Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives For Small Firms Essay

Businesses, specifically larger corporations, play a major role in what occurs in society therefore, they are responsible to their stakeholders not only to pursue economic goals but the greater social good as well. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means that a corporation should act in a way that enhances society and its inhabitants and be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, their communities, and their environment. (Lawrence, 2010). Social responsibility is becoming the norm so much so that some businesses have incorporated it into their business model. There are three components of the bottom line of social

In recent years, companies are becoming socially responsible and now stakeholders almost expect a company to have CSR policies. Therefore, in twentieth century, corporate social responsibility (CSR) became an important development in public life (Barnett, ND).Corporate social responsibility is defined as “the ways in which an organisation exceeds the minimum obligations to stakeholders specified through regulation and corporate governance” (Johnson, Schools and Whittington, N.D cited in March, 2012). Stakeholders can be defined as “those individuals or groups who depend on the organisation to fulfil their own goals and on whom, in turn, the organisation depends” (Johnson, Schools and Whittington, N.D cited in March, 2012). There are many

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a very controversial topic. A question that has been debated for the past few decades is; is it corporately viable to introduce social responsibility as a proposed addition to the work ethic of business organisations. As well as, if adopting the framework of corporate social responsibility would yield positive improvements for those organisations.

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

Shared value is a business strategy which focuses on creating overall value while addressing social problems. This concept of management strategy was expressed in the “Creating Shared Value” article by Porter and Kramer. Shared value is not just an aspect of a company’s growth strategy or general business operations. It is well integrated in the way a company operates along with what their goals are as an organization. The value created for a company’s targeted end user also has some sort of social impact which benefits their company purpose. Creating social impact is a company goal and success is measured through creating a shared value network. Porter believes that “The ability to address social issues is integral to profit maximization instead of treated as outside the profit model.” He is addressing that profits are not measured by impact not just monetary gains for the company, we can change our mindset to think of profit in a different way. Profit can be a benefit or some sort of added value. In this approach Porter argues that “Corporate social responsibility encompasses not only what companies do with their profits, but also how they make them.” This relationship is the driving force for a company’s development and future growth, and it goes beyond corporate strategy it also incorporates investments and key stakeholders for each company. Quantifying a monetary figure and amount for social impact may be extremely difficult, however it has progressed with awareness and

Sustainable development requires companies to meet their objectives while protecting the quality of life of their employees, surrounding community, and the environment. More than 40 years ago, Medtronic 's co-founder Earl Bakken provided the framework for the company 's sustainability strategy by formulating the company 's mission statement that has remained unchanged to the present day. "Medtronic has operated with a clear, compelling mission: To contribute to human welfare through the application of biomedical engineering in the research, design, manufacture, and sale of instruments or appliances that alleviate pain, restore health and extend life" ("Integrated,", 2016, p.4). This visionary mission statement also included a group of ethical guidelines such as the need to strive without reserve for the greatest possible reliability, to recognize the personal worth of employees, and to maintain good citizenship as a company. Those early tenets of corporate responsibility were the foundation of Medtronic 's current sustainability practices.

Stehr, C & Jakob, BE (2014) '‘Corporate Social Responsibility Through Voluntary Commitment in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises,’ European Journal of Sustainable Development, vol. 3(no. 4), pp. 135-150. [Accessed 30 July

While it is important for a company to make a profit, a business also has a responsibility to help better the community, this is referred to as a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Some elements of CSR that corporations focus on are sustainability, community service, and consumer affairs. A company’s CSR is featured on its website, however, some corporations fail at following through with their social and environmental responsibilities. For example, Gazprom, a Russian company focused on exploring new ways to use natural gas, plays a large role in the destruction of many natural environments. Gazprom was founded in 1989 and it is headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Gazprom’s website highlights many charitable acts done by the company, but it does not mention much of what the company has done in terms of the environment. This is because Gazprom is notorious for being environmentally unfriendly. Not only is Gazprom unconcerned with the environment, the company also abuses its strong market power and charges unfair prices to customers.

