Corporate Social Reporting (CSR) Abstract Organizations embark on social and environmental reporting for a variety of different reasons and not to simply improve credibility with stakeholders; although that is a primary reason in many organizations. However, other organizations have different objectives altogether that can include a range of different motivations. Some models have broken the range of motivations into signaling or greenwashing or used legitimacy theory to explain the motivations by firms to report on their social and environmental performances. This analysis will look at some of the different models that have been constructed to attempt to explain why firms utilize CSR frameworks. Discussion 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
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
In other words, these socially responsible companies will evaluate not only the short and long term economic outcomes of their present decisions but also the long-term environmental and societal outcomes of their current actions. This thus leads to the triple bottom line approach of reporting environmental, social, and economic performance. In addition, Wilson from the Ivey Business Journal argues about corporate social responsibility or the CSR. The CSR has been around longer than the term and implication of “sustainable development” but has similar guidelines. From about 1953 the on, the main debate was whether corporate managers had an ethical responsibility to consider the needs of society and by 1980, it was generally and consensually accepted that corporate managers should and did have this moral responsibility. So by incorporating sustainability plans or even creating a separate branch dedicated to doing so, the company’s reputation often is increased, which over the long term, will contribute to accentuate customer loyalty, market share, and brand value and awareness. (Wilson, 2003) This case study done on Johnson & Johnson published by the IMA Educational Case Journal analyzes the impact that implementations of these sustainability
There is currently a robust and ongoing debate about whether a companies, especially a publicly traded companies, only goal should be profit. Making money for the shareholders used to be what business was about. Now, more and more people are starting to believe that companies should pay more attention to social and environmental concerns that effect not just the shareholders, but the stakeholders and even society as a whole. The practice of Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, believes that everything cannot be left up to the market. The market exists to make profits at all costs. So, there needs to be a mechanism in place where social causes and the environment are taken care
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.
In recent decades, Corporate Social Responsibility provides a range of factors used for measuring a firm’s contribution to social evolution. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is defined as the business commitment contributing to a sustainable economic development through activities to improve quality of life for workers and the whole community that are both beneficial for business industry and social development (Maren, 2014). Historically, the concept of CSR was first introduced by Howard Bowen in 1950s (Bowen, 1953); later CSR model was successfully applied to several large scale companies such as Nike, Coca – Cola, Prudential Insurance in 1990s (Carroll, 1991). CSR can enhance a company’s reputation and help increase profit in short term and build up organizational culture for a long term (Prutina, 2016). This paper will briefly introduce the four types of CSR and
We examine firms’ use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as one of their business strategies after a rise in public responses, has led to heightened corporate action. We find that firms are taking more corporate action due to more public scrutiny and fear of financial loss. We find there is an abundance of definitions of CSR but whilst they are all coherent, not one of these definitions is applicable to every industry. With further research, it is highlighted that it would be difficult to increase regulation of CSR and reporting standards whilst there is no clear definition to adhere to. We find that whilst companies use CSR marketing, it is not the only reason for using CSR as one of their business strategies.
However, modern theory known as corporate social responsibility (CSR), has complicated the situation in that stating that companies are not only responsible to its shareholders, but also to the stakeholders which its actions may impact (Freeman 1984). While this may seem to contradict the mantra of profit maximisation, Russo and Perrini (2010) suggest that in today’s conscience-minded society, success is based not only on maximising profit but also on a corporation’s stakeholder relationships, which include social and environmental issues.
Throughout my research of what Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is, I noticed that many organizations have framed their own definition, considering a common ground between them. My own definition of CSR is the voluntary continuous commitment and responsibility on the effects that an organization has on both internal (employees) and external stakeholders (communities, environment) that go beyond legal or ethical standard required to operate, as well creating a synergistic relationship between the two parties promoting win-win relationship based on trust and the positive perception that reflects the organization to the community. (Mirvis, 2012, p. 110)
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept which is also known as corporate citizenship, corporate conscience or in a simple way a responsible business. It is an integrated concept of self-regulatory business model for any organisation. Corporate Social Responsibility has been in practice for more than fifty years now, which has been adopted not only by domestic companies but also by transnational company with voluntary CSR initiatives (Chernev and Blair, 2015). It includes Corporate Social Responsibility for code of conduct, organisational health and environment, companies reporting on social, financial and environmental aspects, partnership with agencies, NGO’s and UN agencies etc. and increase its focus on community development program (Sun, Stewart and Pollard, 2010).
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept which is also known as corporate citizenship, corporate conscience or in a simple way a responsible business. It is an integrated concept of self-regulatory business model for any organisation. Corporate Social Responsibility has been in practice for more than fifty years now, which has been adopted not only by domestic companies but also by transnational company with voluntary CSR initiatives (Chernev and Blair, 2015). It includes Corporate Social Responsibility for code of conduct, organisational health and environment, companies reporting on social, financial and environmental aspects, partnership with agencies, NGO’s and UN
The recent fifteen years saw a dramatic increase of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. There were more than 3300 CSR reports in 2008 while the number of 2002 was less than 100. More and more companies especially some multinational corporations among the world are keen to proving the sustainability, in order to improve their corporate image and credibility (Adams, 2002). This essay will explain why there are an increasing number of companies are willing to make CSR report annually, and discuss whether reporting on social and environmental activities is equal to good social and environmental performance in reality.
According to Cheng (2014) many top executives as well as academics are focused in corporate social responsibility strategies like involving social and environmental concerns in their operation. Guo (2014) in his article states that CSR is the behavior demonstrated to the entire stakeholder rather than stockholders alone by assuming the importance and necessity of the sustainable development. Lindrawati (as cited in Santoso, 2010) argues that business can’t be distinguished by ethical and responsibilities issues and do not always seek profit. CSR have become more common nowadays. According to KPMG International’s survey in Asia-Pacific in 2013, 71% of the 4,100 companies and 93% of the largest 250 global companies based on the Fortune Global 500 rankings were recorded being involved in CSR activities (Santoso, 2010).
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) an essentially American phenomenon has over the years become a major concern in Western Europe and in other countries of the world aiming to follow in the western model of development.
While corporate social responsibility (CSR) has existed for a long time, it has garnered attention only in the last two decades as an important aspect of doing business. Academic research on CSR has evolved over the years, indicating a change in how CSR is viewed as time goes by. In the earlier years of