CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

Businesses have adopted CSR to support their fiduciary relation with shareholders, as Peter Utting argued in 2003. If a firm projects itself as being socially responsible, and avoids embarrassing exposures of malpractice, it can deepen and strengthen its reputational capital and preempt risk. That is, it can help avoid short-term reputational risk related to exposure of a firm's malpractice, which often carries financial sanctions, as Ralph Hamann and colleagues documented in 2003. For instance, after the 1999 World Trade Organization protests, those firms listed on the Fortune 500 that were perceived as socially irresponsible suffered a 2.7% loss, as Deborah Spar and colleagues noted in 2003. CSR can help accommodate consumer preferences for socially responsible products. This paper aims to study the importance and need for Corporate Social Responsibility to a company, scope and constitution of Corporate Social Responsibility today and evaluation of the different Governing mechanisms for Corporate Social Responsibility.

INTRODUCTION4

Objectives4

Rationale4

Scope11

LITERATURE REVIEW12

Introduction12

Objective 1- an Analysis of the meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility12

Objective 2-An analysis of the importance of corporate social responsibility to a multi-national corporation today.14

Business Stakeholders16

Conceptual Overview21

Critical Commentary and Future Directions23

The Societal Marketing Concept27

Ecological Responsibility28

Business Ethics28

Corporate Governance29

Objective 3- An investigation of the scope and constitution of Corporate Social Responsibility today.30

Objective 4- An evaluation of the different Governing mechanisms for Corporate Social Responsibility.32

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY35

Introduction35

Research Philosophy35

Phenomenology:35

Positivism36

Interpretive:36

Triangulation37

Inductive Vs Deductive Approach37

Data Sampling & Population38

Cross-Sectional Vs Longitudinal studies38

Primary Vs Secondary data38

Approach Taken and Justification39

Limitations40

Ethical Issues41

Development of the CSR Concept42

Corporate Social Performance51

Business's Interest in CSR and CSP66

The Business Case for CSR and CSP68

Examples of CSR in Practice70

CSR in the New Millennium72

Classical Free Enterprise Model Of Business73

Critique Of The Classical Model74

Revisionist Free Enterprise Model Including Corporate Social Responsibility75

Multiple Stakeholder Theory76

Critiques Of Corporate Social Responsibility78

CONCLUSION82

The Future Of CSR86

REFERENCES87

Introduction

Objectives

-An analysis of the importance and need for Corporate Social Responsibility to a company -case study of A.P Moller Maersk.

-An investigation of the scope and constitution of Corporate Social Responsibility today.

-An evaluation of the different Governing mechanisms for Corporate Social Responsibility.

-A recommendation to AP Moller Maersk Company on the best approach to adopting Corporate Social Responsibilty

Rationale

Corporate Social Responsibility is defined as a company's obligation to exert a positive impact and minimize its negative impact on society (Pride and Ferrell 2006).

Corporate Social Responsibility is becoming more and more necessary to have especially for all corporate bodies. Having emerged first as a concept in the 1930s in the US (Bakan, 2005; Carroll, 1999) Corporate Social Responsibility has, over the last decade, become a very important concept for corporations today. This could be attributed to a number of developments that have happened during this period: First, political changes have led to a reduction in the power of national governments in industrialised countries (Vogel, 2005). This is especially evident in their reduced ability to control Multi National Corporations. As Multi National corporations continue to expand into different countries in the world they start to be governed by the laws of these countries and hence laws such as labour laws aimed at protecting the nationals of those countries become binding ...