This is essay will focus on analyzing how corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences the investor relations of a corporation and whether it is good for the society, using Gasland and FrackNation as examples. In the contemporary society, CSR sounds like a commendatory term for the society. Over decades, it seems like that both the public and the media are trying to encourage corporations to behave more responsibly, and corporations are gradually becoming more socially aware in the contemporary society because they know they cannot afford the consequence of ignoring it. (Bernstein, 2009:606) However, CSR is not always beneficial. One of the major practices of public relations is investor relations, because the concerns of a corporation’s investors can directly relate to its welfare. When the corporations paid more attention on CSR, their investors will inevitably somehow feel ignored. As a public which has real material input to the corporations, investors are seeking for future returns, they want to be treated specially by the corporations that they invest. Also, value too much about CSR can make corporations become the victim of being morally hijacked, which may harm both a corporation’s financial success and the whole society’s harmony.

Corporations, their activities and governance have long been of interest to management and social scientists (see for example, Sampson, 1983). As it has gained a higher profile on the political, economic and business agendas in recent years (see for example, www.csr.gov.uk; Commission of the European Communities, 2001, 2002), corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received increased attention from academics (see Whetten et al., 2002; Arpan, 2005; Evuleocha, 2005; Riese, 2007; Birch, 2008). Corporate governance can be defined in a narrow and a broad way. For those who define it narrowly corporate governance is largely concerned with board level management issues. Reporting on the situation in the UK the Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance (1992, p. 15) described the term as ‘‘the system by which companies are directed and controlled’’. Such a narrow definition, adopting and advocating as it does a top

It is generally difficult to determine whether corporate social responsibility initiatives are easier to implement in small firms as opposed to large firms. Corporate CSR perspective is the ethical responsibility to society and social bodies as the firm adopts due to business financial, societal, governmental, and, moral image outcomes in society. In addition, the firm adopts ethical responsibility to external entities, which society focuses on and as a result magnifies and sensitises business stance and associations with external social bodies. In fact, CSR is the result of a discussion amongst the firm and its stakeholders about responsibilities and expectations. Corporate Social Responsibility: One Size Does Not Fit All. Collecting Evidence from Europe. The EU defines small firms as, those that employ 50 staff or less and have a turnover that is e10 million or under as seen in European Commission, 2003b. Small firms and large firms are different, particularly in such areas as financial revenue, resources, market share, numbers of staff and ownership title as it explains in Curran and Blackburn, 2001. Investigating the Impact of Business Size on Small Business Social Responsibility: A Critical Review. Firm size triggers a particular implementation pattern of CSR, i.e. SMEs are strong in implementing organisational CSR associated processes in fundamental business procedures, where MNCs efficiently connect their obligations to CSR, yet generally lack complex

Previous research on Corporate Social Responsibility focused mainly on stakeholder groups such as consumers and investors. However, very little research has been carried out to the effects of Corporate Social Responsibilities on

There are several factors that determine that at the moment CSR is primarily relevant to large private sectors, according with our textbook, First, SMEs are informal in nature and this reason lack the need for bureaucratic systems and its structures due to the advantages of small size businesses. Second, large corporations, are often under the loop of the society and their actions are visible and vulnerable to criticism. And third, usually the small business are manger by the owner and for this reason, there is not obligation or direct pressure to serve the shareholders to maximize or return their investment at any cost.

‘Corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) means that the firm has wider responsibilities in relation to objectives and people apart from the owners or shareholders (Beal and Goyen 2005). These responsibilities are achieved when the firm adapts all of its practices to ensure that it operates in ways that meet, or exceed, the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has of business. Objectives often associated with CSR include a responsibility to manage natural assets sustainably and not to pollute by chemical discharge, smell, noise, dust or other irritants; fair treatment of employees and ethical attitude towards clients. The other people include employees, customers, suppliers,