Research Topic
Social responsibility as a basis for business success
Overview of the Topic
Social responsibility refers to the businesses by increasing the shareholder value act in a manner that provides benefit to society. Social responsibility has today very important to customers as well as investors who seek areas for investment that are profitable and contribute to the benefit of the environment and society (Jeje, 2017). But, the critics specified that the fundamental business nature does not take into account society as a stakeholder. Social responsibility means that businesses and individuals hold a duty to perform in a way that provides benefit to the society and environment.
Literature Review
According to Guzman & Castro, (2016), businesses are nowadays with time increasing their concentration on social responsibility, whether it is about supporting the rights of women, defending the environment, or trying to destroy poverty, on regional, national, or global levels. From the perspective of optics, businesses that are socially responsible represent enticing images to shareholders and consumers which helps them in positively influencing their bottom lines (Guzman & Castro, 2016). Embracing the policies of social responsibility helps in retaining and enticing customers, which is important for the long-term success of the company. Besides this, there are many people who gratefully pay a premium for goods, understanding that a portion of the profits will be directed towards social causes. Businesses can witness augmented food traffic if they improve the local community. For instance, banks that provide loans to households with low income are appropriate to experience growth in the business as an outcome (Ahmadian & Khosrowpour, 2017).
According to Fontaine, (2013), in Western Europe, America, and Japan, an increasing number of businesses are identifying that integrating the needs and interests of the customers, suppliers, planet, employees, and communities is a good business sense to integrate it in the corporate strategies. Over the long, corporate social responsibility can help in generating more profits and growth. Sometimes it is linked with the stakeholder concept which implies that the task of the management is to take into account the optimum balance in reacting to different needs of several interest groups and electorates influenced by its decisions by those that hold a stake in the company. With the involvement of the societal actors’ along with the financial interests, the model of stakeholder undertakes that the business is meeting or focusing on social responsibility. There are six dimensions of social responsibility of the business that are customers, environment, investors, communities, business partners, and employees (Ahmadian & Khosrowpour, 2017).
Source [(Gossling, 2011)]
According to the Adda, et al, (2016), corporate social responsibility is not a new concept for businesses, but it is very fast becoming the main component for the success of the business. For several businesses, the main reason to be socially responsible is simple; it is comprised to be the right thing for the business to do. Initially, this concept is considered to be the driving factor for the community and social engagement of the business. But, in the present period, employees and customers have increased the pressure on the businesses to involve with their society and community. The result is considered to be a win-win for charitable organizations, communities, and businesses. A strong corporate social responsibility strategy supports in the following aspects:
Attracting the right candidate – Businesses have taken entry in the segment comprised of intense competition in terms of employees or labor. This showcase that being engaged and socially aware is not the only correct thing to do for the business, it is important to entice the best talent for the business (Misura, Cerovic & Buterin, 2018). The employees are indicating for businesses to adopt a “hands-on” approach towards corporate social responsibility by acting towards the regular addition of societal subjects. It is known that the benefits and pay perform a major role in acquiring talent, highlighting the objectives like social awareness, engagement of the community, and decreasing the carbon footprint is important for attracting new talent. Receiving feedback from the millennial workforce proposes that many of the employees hesitate to work with a company that has weak practices of corporate social responsibility. Good strategies of talent management recognize that talking about these topics not just attract new employees but also support the business to retain their existing workforce in the purpose-filled environment (International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2020).
Attracting Investors – Businesses and their leaders are responsible for their shareholders to offer better value and returns. Investors are nowadays searching for businesses to make Socially Responsible Investments (SRI). There is an increasing trend of the sentiment of the investor around Environmental Social Corporate Governance (ESG) and businesses are observed positively by investors for making it a priority (Bernardi & Stark, 2018). Besides this, individuals do not exclusively invest in SRI up until it is universal; the most of the time make their investment in the portfolio of businesses that meet the criteria of ESG, creating a trend that must not be unnoticed. Furthermore, as per the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, at the global level, sustainable investing assets in the five main markets reached at $30.7 trillion at the starting of 2018, and there is a 34% increase in the two years (Moore, 2020).
Attracting Customers – Involving in social matters is not just the right thing for the business to do but also becoming essential to involve with the new customers. As per the CSR study presented by Cone Communication, there are around 87% of customers who prefer to purchase the products from the business that business supported the issue for which they cared (Moore, 2020). With the increasing involvement of the businesses in social responsibility and its incorporation in the business plans, they understand that CSR symbolizes objectives for relieving societal issues than in the past. In the present period, businesses that are planning to take part in the corporate social responsibility should consider that they must contribute in a broad range of goods and react to the increasing awareness of the influence companies have on the communities in which they operate their business (Gossling, 2011).
Several businesses are incorporating corporate social responsibility as their key factor for success. For instance, P&G Group (Proctor & Gamble) is one of the well-known businesses that incorporate corporate social responsibility for the development and growth of the business along with social development. With time, the company comes with new ideas to support the environment and society across the countries it operates its business. Google is another example of CSR which focuses on environmentally friendly operations (Digital Marketing Institute, 2020).
