Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Success Essay example

However, nowadays CSR is simply defined as ?operating a business in a manner that meets or exceeds the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society demands of business? (Gillis & Spring 2001: 23).

Based on my interpretation of CSR, I see it as a voluntary obligation that companies have promised to their stakeholders to fulfill by improving, or at least not harm, the environmental and social wellbeing. When companies engage in CSR, they voluntarily promise to, for example, carry the responsibility to protect the environment and take actions against bribe or other corruptive activities related to their business. It certainly has some positive influences to specific areas based on my knowledge gained from other classes; nevertheless, when judge CSR in the context of total impacts on our society and environment, it is obvious that CSR has failed its mission to lessen the negative impacts of business based on the evidences that provided by the author. Also, since there is a strong positive relationship between CSR behaviors and consumers’ reactions to a firm’s products and services, it seems to me, now, that CSR for the most companies is just a fancy cover that helps them to create or promote a good image and reputation. The recent case that shows the failure of CSR of Volkswagen even make me believe that CSR programs may be just a marketing or public relation exercise for many

Once the company have agree on the idea of CSR program, the company should do it in way that make connection between  what a company can do for society, and how it will affect its business. When a company like Coca-Cola, for example, contributes $88 million annually in different CSR programs or when Microsoft donates almost $300 million annually to nongovernmental organizations around the world there have to be some good explanation on why they do this and how it help the company image and position in the world. Nike in the other had they realize after getting burned by bad publicity because of attack of negative press and large-scale protests from those who claimed its contract employees were paid low wages and working in dangerous conditions in overseas factories. They have to invest time and energy into their CSR programs to reduce the negative environmental impact.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is something that affects all companies and should be an active factor in the company’s decision making. It is something all corporations need to care about. CSR is when business’ or corporations take part in an initiative or campaign for a cause that will benefit society and/or in some way make the world a better place (Taylor, 2015). Initially, Corporate Social Responsibility started to take shape around the 1950’s, but some say that it dates all the way back to the 1800s, the idea of CSR was seen (Carroll, 2007). One may think that because it is dated so long ago, it doesn’t have an important impact today nevertheless, it is proven that Corporate Social Responsibility is a pathway for entities to self benefit as they are in the process of benefitting society.

In this article, “The Truth About CSR,” authors Rangan, Chase and Karim stress the importance in aligning a company’s social and environmental activities with its business purpose and values (Rangan, Chase, & Karim, 2015, 41). Outcomes of CSR programs should be a “spillover” and not a primary focus of a business, expressing concern towards social responsibility and corporations failing to contribute to society accordingly (Rangan, Chase, Karim, 2015, 42). There is a great deal of importance in companies refocusing their CSR activities on a primary goal and in providing an organized process for bringing consistency and discipline to CSR strategies (42). Rangan, Chase and Karim want corporations to understand why it is important for them to evaluate their CSR activities and refocus them towards the goal of reinforcing the firm’s societal and environmental actions, while also ensuring their actions add to the overall purpose and values of the corporation. According to the authors, even though

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility is a relatively new in the management field and there is no single definition of it since everyone’s interpretation of the term is different. “Corporate Social Responsibility means something, but not always the same thing to everybody.” (Votaw, 1972, p.25) and from my understanding of the concept, CSR to me is “The voluntary business activities within the boundary of law that contributes to the wider community for a more sustainable environment”. Since everyone has a unique interpretation of CSR, the range of relevant CSR practices across businesses has been quite diverse as there is no such thing as features of CSR (Marcel van Marrewijk, 2003). Rising environmental and social concerns in

1. It is hard for companies to communicate their efforts in CSR to shareholders and investors. Although companies have progressed from only 20% of public companies publishing CSR reports to 72% from 2011 to 2013, there are still no universal standards established for reporting CSR information. Therefore, even the best CSR efforts can lose their value simply because the efforts are not communicated to users of financial statements. This is also in part due to CSR efforts being ill-defined. While some CSR ideas are universal many of the aspects of CSR are industry specific and hard to translate into meaningful disclosures for interested parties.

Current approaches to CSR are fragmented and/or disconnected from business goals. Many firms still consider CSR as another generic public relations problem in which media campaigns and CSR reports are used to paint the company as a positive ethical, social and or environmental advocator and supporter. For example, the annual reports discuss a firm’s sensitivities to CSR issues, but completely lack the entire story and offer no further forward commitments from the firm. Further, the ratings and rankings measurements are self-appointed by the firm, not always accurate to validate the work and direct impact to what they are measuring, and the criteria base varies widely and weighed differently in the final scoring. Worst of all the data lacks impartial auditors for validating the data to ensure the ratings have been accurately met, and data is statistically significant and a good proxy for what it is supposed to reflect. This has resulted in reactive initiatives designed to appease vocal

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

Business ethics and corporate social responsibility have become an increasing area of focus for organizations today. However, this has not always been the case in the American business environment. Chapter three "Conducting Business Ethically and Responsibly" (R.W. Griffin & R.J. Ebert, p.56 - p.87) concentrates on the development of ethical codes of conduct as it relates to business. The chapter also focuses on the social responsibility an organization holds in relation to everyday decision making. Ethics and social responsibility go hand in hand. Ethics affects individuals or groups within the workplace, whereas "social responsibility refers to the overall route in which a company decides to balance its involvement with employees, stake

Through globalization the gap between the rich and poor has increased, while the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. This can be one of the many reasons why companies choose to be more social responsible as CSR aims to reduce conflicts between stakeholders. Although, individuals are aware that more companies are producing social responsible goods, companies can benefit from CSR practices in different ways. When companies decide to be socially and environmentally active, not only will the society and the environment benefit from the companies ethical practices, but they can also differentiate themselves in today's competitive market.

The global electronics industry comprises of many partners that make up a complex international supply chain. Due to globalisation, TNCs have set up subsidiaries that operate in under developed foreign countries like Asia. They operate in the areas of manufacturing of components for computers, assembly, contractors, suppliers, software, technical

The popularity of CSR has grown substantially in the last couple of decades. Many people may have grown skeptical of business in the wake of corporate scandals such as Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom followed by the sub-prime mortgage market, which have all gained large amounts of negative publicity. Stakeholders are more aware of the performance of companies along a broader set of metrics that portray the company’s operations in a more comprehensive manner that provides information about social performances and environmental performances. Much of the concept of corporate sustainability is rooted in the notion of sustainable development with can be defined as the ability to meet the needs of the current population without compromising the ability of future generations to

Last spring, I worked for Special Olympics New York as an office volunteer, assisting with the preparation of the incoming Game and recording volunteer information. When examining the sign-up information for volunteers, I found it impressive, seeing numerous private company groups in the New York State register as volunteer groups and some of them had done such work for many years. When talking about the reasons for their actions, many companies considered that their volunteer behaviors would not only build employee solidarity but also demonstrate their care about disabled groups. This realization stimulated my interests in the corporate volunteerism, the idea of social corporate responsibility, and the often ongoing relationships between for-profit corporations and non-profit organizations. Building on this experience, I decided to examine this topic as a senior thesis for my sociology major thesis project. This project is expected to last for six months and recently, I have already begun a preliminary literature review by reviewing previous academic research in corporate social responsibility. In my thesis, I primarily focus on questions like how do firms and nonprofits collaborate and maintain social networks for mutual benefit, why is corporate social responsibility an important mission for private companies, as well as how does it influence a company’s financial performance, employee selection and performance, and corporate reputation.

4. “CSR is only relevant for large private sector companies.” Critically discuss providing examples from SMEs, the public and civil sectors.