Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy for Bank of America

Bank of America provides its products and services through operating 5,100 banking centers call centers and online and mobile banking platforms. Its Consumer Real Estate Services segment offers consumer real estate products comprising fixed and adjustable rate first lien mortgage loans for home purchase and refinancing needs home equity lines of credit, and home equity loans. In 2014, we strengthened our corporate social responsibility governance structure by launching a new Global Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, chaired by our global chief strategy and marketing officer and comprising senior leaders from across every business line and support group.

In recent years, increasing number of customers and businessmen start to concern about the ethical issues in businesses. Although the main purpose of business is to make profits, the social influence of it also appears to be focused by a large proportion of customers and businessmen. Corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is closely connected with this concentration, was put forward in 1953 with the meaning of interacting social, environmental, and economic considerations into the decision-making structures and processes of business (Industry Canada, 2013). Although criticized, there is a business case for CSR because it could enhance customers’ loyalty, improve

The term ‘corporate social responsibility’ is still in popular use, even though competing, complementary and overlapping concepts such as corporate citizenship, business ethics, stakeholder management and sustainability are all vying to become the most accepted and widespread descriptor of the field. At the same time, the concept of corporate social performance (CSP) has become an established umbrella term which embraces both the descriptive and normative aspects of the field, as well as placing an emphasis on all that firms are achieving or accomplishing in the realm of social responsibility policies, practices and results. In the final analysis, however, all these concepts are related, in that they are integrated by key, underlying themes such as value, balance and accountability (Schwartz and Carroll 2008), and CSR remains a dominant, if not exclusive, term in the academic literature and in business practice. Just to illustrate how the concept is always evolving, CSR International, a non-profit organization, announced in 2009 the birth celebration of CSR International, an exciting new organization supporting the transition from what it called the ‘old CSR’ (Corporate Social Responsibility) or CSR 1.0 to the ‘new CSR’ (Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility) or CSR 2.0. Whether CSR 2.0 turns out to be substantially different

Based on my interpretation of CSR, I see it as a voluntary obligation that companies have promised to their stakeholders to fulfill by improving, or at least not harm, the environmental and social wellbeing. When companies engage in CSR, they voluntarily promise to, for example, carry the responsibility to protect the environment and take actions against bribe or other corruptive activities related to their business. It certainly has some positive influences to specific areas based on my knowledge gained from other classes; nevertheless, when judge CSR in the context of total impacts on our society and environment, it is obvious that CSR has failed its mission to lessen the negative impacts of business based on the evidences that provided by the author. Also, since there is a strong positive relationship between CSR behaviors and consumers’ reactions to a firm’s products and services, it seems to me, now, that CSR for the most companies is just a fancy cover that helps them to create or promote a good image and reputation. The recent case that shows the failure of CSR of Volkswagen even make me believe that CSR programs may be just a marketing or public relation exercise for many

Companies today are heavily influenced by the demands of customers and stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the social and environmental responsibility policies and practices developed by an organization to increase its positive influence and reduce its negative activity towards society (Parks, 2008). The business approach and corporate philosophy of an organization is easily altered due to economic pressures, technological improvement and stakeholder needs and demands. "Going green" or being eco-friendly is one such demand. Environmental and sustainability concerns originate most often from governments, consumer activists, and the general public (Schlosser, 2008). Thus, organizations must implement sustainability into daily practices. In addition, sustainability alters the nature of competition and drives companies to think differently about products, processes, and technologies (Parks, 2008).

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.

Bank of America Corporation, a multinational banking and financial services organization that is the second largest holding company in the entire United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank by capitalization. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the banks serves clients in more than 150 countries and has a business relationship with over 99 percent of U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 83 percent of the Fortune Global 400. As of 2010, the bank is the 5th largest company in the United States by total revenue, as well as the 2nd largest non-oil company in the United States, while Forbes listed it as the 3rd biggest company in the world. Its acquisition of Merrill Lynch in 2008 made it the world's largest wealth management corporation. B of A holds about 13 percent of all bank deposits in the United States with a retail footprint that covers about 80 percent of the U.S. population or about 57 million consumers at over 6,000 banking centers making it one of the most powerful banking forces in the contemporary industry (Bank of America, 2011; The Global 2000; Fortune 500).

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

Bank of America is a global financial services company headquartered in Charlotte, NC. It is one of the world’s largest financial institutions. Bank of America serves over 53 million customers. They serve these customers through 5,500 retail banking offices. Bank of America is known as a leader in the online banking world. Online alone the company services 30 million active users. The company serves customers in all 50 states and more than 40 countries. The company has numerous different lines of business and employs over 260,000 people. (Bank of America 2012)

The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) is a bank and financial holding company that serves “individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses, institutional investors, corporations and Governments with… bank and nonbank financial services and products.” (Reuters) Profiting $5.32 billion in the second quarter of 2015, Bank of America is one of the biggest banks in the United States and the world. (Rexrode & Rudegeair)

This recent reality, combined with globalization, is forcing companies to forge new kinds of relationships with buyers and countries. The financial valuation of companies are taking ever greater account of intangible elements, such as brands, patents and the company’s general image, with companies being bound to take account of these things in an effort to satisfy their shareholders. Environmental protection has become a highly motivating factor, and companies are being pressed to identify stakeholders with whom to team up. With brand value and reputation increasingly being seen as one of a company’s most valuable assets, CSR is now seen as building loyalty and trust amongst shareholders, employees and customers ( Tssa, (n.d.)).

Corporate Social Responsibility is described as being a company’s ethical, economic, environmental, social and legal attitude towards its stakeholders in order to establish long-term success (Crane at el, 2008). These issues have come to have an important role in the running of a business in recent years. CSR was developed over a number of years and has been researched by professional economists. There are many arguments in favour of and against the CSR strategy. A company that adopts and operates the CSR can gain control over a variety of sectors, including shareholders and stakeholders. In brief, businesses can generate maximum profit and reduce potential risk by adopting the CSR strategy

BANK OF AMERICA: The third biggest company in the world and one of the “Big Four banks” in the United States, is a bank holding company and a financial holding company. An institution serving individual consumers, small and middle markets, corporations and Governments with a range of banking, investing and asset management and other products and services.

With the spread of social marketing and CSR in the world, organizations tend to not only consider the consumers’ demands and the companies’ profit, but also take the consumers’ and societies’ long-term benefit into account. Hildebrand,D,et,al (2011) demonstrated that the CSR activities can make up the central, special and core characteristics of the company identity, the identification of the corporate can also be aroused due to CSR activities. Moreover, Porter and Kramer (2006) highlighted that CSR can aid companies create the ability to achieve corporate resource so as to build a sustainable and defensible competitive position. So the companies should consciously undertake corporate social responsibility.