How can owners influence the corporate social responsibility of the corporation?

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a philosophy in which the company’s expected

actions include not only producing a reliable product, charging a fair price with fair profit
margins, and paying a fair wage to employees, but also caring for the environment and
acting on other social concerns. When conducted in good faith, CSR is beneficial to
corporations and their stakeholders. Companies are aware that shareholders value
CSR therefore it is in their best interest to be socially responsible. Shareholders
influences CSR in two ways: shareholder activism and socially responsible investing
(SRI).
 Activism – By routinely submitting social proposals to annual meetings and
working together with management to improve performance on a variety of
issues, shareholders can influence the norm and practices of the corporation.
 SRI – Shareholders has the power to invest in companies with specific CSR
mandates as well as to “vote” on issues or actions that are socially motivated to
allocate their investment dollars, thus influencing corporation to have a culture
with a strong CSR mandate.

Why is diversity of the board of director’s membership important?

Diversity on the board of directors means that a board’s members includes people of
varying gender, age, religion, race, ethnicity, cultural background, sexual orientation,
languages, education, abilities, etc. Diversity is something that many companies now
strive to achieve. This has become critical mainly because it provides competitive
advantage – it helps to improve a company’s reputation as well as promote inclusion.
Aside from inclusion and reputation, having a diverse board provides several other
benefits:
 A diverse board is more representative of shareholders – having a diverse board
not only represent its current shareholders but its potential clients and customers
 A diverse board helps address complex, corporate issue – Through robust
dialogue of differing views, the board are able to constantly keep pace with the
changing dynamic the company will face.
 A diverse board increases revenue – Most companies with a diverse board of
directors have seen exceptional profit growth.
 A diverse board promotes diverse thoughts – each member brings their own
personal background and experience to the decision making process.
Activism – companies have started allowing individuals to voice their concerns and
expectations about the responsible conduct of corporations. Through annual proxy
process, an array of issues can be brought directly to the company’s attention, which
will increase the awareness of its relevance.

Shareholders, however, are going even further; they may also actively engage with corporations to voice
their opinions and may, in the process, potentially influence norms and practices for corporate social
responsibility.

There is research within the more general field of corporate social responsibility, which shows that
interest groups’ efforts to influence corporations to change their business conduct can also re-shape
more general ideas about appropriate business conduct

I would, therefore, like to extend previous research on shareholder influence by including a different
perspective: one that is not only focused on changes in practice, but also on changes in norms. While
shareholder influence may be geared towards changing corporate practices, it may also influence
collective understandings about what corporate social responsibility entails or should entail; therefore,
it is relevant to also explore shareholder influence from a norms perspective.

By alighning themselves with companies that’s support SCR

By voting for strategies and actions that gears toward achieving a specific CSR

Q7 - I agree that having a diverse board is extremely beneficial. A diverse

board promotes diverse perspective where each member brings their own
personal background and experience to offer their ideas, opinions and
solutions to the improve decision making process as well as promotes
innovativeness.

By constantly challenging itself, the board is able to keep up with the

company’s changing dynamics.
Q3
I agree that by socially responsible investing (SRI), owners can influence
the corporation. The power lies in the owners hand to invest in companies
that have CSR mandates. They can also “vote” on issues that are socially
motivated so that their funds are allocated to issues that are socially and
environmentally beneficial instead of solely for profits.