C O R P O R A T E S O C I A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y

Jain

Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR for short, is a business model in which an organization focuses on its social impact on society, rather than solely on maximizing profits Businesses with a CSR have ethical objectives, with the aim of contributing towards bettering the environment and their community.

Businesses may opt towards having a corporate social responsibility as it helps benefit society, whilst also benefiting themselves as it creates a positive corporate image for their organization However, the extent to which their CSR goes differs from business to business. Some businesses implement a CSR as they have a genuine want to contribute towards improving their environment, whereas other businesses may use it solely as a means of increasing their competitive advantage, publicity, and consumer awareness, which could then lead to an increase in their revenue An effective CSR program can help reinforce positive corporate culture by promoting values such as integrity, transparency, and accountability. It can also improve the company's reputation and enhance its relationships with stakeholders, including customers, employees, investors, and the wider community.

Good CSR campaigns include:

Reducing

carbon footprints

Improving labor policies

Participating in fairtrade

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Charitable global giving Community and virtual volunteering Corporate policies that benefit the environment

Socially and environmentally conscious investments

For instance, a good example is TOMs CSR, which had begun with a mission to donate a pair of shoes for every one they sell, resulting in the donation of over 100 million pairs of shoes Over time, they had changed their mission to make a more impactful contribution to society. In their Impact report, they stated “We give 1/3 of our profits for grassroots good through cash grants and building deep partnerships with nonprofits working to create impact in three areas: mental health, access to opportunity, and ending gun violence ” In 2020 they had given $1,700,000 towards this cause and impacted 147,510 lives

On the other hand, some companies often adopt a bad CSR program, and for the wrong reasons, their campaigns tend to consist of:

Using charitable initiatives to cover up bad press

Using good initiatives to cover up bad practices

Jumping onto the latest issues with the incentive of increasing profits

Misrepresenting of efforts

Greenwashing

Greenwashing is when a company makes false or misleading claims about its environmental performance or sustainability efforts, as a means to appear more socially responsible than it really is. Businesses guilty of this include Volkswagen, infamously known for its CSR scandal Volkswagen is a car manufacturing company, that had claimed to adopt a CSR for which they manufactured environmentally friendly vehicles to reduce emissions However, according to BBC “When the cars were operating under controlled laboratory conditions the device appears to have put the vehicle into a sort of safety mode in which the engine ran below normal power and performance. Once on the road, the engines switched out of this test mode ” “The engines emitted nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times above what is allowed in the US ” They had falsely claimed to be reducing emissions in order to increase their sales when in reality they had been doing the opposite. As a result, there were countless lawsuits filed against them The media states that “Volkswagen VOWG p.DE said its diesel cheating scandal has cost it 31 3 billion euros ($34 69 bln) in fines and settlements” (FRANKFURT (Reuters), 2020) As evident, bad CSRs can lead to consequences which undermine the credibility and effectiveness of a company's CSR program, and ultimately harm its reputation and bottom line.

Overall, when done properly, CSRs have many benefits for a business. They help increase customer loyalty, staff motivation, and productivity and improve their brand image. However, as seen previously, the wrong intentions can lead to serious backlash and have a negative toll on the company's performance Therefore it is vital for companies to approach CSR in a genuine and transparent manner, and to make a real effort to address the social and environmental issues that affect their stakeholders

Bibliography:

IB Business Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, ThinkIB.net. Retrieved from https://www.student.thinkib.net/businessmanag ement/page/44171/corporate-socialresponsibility?lg=47989

Digital Marketing Institute, 16 Brands Doing Corporate Social Responsibility Successfully, Retrieved from https://digitalmarketinginstitute com/blog/corp orate-16-brands-doing-corporate-socialresponsibility-successfully Rigorous Themes, Bad Corporate Social Responsibility Examples, Retrieved from https://rigorousthemes com/blog/badcorporate-social-responsibility-examples/ Investopedia, Why Social Responsibility is Important for Business, Retrieved from https://www investopedia com/ask/answers/041 015/why-social-responsibility-importantbusiness.asp#:~:text=Social%20responsibility %20programs%20can%20boost,increase%20cu stomer%20retention%20and%20loyalty

BBC News. (2015, September 22). Volkswagen: The scandal explained. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www bbc com/news/business-34324772

TOMS. (n.d.). TOMS impact report. TOMS. Retrieved from https://www toms com/us/impact/report html