Effects Of Economic Growth On Society

As our knowledge of the way in which human societies impact on the natural world develops, society’s expectations of corporate conduct have evolved. Quite rightly, our stakeholders expect us to consider the broader, long-term implications of our operations as a part of our decision-making processes.

Another challenge for companies when considering social responsibility is the possible negative perception of shareholders. Historically, publicly-owned companies had a primary focus of maximizing shareholder value. Now, they must balance the financial expectations of company owners with the social and environmental

Many firms are learning that being environmentally friendly and sustainable has numerous benefits. (O.C Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2015). This could enable them to increase goodwill from various stakeholders and also save money in the long term. This will mean that they are being more efficient and less wasteful of resources, which will enable them to be more competitive by satisfying stakeholders. The CEO of

Because corporations are established to profit and shareholders invest money with expectations of a greater return, managers cannot be given a directive to be “socially responsible” without providing specific criteria of checks and balances to which needs to adhere. Therefore, it is imperative to the success of a corporation for managers to not act solely but rather to act within the policies of the shareholders.

As we have seen an increase in awareness around sustainability and climate change, with the help of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth documentary in 2006, we see organizations moving towards mitigating the effects of climate change in various ways (Al Gore, n.d). As this corporate social responsibility has become more prevalent, organizations are now pushing their green agenda by publishing sustainability reports, doing mass marketing and implementing sustainable business practices to portray the image that they too are working towards protecting the earth’s natural environment all the while focusing on their underlying goal of selling their products and

The majority of people in today’s global society have a false sense of security in believing that the effects of climate change will not take place until the very distant future, and are to dire to bear engaging. Environmental protection is currently one of the largest social issues facing different groups within society including; governments, special interest groups, everyday citizens and global organisations. The actions of organisations with regards to environmental sustainability are becoming a larger factor in business operations. Today’s more informed society expects businesses to perform out of the traditional economic measure of profit motive and adjust to society’s efforts to achieve modern sustainability goals. BHP Billiton (BHP) is the largest and leading global resources company, being the world’s largest producers of major commodities including; coal, copper, iron ore, nickel and uranium. BHP’s annual revenue for 2014 can be rounded off to $607,206million US Dollars and currently hires 128,800 employees and contractors over 141 locations. These figures not only represent how large BHP is, but they highlight the importance of BHP’s contribution to help achieve

The conduct or the operation of any business anywhere in the world brings with it a number of environmental concerns. These range from the emission of harmful gases, such as carbon (VI) oxide, into the environment and contributions to the depletion of the ozone layer, thus furthering global warming. It is however impossible to exist in this modern world without industries and business, as many would be unemployed and further lack various necessities due to a lack of industries and businesses (Forbes, 2011). Therefore, sustainability should be considered with regard for the environment in that actions should not adversely affect the environment to the extent that future generations will find it unlivable . Many of the leading organizations

While corporations are driven by the vast engine of consumer satisfaction, many are also responsible for significant environmental destruction (VanDeVeer and Pierce 546). Since business always aim to increase revenue

Executives across the world believe that business plays a wider role in society and has responsibility to address issues such as environmental concerns beyond just following the law to minimize pollution. More and more companies now watch the benchmark of how they benefit, not just the profits, but also employees and the environment as a whole. Companies realize they have to take bold steps to minimize their carbon footprint, create environmentally friendly products and manage the company for more than just the next quarter’s profits.

In today’s society corporations have a responsibility to the environment as well as to making a profit. A range of social and environmental issues and what is expected of the modern day corporation will be discussed along

In the last two decades of the twentieth century, and in a few countries a bit earlier, a set of policy changes that were – and still are – considered to be positive reforms were introduced in the vast majority of low- and middle-income countries in the world. The results strongly indicate that these reforms on the whole were a failure. This is evidenced by the sharp decline in economic growth in the great majority of low- and middle-income countries, which coincided with and then followed these changes for two decades; and the concomitant decline in progress on social indicators such as infant and child mortality, and life expectancy. Perhaps because it is difficult to come up with an alternative to policy failure as an explanation for

Human resources: Labour inputs consist of quantity of workers and the skills of the workforce. Capital goods of a country can be effectively used

In Asia, the economic growth has been phenomenal and the deepening of economic integration and larger trade volumes have led to both developed and developing nations to experience steady economic growth, especially at 10.1% in 2007 (ADB, 2015). Nevertheless, especially with China’s economic slowdown, the Asian region is facing problems such as decrease in labor force, labor productivity, and overall trade growth (ADB Report, 2015). In order to consolidate economic integration of the region, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was implemented on December 31, 2015. The AEC is based on four pillars which are the following: a single market and production base, a highly competitive economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and a region fully integrated into the global economy (ASEAN Secretariat, 2015). The establishment of the AEC creates opportunities of a huge market worth over USD 2.5 trillion while the region was the seventh largest economy in the world with a population of over 622 million people and the largest market base in the world behind only China and India (ASEAN Secretariat, 2015). Moreover, the ASEAN Economic Community can be viewed as a yardstick of ASEAN’s progress in building a more economically integrated regional organization. The AEC aims to create a single market and production base in achieving freer flow of goods, services, labor, and capital (ASEAN Secretariat, 2015). In doing so, tariff elimination alone cannot create an open market;

Economic development and growth may not be the same thing depending on how growth rate is affecting the country's socio-economic development. However important and well known theories of macro-economic suggest that if markets are left on their own, people will improve their socio-economic wellbeing automatically as the result of better economic growth rate of the country. In other words, financial liberalization automatically leads to socio-economic uplift as suggested by Solow growth model. This appears to be true when we consider the differences that exist in liberalized and non-liberalized countries today.

‘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,