Walmart Social Responsibility Case Study

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

It is said that “The only social responsibility that there is, is to obey laws and pay taxes,” but according to Milton Friedman, “social responsibility is to increase profits.” This kind of responsibility also a form of giving back. Many people believe that the future of Wal-Mart is sustainability. Wal-Mart Stakeholders are the associates, otherwise known as employees, the suppliers, and the investors of this company. I believe that Wal-Mart is doing enough to become more sustainable both locally and globally by the resources, its key stakeholders.

Walmart is one of the biggest companies in the world, but it also has extremely tough competitors. Currently Walmart is the largest retailer in most countries of the world for numerous reasons. For one, they supply a wide variety of items to be purchased that include entertainment, groceries, health and wellness, hardware, furnishing, apparel and many more. Walmart also has over 11,100 stores in over 27 countries according to Market Realist. These two reasons alone give Walmart a huge advantage over its’ competitors. Walmart has both strengths and weaknesses when it comes to its’ competitors not only across the nation, but across the world as well. Some of the main domestic competitors of Wal-mart consist of Target, Costco, Amazon, and the dollar store trinity. Along with that, Walmart has international competition such as Carrefour in France, Metro in Germany, Tesco in the United Kingdom, Loblaw Companies in Canada, and Ahold in the Netherlands. Although Walmart has competitors with all of these companies worldwide, it still remains the “#1 retailer in Canada and Mexico and has operations in Asia (where it owns a 95% stake in Japanese retailer SEIYU ), Africa, Europe, and Latin America”, according to Hoovers. Strangely enough, Walmart is growing more overseas than it is in the United States. Even with all these companies it has to compete with, Wal-mart’s total sales are still almost 5 times its’ competitors. As it generates a net sale of over $483 billion in one year,

Wal-Mart started as a single store in 1962 and since then has expanded to over 3,600 stores in the United States and operates in 15 international markets. This paper will discuss the role of ethics and compliance in the Wal-Mart organization as it relates to the financial environment. We will describe the procedures in place to ensure ethical behavior and identify the processes used to comply with SEC regulations. Using the annual report information for Wal-Mart we will evaluate the financial performance over the past two years and calculate financial ratios. Based on those financial ratios, we will discuss the trends evidenced and the organization’s financial health.

In 2005, “Wal-Mart took a leading role in disaster relief, contributing $18 million and 2,450 truckloads of supplies to victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita”. In addition, Wal-Mart strongly believes in supporting our service members and veterans. Along with Wal-Mart’s charitable contributions, it has “made a major commitment to environmental sustainability, announcing goals to create zero waste, use only renewable energy and sell products that sustain people and the environment” (Wal-Mart, 2015). Even though this retail giant exceeds its competitors in profits and revenues and, is a very charitable organization, it still faces many

Since its establishment in 1962, Wal-Mart has grown to be one of the biggest conglomerates in the world. Inevitably, with the expansion of the company, the weight and number of social and ethical issues facing the company has increased.

Walmart needs to improve this world an even place for individuals. There three fundamental goal-oriented objectives to change Walmart's overall ecological foot shaped impression: 100% renewable energy supplied, make a zero waste, offer items that maintain the world's assets and environment. As per Walmart, without development, expanded interest for structures, products and administrations will strain normal assets, increment squander and lift outflows. These variables contrarily affect our air and water quality, which harms biological communities, jeopardizes our sustenance supply and builds potential for extreme climate fiascos, dry season and starvation. Walmart is planning to decouple business development from ecological effect. By moving

For better or for worse, Wal-Mart dominates the retail industry. With annual revenue of more than $315 billion, Wal-Mart ranks No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations. Wal-Mart is also the largest corporate employer in the nation, with more than 1.3 million people on its payroll (only the federal government employs more people). On the global front, Wal-Mart operates nearly 3,000 international stores, buys products from 70 countries, and generates about 20% of its sales from abroad. Given Wal-Mart’s aggressive expansion plans, those numbers are only likely to grow.

Yes, I think that Wal-Mart is exceeding to become more sustainable. Wal-Mart is one of the top corporations and it is continuing to grow exponentially. There are three sustainability goals that Wal-Mart has put out to the public, and currently they are meeting every one of them. Among Wal-Mart’s sustainability goals are its intentions to be supplied entirely by renewable energy, create no waste, and sell products that sustain people and the environment (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell). At the end of 2013 Wal-Mart had more than 300 energy projects which provided more than 2.2

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.

One of the major shortcomings of the report is that some of Walmart statements regarding its CSR and sustainability activities differs greatly from what some outside advocacy groups and activists are saying about the company’s CSR efforts. The Food Chain Workers Alliance on June 4th , 2015 published a 120 page report about Walmart called “Walmart at the Crossroads, the Environmental and Labor Impact of Its Food Supply” where it questions a lot of Walmart’s practices. The Food Chain Workers Alliance is an advocacy group with more than 300,000 members who work in all-different stages of the food chain from the farm to the restaurant. Its goal is to develop a more sustainable food system while at the same time fight for the rights of workers.

Due to increasing environmental imbalances, it is necessary for firms to achieve competitive advantages in the area of environmental convergence as well. Wal-Mart is putting continuous efforts from a long time for environment sustainability and energy conservation. It also received Aspen Institute Energy and Environment award for Corporate Energy Efficiency in 2009. Here are a few steps that Wal-Mart has taken to encourage environmental sustainability:

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) is a term describing a company’s obligation to be accountable to all of its stakeholder in all its operation and activities. Socially responsible companies consider the full scope of their impact on communities and the environment when making decisions, balancing the needs of stakeholder with their need to make profit.

A. The Wal-Mart China work in co-operation with the government and employees in advancing sustainability. The best practices known by Wal-Mart should be shared with government and employees to reduce carbon footprints. Also Wal-Mart should abide by the regulations of the government pertaining to sustainability and also Wal-Mart should voluntarily adopt best practices which lead to greater sustainability. The employees should be trained for reducing carbon footprints resulting from their actions and should be rewarded to encourage them to continue addressing sustainability issues.

Wal-Mart is a company which operates in the service sector, more specifically in the “Discount, Variety Stores/Retail” industry. The company’s superior performance is demonstrated through the fact that it was America’s largest company (in terms of revenue) in 2002, and the reputation of the company is reflected in the opinion of “Fortune” who have identified Wal-Mart as one of the world’s most admired companies. In 2004 Wal-Mart had been hiring 1.4 million employees – making it the largest corporation in the world. Wal-Mart’s share prices have also been stable at time of stock market volatility. There are