CORPORATE SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY (CSR)

4 April
2024
What is CSR?
• A business firm’s intention, beyond its legal and
economic obligations, to do the right things and act in
ways that are good for society.
• Duty of business to do no harm to society
• Concern about the welfare of the society and making
sure their actions do not affect it
• Balance profit-making activities with activities
that benefit society.
• Developing businesses with a positive relationship
to the society in which they operate.
What is CSR?
• Assumption: a business
– obeys the law
– pursues economic interests
– views a business as a moral agent.
• In its effort to do good for society, it must differentiate between right and
wrong.
• Managers regularly confront decisions that have a dimension of social
responsibility: e.g. philanthropy, pricing, employee relations, resource
conservation, product quality, and doing business in countries with
oppressive governments are just a few.
• To address these issues, managers may reassess packaging design,
recyclability of products, environmental safety practices,
outsourcing decisions, foreign supplier practices, employee policies, and the
like.
• Blunders:
– Oil rig in Gulf of Mexico for 87 days by Bharat Petroleum (BP)
– In 1992 Walmart was caught using child labour in factories in Bangladesh
Some Terms
Terms:
• Social obligations are those activities a business firm engages
in to meet certain economic and legal responsibilities.
– It does the minimum that the law requires and only pursues social goals
to the
extent that they contribute to its economic goals

• Social responsiveness is characteristic of the business firm that

engages in social actions in response to some popular social
need.

• Managers in these companies are guided by social norms and

values and make practical, market-oriented decisions about
their actions
Pros
/
Cons

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 Aspects/
Areas
Being profitable in
business and adding
economic value to
society
Meeting ethical &
moral
expectations of
the society

Giving back to
society as Follow law,
time, money regulations
or goods and
standards set
 Examples
H&M uses social responsibility as a customer retention
tool by selling eco-friendly products (recycled fabrics and
organic cotton) that customers can feel good about. They
also incentivize future purchases by offering discounts to
those who recycle used garments in store.

IKEA uses social responsibility to retain their customers

by offering affordable, energy-efficient products
customers can’t find anywhere else. Customers can also
take advantage of IKEA’s recycling program that disposes
of used products on the customer’s behalf.

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 Examples
Levi’s offers their customers products they can trust
were made sustainably. In the mission to conserve
water, Levi’s encourages customers to participate by
purchasing their products and listening to their
recommendations for a Water<Less world.

Starbucks CSR milestones are reaching 99 percent

ethically sourced coffee; creating a global network of
farmers; pioneering green building throughout its
stores; contributing millions of hours of community
service; and creating a groundbreaking college
program for its partner/employees. Going forward,
Starbucks’s goals include hiring 10,000 refugees
across 75 countries; reducing the environmental
impact of its cups; and engaging its employees in
environmental leadership.
 Examples
Accessibility Partners works with private and
public information technology manufacturing companies,
federal and other organizations to test and
agencies
that make IT accessible to individuals with
review
products
disabilities. More than 70 of the company's
percent
employees have disabilities themselves, so the company
promotes disability advocacy in all of its operations.

Ivory ella has one mission: to save the elephants. Business

model centered on social responsibility. It donates 10% of
their net profits on clothing and jewelry sales to the Save
the Elephants foundation.

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 Cases of Conflicts: Case 1
• In 2003 & 2006, an Indian NGO Centre for Science &
Environment (CSE) Coca-Cola sold in India was found to
have
– unacceptable levels of Pesticides (exceeding European
standards)
– Extracting large amount of ground water
– Polluting water sources
– In India there was an overall sales drop of 40% within two
weeks
after the release of the 2003 CSE report.
– Two years before the water conflict in India in 2003, Coca-Cola
adopted the GRI Guidelines and started reporting on
sustainability.
– 10 American universities also temporarily stopped selling Coca-
Cola products at their campus facilities.
• Adopted GRI guidelines & reported sustainability
• The Indian population viewed Coca-Cola as a corporate
 Cases of Conflicts: Case 2
• Case of Walmart Stores Inc. v. Dukes et al. started a decade ago and is still being
heard by the US Courts.
– 90,000 Female employees were discriminated against for promotions to top
management positions and pay
– In 2001 was estimated to comprise more than 1.5 million women, included all
women employed by Walmart nationwide at any time after 26 December
1998.
• In 2005 Walmart caught using child labour in Bangladesh
– 2 factories in Bangladesh. Children payed less than $50 a month working on
products export to Canada
• Result: Developed its first Code of Conduct (COC) ‘Standard for Suppliers’ in
1992,95 which mainly focuses on quality standards for suppliers only
• The 2005 Report on Ethical Sourcing reported that Walmart had ceased to do
business with 141 factories, primarily because of underage labour violations
• Publishes Global Responsibility Report’ which covers the three dimensions of
‘People, Planet, Profit’.104 This report emphasizes gender equality and a diverse
workforce.
 Cases of Conflicts: Case 3
• Lack of transparency at Apple Inc. for sustainability
• Suicides at Foxconn, a supplier of Apple Inc. Foxconn is the manufacturer of
iPhones and iPads and employs over 900,000 workers, of whom 420,000
employees work at the Foxconn Shenzhen plant.
– In 2006 the Chinese local press reported on the excessively long working hours and
the discrimination of mainland Chinese workers by Taiwanese superiors. In May
2010 several media sources reported several cases of suicide at Foxconn.
– From 2009 to 2010 a total of 13 workers had committed suicide
– Reason was found to be poor internal management by under cover investigation.
The weekly working hours of workers were up to 70 hours, ten hours above the
maximum hours set by Apple’s Supplier Code
– May 2010 two workers were killed and sixteen employees were injured during an
explosion at Foxconn.
• Apple makes sure that suppliers comply with the Supplier Code by
conducting audits.
• Publishes Supplier Responsibility Report publishing all violations found
like child labour, etc.
Strategic CSR
 What Strategic CSR Means
• Deciding:
– Whether or not the firm should be involved in social issues
– Creating a corporate social agenda – deciding what social issues to focus on and to
what extent.

• Porter and Kramer (2006)

– Make the right choices and build focused, proactive and integrated social initiatives
in concert with their core strategies will increasingly distance themselves from the
pack.
– Strategic CSR that the company will make the greatest social impact and reap the
greatest business benefits.

• CSR strategy needs to be integrated with the business strategy, but it is

also closely associated with HR strategy.
– Creating a working environment where personal and employment rights are
upheld and HR policies and practices provide for the fair and ethical treatment of
employees
 Rationale

Moral Appeal

Sustainability

License to operate

Reputation
 Categories of CSR Activities

Skills and education,

employability and social
exclusion

Community
R&D, procurement and
supply chain, responsible
selling, customer
Market interaction
place

climate change
and resource Employment
Environme Management
Workplace Frameworks, well-
nt
being
Developing CSR Strategy
Understand
ing Society

Harnessing Building
diversity
Capacity

Questionin
Strategic
g business
View
as usual

Stakeholde
r relations
Thank You!!