High Stakes Writing Exercise

Primark, an Irish clothing retailer company was set up and headquartered in Dublin in 1969. Nowadays, there are over 250 stores across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe and the United States. Moreover, Primark operates with about 700 suppliers in China, India, Bangladesh, Turkey and Eastern Europe. Primark takes corporate social responsibility for the shareholders, owners, customers, suppliers as well as employees. Corporate social responsibility is that a company not only creates profits for the shareholders, but also undertakes the social responsibility for customers, employees and environment, including complying with business ethics, rights of workers and the rules of environmental protection. In order to develop continuously, corporate social responsibility plays an significant role in a company, which drives stakeholders have reliance on the company. This essay focuses on the ways in which Primark taking its duty to society and the ways in which the company should have done better.

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.

Question 1: What do you perceive as your greatest writing challenge overall? What do you usually have the most trouble with as a writer?

The social responsibility of the American apparel industry covers responsible practices related to human rights, labor standards, and environmental sustainability. Some of the advantages of being socially responsible is higher revenue, customer loyalty, safe and happy laborers, and an overall healthy environment. Research conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers found out after researching 1,000 retail companies 79 percent said that corporate social responsibility (CSR) was vital to the profitability and value of their company. Throughout the paper there will be a discussion of the advantages of being a socially responsible company. As well as the importance of

I would like to narrow down my project to focus on the affects of CSR on the apparel industry’s supply chain. Therefor my research project aims to examine how CSR as a global trend affects vertically and horizontally integrated manufacturing in the fashion/apparel industry.

This is particularly important for a company like Nike, which is facing significant pressures from consumers and stakeholders to show high levels of corporate responsibility, whilst also under significant market pressure to be cost competitive and to ensure that it can still compete in difficult economic conditions. It is expected that the mainstream CSR and business ethics theories will not be directly applicable to Nike due to its specific and high profile market position, and if this is the case then the research will make a significant contribution to the literature in this area.

Both the definitions given highlight the “voluntary” part of the actions taken by firms, those which go beyond law requirements, and from this starting point Matten and Moon (Matten & Moon 2008a) define two types of CSR, “implicit” and “explicit”. Implicit CSR reflects the actions taken by the firms to respond to formal and informal institutions for society’s interest, and consists of values, norms, and rules which result in requirements for corporations. Explicit CSR describes corporate activities that assume responsibility for the interests of society. They normally consist of voluntary programs and strategies by corporations which combine social and business value and address issues perceived as being part of the social responsibility of the company, often in response to local communities or Non-Governmental Organizations’ pressures (NGO) (Matten & Moon 2008b).

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.

CSR should reflect individual corporations’ values and goals, and therefore CSR fit is an important factor in a company’s socially responsible choices. From the consumers’ perspective, CSR must “fit” with the company’s culture and purpose. Coombs and Holladay (2012) indicate that fit exists “when the CSR effort is consistent with what the business does” (p. 42). To be a good fit, CSR should evolve organically from a business’s goals, its products or even from its impact on society or the environment. A CSR initiative that is specifically born from a business’s mission or goals will have the greatest compatibility or fit. For example, a company that offers paper products and goods made from recycled materials can naturally incorporate CSR strategies that emphasize recycling and sustainable practices. This scenario is considered a good fit in the eyes of stakeholders because there is no disconnect between the business values and its CSR values, resulting in a higher level of

Various authors have different definitions of what Corporate Social Responsibility. According to Lorde Holmes and Richard Watts, 1998 in their publication ‘Making Good Business Sense,’ they define CSR as “the continuing commitment by businesses to behave ethically and contribute to

Multinational Corporations have been subjected to various scandals relating to indirect violation of worker’s rights in China. Nonetheless, the extent to which corporations are responsible to ensure their operations and associations do not create nor reinforce human rights abuses is contentious. The objective of this research paper is to engage with the theoretical discourses pertaining to CSR, and to analyze the empirical impacts of CSR codes in Chinese factories. My research illustrates the minimal degree of effectiveness of CSR implementation in Reebok factories, due to state legislation and insufficient initiative by Reebok in relation to the cost associated with code implementation. I contrast the initial critical findings with a Swiss case study of the Chinese textile industry, which presents evidence of effective CSR implementation due to the threefold cooperation of brands, factory managers, and employers. I then bring forth Milton Friedman’s attack on the entire notion of CSR as an illegitimate imposition against businesses. I contend that successful CSR implementation requires trilateral engagement of multinational corporations, factory managers, employees complimented with an overarching, but limited state regulation.

Social corporate responsibility is the fashion of business world for the recent decade. Increasingly companies are getting involved with CSR and try to regulate themselves to the ethical standards and care

Over past 15 years a research has gradually evolved understanding the relationship between CSR and consumer perception and behavior. The research indicated that responsible firm conduct attracted consumer outcomes such as consumer loyalty, product consideration, company and product evaluation, purchase intention and willingness to pay. However, consumers are not willing to sacrifice product quality for CSR.

Corporate social responsibility has become one of the most popular trends in today's world. CSR has now become an instrument to measure the company's interest in various issues that are not directly related to profit making. CSR also make aware of the public and media about the company's interest in the community. There are several reasons for a company to set up its corporate social responsibility. First of all, having a CSR policy and activities improves the public image of the company to a greater deal. It has been found that company's reputation is always built on its CSR programs besides its services and products (Cheng, Ioannou, & Serafeim, 2014). Therefore, most of the companies start their CSR policies and share those to the world so that everyone should be aware of the activities organized by the corporation for the