Mark Anthony Vendero

BS Entrepreneurship 3 - 11

Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics

Assignment No. 17

1. Discuss the four arguments to justify corporate social responsibility initiatives.

1) The new concerns and expectations of consumers, public authorities and investors in
the context of globalization and industrial change.
2) Social criteria increasingly influencing the investment decisions of individuals and
institutions.
3) Increased concern about the damage caused by economic and business activity to
the physical environment.

m
er as
4) Transparency of business activities brought about by media and new information and
communication technologies.

co
eH w
It is increasingly clear that business norms across the world have moved CSR into the

o.
rs e
mainstream of business practice. Non-governmental organizations like the World
ou urc
Resources Institute (WRI), AccountAbility, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), International
Standards Organization (ISO 14000), and the United Nations, all have major initiatives
aimed at improving the social involvement and performance of the world’s business
o

community. Indeed, there is an increasingly widespread view that sustainability is now

aC s

the key driver of innovation for companies. By 2014, more than 85 per cent of the
vi y re

companies in the FTSE 100 were reporting on social responsibility, and there was a clear
expectation that companies should have a published strategy in place.

Indeed, Rosabeth Moss Kanter suggests that great companies think differently – they
ed d

work to make money, but at the same time they think about building enduring
ar stu

institutions, and invest in the future while being aware of the need to build people and
society. She claims that this social and institutional logic lies behind the practices of
many widely-admired, high-performing and enduring companies. The fundamental goal
is

becomes one of focusing social initiatives onto alignment between a company’s social
and environmental activities and its business purpose and values.
Th

2. What do you feel is the relationship between personal ethics and business ethics? Are
they or should they be the same?
sh

In the USA the two are basically the same, but in some countries, such as Russia,
business ethics has lower standards than personal ethics. Business ethics encompass
more situations than personal ethics, but a personal ethics doctrine still provides a basis
for all business ethics decisions.

This study source was downloaded by 100000830919620 from CourseHero.com on 09-02-2021 03:07:23 GMT -05:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/78628296/ENTREPRENEURIAL-MARKETING-ASSIGNMENT-17docx/
 They might not need to be identical to personal ethics, but businesses are run by
people, who have personal ethics. Those businesses should be modeled after personal
ethics. Many people are shifting away from purchasing based solely on price and
marketing appeal and have begun to focus more on how products or services come into
exisitance and how they are delivered to the customer. When customers relate to and
believe in the humans behind the products and services, that company will outlast
most of its competitors who focus just on price or shiny packaging.

3. How could a strategist’s attitude toward social responsibility affect a firm’s strategy?

Strategists should examine social problems in terms of potential costs and benefits to
the firm, and focus on social issues that could benefit the firm most. Corporate social
policy should be designed and articulated during strategy formulation, set and
administered during strategy implementation, and reaffirmed or changed during
strategy evaluation. Nader’s view of social responsibility is that organizations have

m
er as
tremendous social obligations. He says some companies are larger than some countries
and as such do have social obligations. Friedman’s view of social responsibility is that

co
eH w
organizations have no obligation to do any more for society than is legally required. To
spend monies for charitable endeavors, for example, is a misuse of shareholders’

o.
rs e
money. Students’ attitudes toward social responsibility in terms of these two
ou urc
viewpoints will differ.

4. Explain the difference between defensive strategic responses to CSR.

o
aC s

If a firm is essentially defensive or accommodative in its stance to social responsiveness,

vi y re

then its primary concerns with CSR will be the protection of relationships, for example,
with consumers, business-to-business customers, influential lobby or pressure groups,
suppliers, employees and managers, and relative position against competitors.
ed d

Regarding defensive forms of CSR – particularly in terms of responding to the

ar stu

challenges of pressure groups – that companies seeing CSR only as a way to placate
pressure groups often find that this approach turns into a series of short-term public
relations actions, with minimal social benefit and no strategic benefit for the business.
is

They suggest the most common corporate responses to CSR have not been strategic
and are often little more than cosmetic. Nonetheless, the risks in remaining inactive
Th

when social demands become severe are considerable.

The managerial goal in a defensive CSR mode should be to anticipate and develop
sh

appropriate responses to social demands from any source that threatens to undermine
the value and credibility of brands, the attractiveness of the competitive position upon
which the company’s strategy depends, and the viability of the marketing strategy itself.
However, it is important that social initiative responses to these pressures should be
carefully evaluated for likely effects, rather than constitute an unthinking knee-jerk
reaction by management.

This study source was downloaded by 100000830919620 from CourseHero.com on 09-02-2021 03:07:23 GMT -05:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/78628296/ENTREPRENEURIAL-MARKETING-ASSIGNMENT-17docx/
 Management attention can usefully be given to examining the links between CSR stance
and the impacts on consumers, business-to-business customers, investors, lobby
groups, suppliers, employees and managers, and competitors. The goal should be to
carefully evaluate the possible positive and negative impacts of CSR efforts on each of
these groups.

5. Prepare a list of three social issues that affect marketing but which are not
categorized under consumerism and environmentalism.

 Generic social issues – things that are not affected by the company’s operations,
not impacting on its long-term competitiveness.
 Value chain social impacts – social issues that are affected by the company’s
activities in the normal course of business.
 Social dimensions of competitive context – social issues in the external
environment that significantly affect the underlying drivers of the company’s

m
er as
competitiveness.

co
eH w
o.
rs e
ou urc
o
aC s
vi y re
ed d
ar stu
is
Th
sh

This study source was downloaded by 100000830919620 from CourseHero.com on 09-02-2021 03:07:23 GMT -05:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/78628296/ENTREPRENEURIAL-MARKETING-ASSIGNMENT-17docx/
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)