In the recent business world, various strategies re being employed by companies with various aims including that of increasing its competitiveness, increasing the profits as well as increasing its working environment among others. Most companies have engaged in the employment of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a strategy of increasing their benefits which in return are expected to give the company using it a competitive advantage. Corporate social responsibility is a business practice that comprises of initiatives aimed at benefiting the society and can include various tactics including those of implementing business operations that are greener as well as giving away a portion of the proceedings held by a company to charity. This social
Marketing and social responsibility By karim zidan : IAU Introduction Corporate responsibility policies have been gaining increasing attention from senior executives as questions of sustainability have come to imbue business all over the world. Nowadays corporations are struggling with a new role, which is to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of the next generations to meet their own needs. organizations are being called upon to take responsibility for the ways their operations impact societies and the natural environment. They are also being asked to apply sustainability principles to the ways in which they conduct their business. Sustainability refers to an organization’s
And Gap’s excuse? They ‘forgot’ to translate the english code of conduct to spanish. However, even though Gap’s initial responses were not good, in the end they made the right choice. In november of 1995, a campaign was made to encourage Gap to do the right thing, and on december of 1995, Gap made an agreed to allow third party/independent monitoring of their factories. But Gap had the choice to either make the agreement or to ignore all of the protests and campaigns, and sure, there company was being pressured from a large number of different people, but in the end, Gap was the one who made the choice.
(Corporate social, 2004) In accordance to Estallo, Fuente & Miquela (2007), they claimed that companies can yield higher level of profit with a long term socially responsible behavior and which might become a competitive advantage. In another research, according to Ahmad, Sulaiman & Siswantoro (2003), in Malaysia, there are various NGOs and environmental pressure groups which suggest that stakeholders care about businesses which are responding to social responsibility concerns. On the other hand, corporate commitment to green ethics and support of socially responsible programs is playing an increasingly influential role in consumer‟s purchasing behavior. (The Nielsen,
In the 1960s, we began to see scholars striving to best state what CSR meant (Carroll, 2008) . Among scholars, who contributed to defining the corporate social responsibility on early stages, were C. Walton with his book Corporate Social Responsibilities (1967), which analyses the role of business organization in society, William C. Frederick with the article The Growing Concern over Business Responsibility (1960), which suggests new ideas how to judge your responsibility, as a businessman. Joseph McGuire`s Business and Society (1963) also significantly contributed to the studying
EVOLUTION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILTY: Bowen’s publication on “social responsibility of business” was the work through which the term CSR was coined in 1953.Through this work Bowen proposed some important question like ‘what responsibilities any society can reasonably expect from business organization’s ’?41 Traditional corporate philanthropy dates back to the 19th century and emerged out of a variety of factors, such as: 1) When talking about CSR the business organization should show some concern for the welfare of the immediate members of the corporate body like their employees and their families. 2) Innovative contributions by visionary business leader in quest of personal satisfaction, who built up philanthropic institution out of
According to Moir (2001) who quotes Wood (1991), the fundamental idea of corporate social responsibility is that business and society are not distinct entities but instead interwoven. Additionally, Bremner (1994) opines that the pressure for those who prosper financially to be socially “responsible” has deep historical roots in most cultures and religions. As such, business enterprises have been anchored not only in the desire to solely make profit but also in a broader aim to build “the good society” by attending to the welfare of employees and actively partaking in public life (Hall, 1997; Parkes, Scully & Anson, 2010). Conversely, Aaron (2011) attributes this to the recent ‘corporate enthusiasm’ for CSR which seems to give the impression that companies are genuinely interested in improving the lives of people in communities in which they operate. Arguing that while in some cases it may be true that CSR has proved beneficial to target communities, it also appears that CSR is driven not so much by philanthropic considerations as the profit-maximising calculations of business, implying that corporations are involved in altruistic gestures only if it makes sense business wise (Aaron, 2011).
He pointed out that “the only one responsibility of business towards society is the maximization of profits to the shareholders within the legal framework and the ethical custom of the country”. Political Theories – this group of CSR theories focus on interactions and connection between business and society by taking political analysis into considerations. There are two popular theories in the study of political theories, which are “Corporate Constitutionalism” and “Corporate Citizenship”. In 1960 Davis stated that the connection and interactive impacts between the business and society by using its power must be known by all organizations. Davis thought business has power to influence the equilibrium of market.
h. It should also offer social welfare services to the general public. The core objectives of social responsibility of business are as follows: a. It is a concept that implies a business must operate (function) with a firm mindset to protect and promote the interest and welfare of society. b. Profit (earned through any means) must not be its only highest objective else contributions made for betterment and progress of a society must also be given a prime importance.
However, after years of hearing how their favorite companies or organizations take in consideration the welfare of the society and the environment, many customers have grown cynical of Corporate Social Responsibility reports because some realize that social responsibility is somehow a public relations campaign in disguise for these companies. Business watchdog agency CorporateWatch.org states that consumers often see CSR announcements as little more than Public Relation initiatives. They are thus sceptical about the true motive behind corporate social responsibility and are unsure about whether a business is acting in favour of the community and environment. For this reason, business organizations often have a challenging and hard time to convince their customers about their