Making the Case for Corporate Social Responsibility
April 21, 2008 by NEIL MILLER | Filed under: Regarding Social Responsibility [1, 2, 4]
This article is, in my opinion, a very good example of how companies are affected by the way they implement CSR. I chose to post this because it shows clear cut industry examples, including cause&affect, and also because it talks about the Starbucks company (which Ayoub posted about last week). I hope this will help evlove our discussions on weather an inherent conflict exist between social and economic objectives or if both contribute to improved competitive advantage.
“Most of the research and debate about CSR has been centered on the positive benefits to the community, of which there are many, and which also seems to find much agreement among academics and business executives. The new direction is relating CSR to profitability. Here the literature is more divergent. Therefore, in an effort to provide some practical examples and substance to the debate, this paper will focus on studying the dynamics of the relationship between CSR and profitability, by enabling a case study of three companies.
The direction of this paper will unravel some of the mystery about CSR, and then study its relationship to the financial performance of companies, show the debate between the positive and negative effects of doing or not doing CSR, illustrate some of the socially responsible accounting measures available, and provide a more effective way for companies to accrue the benefits of CSR. I will be utilizing a case study of three companies; two that do use variant forms of CSR, and another that does not. The companies chosen will be The Body Shop, Starbucks, and Sara-Lee respectively. ”
Cavett-Goodwin, David. “Making the Case for Corporate Social Responsibility”. Cultural Shifts. December 4th, 2007. Accessed April 18th, 2008.
http://culturalshifts.com/archives/181