Corporate Social Responsibility at Carrefour

The evolving practices around corporate social responsibility (CSR) provide dynamic, and complex opportunities for business. Overall, businesses are modifying their core purpose from creating shareholder profit toward creating shared value across their stakeholders, with shareholders being only one of the many stakeholders. This paper analyzes the 74th ranked 2014 Fortune Global 500 Company Kroger. Kroger started in 1883 as a local Cincinnati, Ohio grocery store, and has expended to be the second largest retail grocery store in the United States, and fifth largest in the world, owning retail food and drug stores, jewelry stores, and convenience stores in the United States (Kroger, 2015). Kroger remains headquartered in Ohio. An overview of Kroger, and specifically Kroger’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy and implementation will be discussed, followed by a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) CSR analysis informing a concluding plan to enhance Kroger’s CSR maturity.

With the rapid development of social economy, the public tends to focus on the social responsibility of the company, as well as feedback to the society, rather than pay close attention to how to create interest in the company. Especially, environmental protection and human rights has became the most pressing social phenomenon. Under this

From the public outcry of unethical sweatshops in the 90s to the Rana Plaza collapse of 2013, the issue of whether corporations should engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a topic of debate. When determining whether branded apparel corporations should engage in CSR or not, there are many factors to consider, like questions of economics, legality, and philosophical outlook. From the factors mentioned, philosophical outlooks are extremely subjective and hard to solidify into legitimate reasons, so I will not explore into such domain. In terms of legality, corporations are not obligated by law to engage in CSR. CSR is the idea by which corporations voluntarily choose

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)1 has become a hot topic in boardrooms across the world. Changes in corporate value systems are being driven by pressures from different actors, including governments, consumers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and institutional investors (diagram 1). Multinational corporations (MNCs) have operations spread across the globe, relying on both foreign affiliates and arm’s-length suppliers arrayed along global supply chains, many of which encompass developing countries. What then does the growing CSR movement mean for developing country producers? The chapter addresses this

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR, also called corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship and responsible business) is a concept whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking

Growing competition and the ever increasing emphasis on cost reduction and efficiency has caused many firms to outsource various components of their operations outside of the country. As firms are thrusted into the global marketplace and transformed into multinational corporations (MNCs), new challenges arise related to the differences/disparity in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices between countries (Chandler & Werther Jr., 2014; Cruz, 2013). Globalization has increased companies need to consider the importance and strategic value of CSR (Chandler & Werther Jr., 2014; Cruz, 2013).

With the recent corporate scandals involving such companies as Enron and Martha Stewart, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has once again made its way to the forefront of contemporary management ideologies. However, CSR itself is not a new concept. In fact, societies as far back as the Ancient Mesopotamians (circa 1700 BC) incorporated CSR in their businesses. "King Hammurabi introduced a code in which builders, innkeepers or farmers were put to death if their negligence caused the deaths of others, or major inconvenience to local citizens." With each new "Enron" managers of similar corporations are suddenly placed in the spotlight, causing plans to be put into action to create a more socially responsible company.

Furthermore, Walmart isn’t alone in its international influence and there are several other companies that have resources greater than many countries and there is little evidence that might suggest that this is a fleeting position in global affairs. Thus, given the influence of the corporate form in the modern international economic system, one of the most interesting ethical developments is the establishment of the discipline of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This analysis will consider how the CSR model fits with a broader global effort to

The global landscape of business is continually expanding and major companies are crossing borders in their daily business activities. As these multinational corporations branch into new areas, known as emerging markets, they will face a plethora of risk, challenges, and opportunities. Branding and sustainability are two major aspects of a business and emerging markets provide a different landscape that will require strategic changes and innovative solutions. One of the major ramifications of these corporations entering emerging markets, is their coherence to the principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Whereas much of the past research on this topic focuses primarily on the risks and challenges a company faces in such a situation, this paper will focus primarily on the positive implications of Multinational Corporations (MNCs). This paper will look to answer what CSR efforts should be taken by MNCs? What are the risk, challenges, and benefits to MNCs and the emerging market? What are the effects on the MNCs brand when they participate in CSR? How is the nature of the emerging market important when taking into consideration CSR? Given the stature and resources that many MNCs have, they have the potential to make a major positive impact on emerging markets in the realm of ethics, rights, and quality of life.

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.

Department store corporate social responsibility: The triple bottom line, where environmental and social dimensions are included in the traditional measures of stakeholder value applies to department stores just as much as most businesses that deal in today’s service sector. (Kluyver, Pearce, p45, 2012) In this era of stakeholder awareness and rapid scandal dissemination, not focusing on responsible business can certainly backfire and ruin a company’s brand and threaten their entire existence.

BusinessDictionary.com (n.d.), defines corporate social responsibility (CSR) as “a company’s sense of responsibility towards the community and environment, both ecological and social, in which it operates” (para. 1). When expressing citizenship, companies can do so through its waste and pollution reduction processes, by contributing to educational and social programs, and by earning adequate returns on the employed resources (BusinessDictionary.com, n.d.). Economic, political, and civil society are three spheres of human civilization that reveal fundamental principles of corporate social responsibility. The economic sphere, which deals with businesses and economy of a society, the political sphere, which deals with government and the laws and rules that mandate and enforces, and the civil society sphere, which builds civility and community (“Corporate Social Responsibility-Module Two Overview: Three Spheres of Human Civilization”, 2014). Cleco exhibits corporate social responsibility using the three spheres of human civilization through stewardship and conservation initiatives, community outreach, and regulatory requirements throughout its service territory, which includes 23 Louisiana parishes.

food items contributed 40 % of the sales. By mid 1972 it had opened 16 stores and

After three years, the company expanded rapidly in France. The first store outside France was in Belgium and Brazil in 1969 and 1975. And as time goes by, they also expanded in Asia and Latin America through acquisition and merger. Carrefour was the largest retailer in

Carrefour is a French based retail store whose ranking in 2008 was number two behind that of Walmart. It had a very strong European market with strong global recognition and impact and had strong profitable growth. In its acquisition in the global market it decided to expand its retail market in Russia. Carrefour was considered a hypermarket because of its offer of 80,000 products and its occupying anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 square foot. Carrefour was founded in 1960 and was a store the provided a variety of goods and services. It provided self-service grocery stores, clothing, sporting goods, electronic goods and auto accessories. In 1963 Carrefour was branded as a Hypermarket due to its huge size and by 1966 Carrefour opens a10,000 square feet store in Lyons France and a 20,000 square foot in Vitrolles. Soon after, the company began to expand into the global market with its first store in Belgium and by 1970 Carrefour stock was listed on the Paris stock exchange. In 1975 Carrefour open its first store outside of Europe in Brazil and within 10 years they were now operating in 10 countries. In 1988 Carrefour entered the US market opening a store in Philadelphia and by 1992 Carrefour reported worldwide sales of €17.86 billion and a net income of €271 million. In 1996 Carrefour open 30 more stores across the world and by 1997 they also expanded their store to 15 stores in south America. Carrefour would become the second largest retailer in 2008 operating 15, 430