Csr Continues To Gain Awareness As Globalization Offers

Wal-Mart’s is one of Target’s biggest competitors, but other retailers are also trying to compete, such as Sears, Dollar General, and Amazon. Although Target caters more to a more upscale clientele, it still carriers many of the same items as Wal-Mart. Target is not able to compete internationally with Wal-Mart since all of stores are in the U.S. but by 2014, they will have about 150 stores

Inside CVS Health, there are many stakeholders that come into play and are effected by the new change. The employees, customers and clients, suppliers and venders, investors, and local communities, are the stakeholders that are involved with and are close to CVS Health. CVS Health believes that staying close and involving their stakeholders to their CSR strategy, will help them be successful. Having employees that help contribute to the purpose that CVS Health stands for, helps the consumers get on a path to better health, and also contributes to the local communities outside of work. I am going to select ‘employees’ as the stakeholder for this analysis.

Dannon 's CSR focused on three aspects—nutrition and health, people, and nature (Marquis et al, 2011). Despite its efforts, Dannon was not known for its CSR directives. The company 's CSR history was mostly internal—not well known to consumers—and a stark contrast to the company 's major competitor Yoplait, celebrated for its annual “Save Lids to Save Lives” campaign (Marquis et al, 2011). Contemplating on the direction Dannon should take, if any, Neuwrith sought council from company stakeholders (Marquis et al, 2011).

Accordingly, Target’s (2015) CSR Report emphasizes its sense of community, stewardship, and responsibility by focusing on such areas as wellness (of guests, team members, and communities), sustainability of its products and business operations, inclusiveness, and community investment (p 2). Furthermore, Target’s management states its “performance as a company is intrinsically linked to the health and vitality of the communities” where its team lives and works (p 1). For that reason, Target contributes 5% of its profits back to local communities and has done so for 70 years (p 1). In its 2015 CSR Report, Target reports on the progress towards achieving its 20 corporate social responsibility goals it set in 2010. Progress is presented in easy to read graphics spread over seven pages of the 45-page report with goals for the future under development and to be released (pp 4-10, 10). In addition, Target’s website has this information under the categories of environment, team-member wellness, education, and volunteerism.

Target has a corporate social responsibility plan to show the legacy of giving and service. Rothaermel (2014) explains that Target embraces social programs, such as, promoting minorities and minority women into the supply chain. Target is fostering equality in society; this begins by creating a diverse workforce. Target is engaging the community to strengthen relationships and teach ethical treatment to others (Target, 2016). Rothaermel (2014) discusses corporate citizenship, where an organization philanthropic responsibilities are evident thorough ethical practices and giving back to society. Target encourages their employees to volunteer in local community programs. Target is interested in the community stakeholders and is committed to supporting communities by giving five percent of its profits, which has added up to more than $4 million each week (Target, 2016).

Stakeholders will generally detect duplicity in CSR motives; intrinsic or genuine motives as well as extrinsic profit-related motives; however, stakeholders will be tolerant of clear extrinsic motives, if the CSR initiatives are rooted in intrinsic values. This leads to the perceived “win-win” scenario, and is one of the driving factors behind company CSR initiatives, as they realize the value of helping society while still being able to focus on the impact to the bottom line (Tonello, 2011). In addition, if campaigns are not communicated specifically around the brands it produces, then a “halo effect” for the entire industry could be the end result, of a poorly executed communication strategy (Marquis et al., 2011) Therefore, it is important for Dannon to construct a carefully balanced communication strategy, which considers the perception of its stakeholders in the marketplace, while also ensuring to highlight the specific impact of its CSR initiatives within the communities it operates.

