Corporate Social Responsibility in Iran

In other words, CSR is like a potential rule or standard, companies try to follow it and may feel anxious about violating CSR. Thus, these individual firms may operate in a similar way inevitably, and fewer innovations are added to their businesses which results in fewer competitive advantages. However, some arguments may present that CSR itself could be the competitive advantage of corporations, but reflect on Hawthorne (2013), 40.6% of customers would not pay extra money for products or services, which comes to a pretty high “unwilling fraction”. This might prove that customers would not buy anything primarily depends on the ethical or environmental issues. Thus, CSR would not be a major competitive advantage of corporations. In addition, Godelnik (2011) claims that CSR might compel companies to delay or pre-empt some effective measures, such as regulations, when addresses social problems. This will also limit the performance of firms, because some methods may be more profitable than others, but less beneficial to society. In order to adopt CSR, corporations may need to choose the less profitable one, so their performance would be limited. Therefore, CSR may restrict corporations’ performances through two ways.

There is increasing pressure on organizations to make a POSITIVE contribution to society or reduce their NEGATIVE impact on society. Even around the world the governments are also moving towards the enforcement of certain parts of CSR. The most focused part of CSR is regards to the protection of the environment. Many businesses in the past have primarily concerned with increasing shareholders’ value. Shareholders are people who own a part of the business and share in its profits (G. Katherina. 2010). In big corporations, this could potentially include thousands of people who receive dividends and who hold shares in the business (Smallbizconnect. 2014).

The author tries to find out whether making CSR a mandatory requirement for the companies as a social responsibility will help in the upliftment of the society. CSR models previously were voluntary actions taken up by the corporations but the new CSR norms mandate this responsibility. The country is now moving towards MANDATORY, NOT VOLUNTARY CSR regimes. This Article begins with the origin of CSR during the Earth Summit in early 90’s and then its scenario in the Indian corporate sector. Some of the examples of volunteer CSR activities showcased the sincere efforts taken by certain major tycoons of Indian corporate sector and now after India being the first country to mandate CSR in the Companies Act will be a boon for social upliftment or not. According to the author, working for the undeveloped communities for the country is a work that required moral values within an individual or a corporate, making it mandatory will only add more confusions and an opportunity to tainted companies to go smooth in the eyes of law by means of corruption or extortion in the system. Moreover, penalizing only if reason not displayed by the Board in their Annual Report will not be the solution to the problem. This article will seek an understanding whether mandating CSR will be a boon to social upliftment or not and concludes by suggesting certain rewards or tax benefits for

CSR is the commitment of a company to behave ethically and to improve its employee’s quality of life, while contributing to economic development. Companies are expected to work with CSR and it can be rewarding for both customers and companies. However, CSR can be damaging for a company if it is performed incorrectly. For example, if the organization`s CSR efforts are focused on areas

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

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.

Corporate social responsibility can simply be identified as a duty, which is not a legal obligation lately, under very much consideration by every multinationals, as well as the growing firm. The ongoing concern is meant to increase the awareness between the business Individuals, to implement and draw line which should clearly indicates that what social obligation an organization has towards the society.(Caroll,1970) (Caroll, Archie, B.(1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility is towards the moral management of organization stakeholder.

Because of this, Iran’s economy has since had negative growth (“Central Intelligence Agency”). Recently though, Iran’s government has made a deal with the United States that they will pause their nuclear enrichment program in exchange for sanction relief. Although it will not help the economy that much, the psychological component of economic improvement that will come with this deal could help in the economy picking up (“Iran's President: Nuclear Deal…”). Additionally, unemployment is extremely high in Iran.

Throughout all of history, Islam has been the main religion of Iran. Religion is “a “A cultural institution, a complex of symbols, articles of faith and practices adhered to by a group of believers...:”. Religion therefore unified the people, and played a huge part in unifying the many social groups Iran had.. During the Iranian Revolution, there “... existed no separation between a man’s obligation as a believer and his duties as a citizen…”(Brandis, 8). In the time of the revolution, the Shah made it clear that religion was “unimportant to him as a ruler, whereas it was a concern among the people”(Üniversitesi) . Along with this disregard to religion, Shah reduced the religious estates in 1962, in a

Iran’s economy depends on oil, which is the government’s biggest income in the country. Small businesses consist of small

CSR is become more important in this society. Business activities will influence the sustainable development and played a centre role in the sustainable development. Business should focus on the world trend and being responsible because it’s important to lead a business to success as “competitive conditions

Since the 4th century, the Persian world has held great might in world politics. In 1979, Iran was officially established and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since then it has been an active and vocal player in world politics. It’s rich history of political revolutions have inspired new waves of government control, tyrannical and benign leaders, and great cultural change over time. The strong religious beliefs expressed by the people of this nation are both a form of unity and disunity that cause widespread schisms within this state. As a theocratic republic, the intermingling of religion and government within the state has caused a very controversial history for this nation. Since the late 70’s the influence of a Supreme Leader as well as a government headed by a president rather than a Shah, Iranians have experienced times of great oppression and great change. These studies of Iran have lead to the conclusion that within world politics, government leadership, diplomatic relations, mutual trust and geopolitical relations are main factors in a country’s ability to function internally and communicate with other nations.

As a group, the community must analyze and criticize the behavior of its member in order to arrive at a consensus on the tolerance of business practices and behaviors. However, the community’s inclinations may provide an obstacle to the entry and continuation of business activity within the community. Governments, as representative of the community, will attempt to influence and regulate the behavior of companies to reflect the expectations of the community in which they operate, as is the case of government mandated. “The main idea behind CSR is

Culturalist theory assumes that the culture of a society holds the most power, and the society’s structure is critical. Ideology and ideas are most influential in persuading members to act. In Iran, we have a culture of deference to our leaders which mainly stems from the preeminence of Shia’ Islam. Shi’ism holds clerics in high esteem, as they are thought to be substitutes for the Twelfth Imam and are therefore capable of translating God’s word for his followers. Although this might appear to indicate that Iran is more culturally suited for a state led economy, the opposite is true. The leader of the Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, as well as the vast majority of clerics in Iran, espoused privatization and the importance of property rights. An adherence to their teachings, therefore, would require Iran to move away from state centered economics and embrace a liberal market. This would also support the ideals of the Islamic Revolution, which include equality, justice, and support for the oppressed. Liberal economics are the best way to ensure economic stability for all citizens of Iran, and so would fulfill this ideology.

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.