 2004 Jackson and Nelson takes more of a how-to-approach, offers a principle-based platform for mastering what they called the “upcoming rules of the game.”
Many social scientists and economists like Friedman (1917 NYT article); Visser (2010) and Karnani (2011) have been looking at the arguments for and against ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’. There are many different definitions of CSR but the idea behind it is that businesses contribute to the well being of society, as well as sustainable development by delivering environmental, economic and social benefits to society, not just economic benefits to the shareholders.
Abstract:Corporate Social Responsibility (hereafter CSR) is essence in nowadays business since the business is facing new
Corporate social responsibility, often abbreviated as ‘CSR’ is an approach taken by corporate companies of different purposes of the welfare of their workers, customers and as well as paying attention to ecological maintainability and responsible advertising. The term ‘CSR’ started becoming popular since World War II and has been a subject of major debate over whether a firm should solely aim for making profits or also consider giving back to its society, therefore, corporate social responsibility should be voluntarily embraced rather than being enforced. This essay focuses on the positive and adverse effects of corporate social responsibility on the companies as well as its importance for the society.
The concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been evolving for decades. At the very beginning, it was argued that corporation’s sole responsibility was to provide maximum financial returns to shareholders. However, it became quickly apparent to everyone that this pursuit of financial gain had to take place within the boundary of the legal system (Carroll, 1979;1991). Bowen’s 1953 publication of ‘Social Responsibility of Businessman’ was considered by many scholar to be the first definitive book, to explain the idea behind CSR. Following Bowen’s book, a number of works played a vital role in developing the social responsibility concept (Cheit, 1964; David & Blomstrom, 1966; Carroll, 1979;1991).