All reporting by Target in regard to the CSR is completed in accordance with the GRI G4 index, “the most credible standard for reporting on environmental, social and governance performance issues” (Target, 2015). In addition to following the GRI guidelines, Target has made it a point to engage with stakeholders to address issues and make suggestions on goals moving forward, as well as comparing themselves to other retail competitors. Furthermore, Target has been sincere to the public and its shareholders on its failure to achieve certain goals that were not met during the testing period and continued to publish the

Additionally, I was surprised with how detailed and thorough the report was in explaining the past and future goals of Target. For example, in its 2015 CSR report, Target summarized all of its goals that they wished to achieve for each component of CSR and described if they were able to reach that goal. If they failed to reach the goal, they gave a numerical amount that it was missed by and described a process on a new goal for going forward. After conducting research on the CSR efforts of Target, I am surprised the company does not have a stronger reputation as being a leader in CSR efforts, similar to companies such as Apple and Intel.

Kroger’s CSR efforts regarding environmental efforts are more robust than employee stakeholder support. Even with this, Kroger is considered a laggard with environmental CSR standards when compared to Walmart and Target (van der Ven, 2014). A main reason for this could be due to Kroger’s relatively light involvement with CSR focused organizations. Their leadership may simply not be exposed to CSR ideas as much as their peers (van der Ven, 2014). Expanding CSR knowledge, and leadership widening their network on CSR possibilities will give Kroger’s leaders access to industry leaders best practice knowledge.

Transparent annual reporting is important to the Barnes and Noble Corporate Social Responsibility program. Without clear reporting, it is not possible for stakeholders and the general public to determine whether our CSR program is accomplishing the stated goals and whether full effort is being put into the goals by Barnes and Noble staff.

CSR is the concept that businesses should balance profit-making with activities that benefit society, as Bruce Dayton believed “businesses should act in the best interest of society” (Target, 2015). Accordingly, Target’s commitment is to design tomorrow’s Target through our value chain, building community and creating a great workplace. As such, its 5 core beliefs: innovation, leadership, growth, inclusivity, and community influence its ongoing commitment to CSR. Furthermore, they achieve this by concentrating on:

Target works on trying to find environmentally friendly ways get the product to the customers. They work on reducing their carbon footprint by working with experts on ways to improve their packaging and transportation. (Target Corporate 2016.) They also try to get their manufactures to use sustainable apparel and footwear products. They encourage their customers to follow manufactures suggestion by washing apparel in cold water to help reduce the usage of water and energy consumption. (Target Corporate 2016.) Targets products come from all over the world.

Current approaches to CSR are fragmented and/or disconnected from business goals. Many firms still consider CSR as another generic public relations problem in which media campaigns and CSR reports are used to paint the company as a positive ethical, social and or environmental advocator and supporter. For example, the annual reports discuss a firm’s sensitivities to CSR issues, but completely lack the entire story and offer no further forward commitments from the firm. Further, the ratings and rankings measurements are self-appointed by the firm, not always accurate to validate the work and direct impact to what they are measuring, and the criteria base varies widely and weighed differently in the final scoring. Worst of all the data lacks impartial auditors for validating the data to ensure the ratings have been accurately met, and data is statistically significant and a good proxy for what it is supposed to reflect. This has resulted in reactive initiatives designed to appease vocal

As a potential investor in BMW Group, this sustained focus on, and consistent improvement of environmental sustainability has a strong influence in convincing environmentally conscious stakeholders to become investors. BMW has maintained their CSR reputation throughout their “30 production and assembly plants in 14 countries and approximately 6,000 dealerships in 140 countries” (Bouw, 2016, para. 5). For this reason, it could be important to potential investors for corporations such as BMW to report continually on their CSR policies, successes, and areas which may need improvement. Seele and Lock (2015) support this saying, “Seen in the sense of a stakeholder involvement strategy, CSR communication may help firms achieve the requested moral legitimacy” (p. 403).

When policies to implement social responsibility are adopted, the direct financial impact on goods and services is evident; for instance, as part of its CRS strategy, Home Depot has partnered with Energy Star and according to the company’s 2016 responsibility report, the result of that partnership saved customers over $701.6 million in annual energy utility costs. More savings brings more sales. Additionally, a solid CSR demonstrates a level of ethical commitment and in today’s world, consumers are looking for that. Consumers will intentionally seek out products from suppliers who have CSR policies in place (“Resources & Reports”, 2016).