Topic for discussion
April 21, 2008 by John Morelli , AYOUB MOHAMED and NEIL MILLER | Filed under: General,Regarding Social Responsibility [1, 2, 4]
This discussion will address:
- Whether engaging in CSR is just a means to maintain a company’s competitive viability . . . or it is an end in itself?
- Does an inherent conflict exist between social and economic objectives or can both contribute to improved competitive advantage?
I think that engaging to CSR varies from organization to another. My analysis is that acompany starts CSR as a means of competetion, in other words, they have to have CSRs in order to have a successful business, and this is found in small companies or when there are many companies in the same business and the competetion is fierce. Eventually CSR becoms an end when a company is having a successful business and is not competeable any more. That was clear when I checked the CSR reports in the two multinational companies Hitachi and Starbucks.
“Does an inherent conflict exist between social and economic objectives or can both contribute to improved competitive advantage?”
Adding to what Ayoub mentioned, I believe that once a company is established it uses CSR to boost their public perception by advertising that what they are doing for the public, just like the articles Ayoub posted shows us. I don’t see a social and economic conflit, I actually think they come hand and hand and the company needs both to get the advantage over one another.