Student Opinion
As per my opinion, corporate social responsibility activities must not be looked at as the source of attracting customers, talent, investors, and increasing profit. But, businesses must adopt corporate social responsibility strategies and activities as the means of contributing to and enhancing society. This is because they are the ones who are involved in interaction and communication with the huge market through their advertisement and using the same for encouraging people to focus towards the development of the society can help in improving the situation across the world. Besides this, corporate social responsibility is a strong tool that can be used by businesses to increase awareness among people regarding several societal and environmental issues and taking actions to resolve the same.
Research Methods
Research design is a key part of the research methodology because it is comprised of a set of approaches used in the research for several activities like data collection, data interpretation, data analysis, etc. (Cresswell, 2014). The different methods of data analysis are descriptive, exploratory, explanatory, etc. In order to present this paper, the researcher will make use of descriptive research design. As the name explains, descriptive design helps in describing in detail several aspects of the research topic.
Data collection is an important segment of the research methodology because it focuses on gathering the data related to the research topic in a systematic manner such that solutions related to the research question can be identified. The methods used for data collection are primary and secondary methods (Alshenqeeti, 2014). Primary methods focus on collecting fresh or new data related to the research subject with the use of several methods like surveys, interviews, etc. Besides this, the secondary method focuses on gathering data that is already published in different books and platforms by different authors. For presenting this paper, the researcher will make use of a secondary method of data collection because it will help in understanding the views and opinions of different researchers related to the topic and their key findings that can support the solution of this paper. The sources that the researcher will use for gathering secondary data are journals, books, articles, websites, etc.
Sampling is the procedure of selecting the right sample for conducting the research related to the topic. There are two sampling methods used by the researcher are probability and non-probability sampling. Probability sampling is focused on providing equal opportunity to the entire population and selecting the data sources randomly (Gentles, et al, 2015). Besides this, non-probability sampling does not provide equal opportunity. For presenting this paper, the researcher will make use of probability sampling.
Data analysis is the process that focuses on the analysis of the data gathered during the data collection procedure. It is a useful and important part of the methodology. There are methods used for data analysis are content analysis, thematic analysis, statistical analysis, etc. (Graue, 2015). For presenting this paper, the researcher will make use of content analysis under which the researcher analyzes the content gathered during the research.
Ethical Consideration
The researcher will ensure that the ethics of the research are followed for which he will ensure that the issues like copyright and plagiarism are avoided at the maximum level. For avoiding copyright issues, the researcher will provide credit to the authors whose findings are used for this paper with the use of references and in-text citation. Besides this, a specific language will be used for avoiding plagiarism in the solution.
Time Plan
The time plan is said to be the schedule that is followed for completing the research comprised of research activities and time consumed to complete the research. For presenting the time plan, the researcher has used a Gantt chart which is a bar graph.
Time consumed in completing the Research (In Months)
Research Activities 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Presenting Research Topic
Presenting Research Aim, Objective, and Question
Gathering Secondary data
Presenting a Literature Review
Student Opinion
Presenting Research Methodology
Data Analysis and Findings
References
Adda, G., Azigwe, J.B., & Awuni, A.R. (2016). Business Ethics And Corporate Social Responsibility For Business Success And Growth. European Journal of Business and Innovation Research, 4(6), 26-42.
Ahmadian, A, & Khosrowpour, S. (2017). Corporate Social Responsibility: Past, Present, And Success Strategy For The Future. Journal of Service Science, 10(1).
Alshenqeeti, H. (2014). Interviewing as a data collection method: A critical review. English linguistics research, 3(1), 39-45.
Bernardi, C., & Stark, A. W. (2018). Environmental, social and governance disclosure, integrated reporting, and the accuracy of analyst forecasts. The British Accounting Review, 50(1), 16-31.
Cresswell, J. (2014). Research design. Thousand Oaks: Sage publications.
Digital Marketing Institute. (2020). 16 Brands Doing Corporate Social Responsibility Successfully. Retrieved from https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/corporate-16-brands-doing-corporate-social-responsibility-successfully
Fontaine, M. (2013). Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability: The New Bottom Line? International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(4).
Gentles, S. J., Charles, C., Ploeg, J., & McKibbon, K. A. (2015). Sampling in qualitative research: Insights from an overview of the methods literature. The qualitative report, 20(11), 1772-1789.
Gossling, T. (2011). Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Performance. U.S: Edward Elgar.
Graue, C. (2015). Qualitative data analysis. International Journal of Sales, Retailing & Marketing, 4(9), 5-14.
Guzman, G.M., & Castro, S.Y.P. (2016). Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Performance: The Role of Mexican SMEs. International Journal of Asian Social Science, 6(10).
International Institute for Sustainable Development (2020). Corporate Social Responsibility An Implementation Guide for Business. Retrieved from https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/csr_guide.pdf
Jeje, K. (2017). An Overview of Corporate Social Responsibility. The International Journal of Humanities & Social Studies, 5(7).
Misura, M., Cerovic, L., & Buterin, V. (2018). Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility And Business Success: Case Of The Global Tobacco Industry. Journal of Contemporary Management Issues, DOI https://doi.org/10.30924/mjcmi/2018.23.1.157
Moore, D. (2020). Why Corporate Social Responsibility is Essential for Success. Retrieved from https://www.northridgegroup.com/blog/why-corporate-social-responsibility-is-essential-for-success/
