This assignment will be based around Adidas, an argument will be contextualised regarding Adidas’s Social and Economic responsibility and why an organisation like Adidas chooses to deal with the externalities in the organisation, the drives of Adidas’s values and ethical approaches will also be assessed, including an overall conclusion based on my opinion of Adidas as a sustainable organisation.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is defined by Carroll as being split into four possibilities,”it is economically profitable, law abiding, ethical and Philanthropic” (Visser. W, 2005). Economic responsibilities is defined as being for profit purposes, managers focus is purely on the outcome of the business and the shareholders, there is
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Adidas mentions that; “Managing the organisations environmental impacts is a key focus of their work” (Adidas Group, 2012).
On the other hand It has become more apparent that there are a large number of ethical issues connected with Adidas these issues relating to the supposed Corporate responsibility of the organisation, “The independent revealed that workers in some of the sportswear giant 's contracted factories are paid as little as 34p an hour” (The Independent, 2012). however Adidas is portrayed as an ethical organisation, one that cares for their suppliers, this is seen in the Adidas group(2012) site under “working with suppliers”; whereby Adidas depicts a “fair, safe and healthy” working environment. This immediately paints a picture of an ethical organisation that cares for suppliers even the factories in the Asia Pacific region. It is questionable that an organisation as global as Adidas is compelled to take on a Corporate Social and ethical approach as a means to maintain an image even if it may be false. Milton Friedman suggests that when businessmen talk eloquently about their business they may not be aiming purely for social means, as “a corporation is an artificial person and in this sense may have artificial responsibilities, but a "business" as a whole cannot be said to have
One of the biggest and most popular brands in America, Nike, who targets athletes of all ages to be better athletes engages in unethical behavior by exploiting people from other countries by providing bad working conditions and low wages. Nike produces athletic equipment as well as apparel that is not only appealing to athletes, but also to the general public. However, the people that work for Nike and make these products are people being physically abused by supervisors and have to deal with horrible working conditions. According to an article written by Zaid Jilani, he said that thousands of women in Indonesia are being exploited by companies such as Nike where the wages being paid to these women are not enough to survive. Nike is well aware of what they are doing to these people in Indonesia, but still continue with it because the profits they receive at the end of the day is more valuable to them than the poor working conditions they offer to these Indonesian women. This shows that Nike uses the the Utilitarian approach because the company weighs out the pros and cons of the situation and still decides to produce products in Indonesia where it’s perfectly legal to pay low wages and have bad working conditions even though it is
Businesses, specifically larger corporations, play a major role in what occurs in society therefore, they are responsible to their stakeholders not only to pursue economic goals but the greater social good as well. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means that a corporation should act in a way that enhances society and its inhabitants and be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, their communities, and their environment. (Lawrence, 2010). Social responsibility is becoming the norm so much so that some businesses have incorporated it into their business model. There are three components of the bottom line of social
In the article “Nike Quietly Goes Green” by Reena Jana, Nike realizes that they should keep pursuing their “go green” efforts while making sure their customers are still content with the quality and performance of the shoe. Last year, Nike debuted the Air Jordan XX3 which was made through eco-friendly manufacturing and the company experienced high customer satisfaction and growth in the market. This aligns with the approach that the company creates positive stakeholder externalities while maximizing their profit. In this article, Nike was able to maximize their profit while consumers still benefited by getting high performance shoes. In addition, there were no stakeholders that were negatively harmed such as environmentalists who were against Nike’s
However, Nike has long been eluding allegations of employing people in the developing and under-developed economies, at low wages and poor working conditions for a long time. Nike tried many different measures of correcting
This paper will discuss the company Nike. Nike has had many ethical issues, which will be addressed. The ethical dilemmas that Nike faced will be evaluated under two ethical frameworks. The whistleblower part that was played in exposing Nike will be analyzed. This paper will evaluate whether Nike used marketing or public relations successfully when trying to repair the damage caused by the reported lapse in ethics.
This bad public image has led to loss of existing customers and potential customers switching to more ethical brands. Nike’s marketing team has had to make it a big priority to counter any negative publicity and re-focus consumer’s attention on what they are doing about the allegations.
1. What is adidas’ position in the athletic shoe market? How does the brand seem to be doing in this market? Position: the position of adidas has transferred from “leading supplier of soccer footwear worldwide” to “leading sport brand”. Adidas was founded in Germany in 1920. In 1995, it became a public company as well as the leading supplier of soccer footwear due to its great performance of footwear sales. In 1998, adidas began to move into the U.S. market. Adidas doubled its U.S. market share within only one year, so it hoped to continue to make big move in following years. In its way to U.S. market, adidas confront with the
It seems Adidas works to be transparent with the global community, they are striving towards meeting all customers’ needs, in all walks of life, while giving back to communities. They follow a corporate mission that reflects human resources, social and environmental affairs, and community affairs; thus, good corporate social responsibility
The ethics of businesses are under more scrutiny than ever before (Bones, 2014). Ethics can be considered as following a code of behaviour agreeable with the context of society and can also be defined as the application of moral and ethical considerations in a business environment (Hurn, 2008). Sport businesses have been targeted a lot more in recent years due to the conditions they place their workers in has become more apparent to the outside world. Nike are one of the world’s leading sports brands but have been faced with many allegations in recent years (Daily Mail, 2011) in regards to the conditions they put their workers in and their ethics and morals have been questioned. This report will critically evaluate the impact ethics has on the business operations of Nike and then analyse the reasons for why ethics impact the sport organisation. Finally, recommendations will be made to improve Nike’s business ethics.
Adidas Group, as one of the world’s retail leaders in sportswear, has as primary target the sports participants, including high performance athletes, as well as non-athletes who are inspired by those at the highest level of their sport, and those that really love sports as part of their lives.
It provides a conceptual framework that enables Adidas stakeholders — from its 50,000 employees on through to suppliers, customers and communities — to better and more easily understand, assess and realize the multinational footwear and sportswear company’s sustainability goals.
Even though Adidas is sponsoring top athletes like tennis player Anna Kournikova, the soccer player Zidedine Zidane and L.A Lakers’ basketball player Kobe Bryant, the focus
Nike has a very sophisticated sustainability strategy. The strategy is based on company’s prospects for future, to ensure that the company remains profitable and reputable, taking into consideration the social responsibility of the company (NIKE 2013). For instance, the strategy is supposed to ensure that the company gains a stable supply for the raw materials for the product manufacturing that will ensure stable supply of the products in the market at favorable prices. The strategy also targets make the company responsive to environmental concerns, aiming at reducing environmental pollution through emissions to the atmosphere (Charter, 2001). The strategy outlines the company
their global supplier network. Adidas trained more than 2000 persons in 2014. (Adidas13, 2015). Adidas is a fair wage employer across their global supply chain. Their approach is built of three pillars; they are respect (the rights of workers), protect (the work standards) and promote (wage progression and fair wages). (Adidas14, 2015). This approach helped Adidas to maintain a strong sustainable workplace standard keeping corporate social responsibility in mind.
Adidas build the framework for their sustainability efforts to tackle issues that are most material for business operations. The four pillars of the adidas Group’s strategy are people, product, planet and partnership. People refer to Adidas will positively influence the lives of our employees and factory workers as well as those people living in the communities in which we have a business presence. Product refer to Adidas will find better ways to create our products, mainly through innovation, increased use of more sustainable materials and efficiencies. Planet refer to Adidas will reduce the environmental footprint of both our own operations and our suppliers’ factories.