Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility

The company markets its unique products to youth markets which it feels are underrepresented and inadequately reached by its competitors. The company uses innovative and creative, and it effectively set Jones Soda apart from the competition. By allowing consumers to assist in package design, Jones Soda became a brand that concerned itself more with the consumer than with the actual product. This has made consumers feel more relevant, has given them a sense of ownership over the brand, and has encouraged customer loyalty. Due the field is so competitive with several ways to stay competitive in their designated field. Through distribution, brand name, brand image, price, labeling and packaging, advertising, quality of the beverage, and new ideas they have accomplished this. Jones Soda competes for customer appreciation, retail shelf space and for marketing focus by their distributors, who also distribute other beverage brands. Jones Soda currently distributes their products in several retail outlets. These outlets include Barnes and Noble, Panera Bread Company, Cost Plus World Markets, Starbucks and Target Corporation. As well as these mature locations, Jones Soda also distributes to other independent vendors.

Stakeholders have a significant influence on the aims of an organisation. They are the people who are affected by or interested in the business. In some organisations the shareholders are stakeholders, and at times have some of the decision power. In trade organisations, customers are also considered stakeholders; therefore their needs are part of the organisation’s overall objectives.

After bashing the old idea of managerial capitalism, Freeman starts explaining why his reconceptualized stakeholder concept is much more logical. Freeman modestly articulates a stakeholder theory using the “narrow definition” of a stakeholder, which includes those who are vital to the success and survival of a corporation. Specifically, these stakeholders include owners, management, suppliers, employees, customers, and the local community. As well as being directly connected with the corporation, Freeman argues that the stakeholders are also interconnected with each other as well, and that each stakeholder is vital to the survival of the corporation, and vice versa. Employees rely on the business to give them a paycheck; the business provides their livelihood. Employees return the favor because they run the business on a day to day basis. Suppliers are vital to the firm’s success because the quality of the raw materials purchased will determine the quality and price of the final good produced by the firm. As a result, the firm is a customer of their supplier, and is therefore vital to their supplier’s success. The next stakeholder, customers,

Group 7 Exercises (suitable for use with the chapter relating to global competition and competing in foreign markets)

Stakeholders plays a significant role in today’s organization. “Stakeholders include any person, group or organization that has an interest in the activities and affairs of a company.” (Kokemuller, 2016) Stakeholders can also include people inside and outside of the organization. Some example of stakeholders includes employees, customers and suppliers. An external stakeholder such as the organization’s employees plays a significant role in customer value proposition. It is very important that for the organization to care for their employees as much as they care for their customers. Additionally, showing commitment to employee’s needs/want is also just as important as showing commitment to customers. “The notion is that if you take care of your

The stakeholders are the shareholders, managers, and employees. The current situation has caused a dilemma that affects all stakeholders equally. When the business is at risk, everyone involved should be concerned about the future of the organization. However, the responsibility falls to the senior leaders of the organization to solve the current issues. However, holding 80% of the company’s stocks is concerned not only about the organizations current issues but also with the value of his investment, as he gets closer to retirement. This creates an ethical dilemma due to his personal finances and retirement being directly affected by the company’s performance. In addition, the CEO believes that the status of the organization is not as bad as some of the senior leadership team would say. The shareholders interest is purely profit. The impact of how Huffman Trucking runs the business and implements change has a direct reflection on the company’s image.

Stakeholders are individuals and constituencies that contribute, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to its wealth-creating capacity and activities, and who are therefore its potential beneficiaries and/or risk bearers1. There are several different types of stakeholders associated with a corporation, and those stakeholders can have different views and opinions on what corporation 's goals should be and how they should be running. I have interviewed three different stakeholders of Staples Inc., an employee, a customer and a stock holder, to find their relationship between them and the firm. Then, I will use this information to suggest how the firm should proceed and continue to have a better and more beneficial

The idea of shareholder primacy dominates the business world today. An article from Harvard's school of business stated that shareholder primacy is so prevalent in the business to the mistaken fact that many individuals feel as though shareholders run the company from behind the scenes.This belief drives higher ups to run public firms with the great focus on raising the stock price. In the hope of maximizing shareholder value, this executive will sell key assets, fire loyal employees, and pressure the workforce that remains. Many individual directors and executives, Such as Lynn Stout, feel uneasy about these kinds of methods, stating that "a single-minded focus on share price may not serve the interests of society, the company, or shareholders themselves." The goal of this essay shows how and why Lynn Stout among other executives of corporate entities disagree with the idea of shareholder primacy.

In general ,the stakeholder approach may be more conducive to balancing a wide variety of corporate interests and thereby discouraging impropriety.Executives and boards should take the perceptions of both shareholders and stakeholders into account when formulating strategy and enunciate their stance in all organizational communications. Only within that kind of clearly delineated context, can managers be expected to make appropriate decisions. Indeed, some of the most successful businesses are those which have embraced stakeholder values for example Bodyshop. However, we see that generally, shareholder value

* Customers – Customers is external stakeholders for all organization or firm. Without any customers a company cannot be process. Customers have power to choose their necessary service and products. Seller and marketing cannot force customer to purchase product and service. Example, insurance customers have many choices when they need to purchase insurance. That mean consumers can buy insurance in different company like Tesco Bank, Lloyd Bank, HSBC and other company.

This paper will have a detailed discussion on the shareholder theory of Milton Friedman and the stakeholder theory of Edward Freeman. Friedman argued that “neo-classical economic theory suggests that the purpose of the organisations is to make profits in their accountability to themselves and their shareholders and that only by doing so can business contribute to wealth for itself and society at large”. On the other hand, the theory of stakeholder suggests that the managers of an organisation do not only have the duty towards the firm’s shareholders; rather towards the individuals and constituencies who contribute to the company’s wealth, capacity and activities. These individuals or constituencies can be the shareholders, employees,

Stakeholders are people or groups with interest in an organization that can affect or be affected by the organization itself, its objectives, or its policies (BusinessDictionary, 2015). Each stakeholder brings their own perspective to the table based on their relationship with the organization (e.g. internal or external role), their level of experience, and their area of expertise about the subject matter they are involved with. At a high level, the list of stakeholders for any organization could include people or groups such as: customers, employees, government agencies, suppliers, unions, community resources, shareholders, and business owners. For the purpose of this assignment, I will discuss and review stakeholders relative to the

The article “Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility” by Michael E. Porter and Mark E. Kramer advocates that there is a link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and competitive advantage, and there is an opportunity for innovation that benefits both the company and society that can result in a win-win positive sum game. Ultimately if your firm does not integrate a CSR program into your business core your competitors will.

He further stated that shareholders are owners and corporate profits belong to them. Freidman posits that shareholders are entitled to their profit as a result of the contract among the corporate stakeholders. Each stakeholder group (customers, employees, suppliers, managers) has a contract relationship with the firm. In

The realm of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is to increase business profitability and opportunities by making improvements in terms of operational effectiveness throughout the value chain (Rangan, Chase & Karim, 2012). This increasingly popular CSR among corporate and academic leaders is synonymous to the “shared value” framework, whereby organizations seek to co-create economic and social value. According to Ridurnolu, Prhalad and Rangaswami (2009), corporations from the United States recognize the business value of revolutionizing new manufacturing and technology that cut operating costs while minimizing impacts on the environment. This CSR domain focuses on operational efficiency and also building revenue, with the initiative to be determined by the ability to improve the corporate bottom line while at the same time returning social value. To achieve that, the strategy is to reengineer a corporation’s entire value chain, which stems from natural resource extraction and sourcing to manufacturing, shipping and product delivering.