CSR in Business

By Jinsui Y.

Corporate social responsibility, often abbreviated "CSR," is a corporation’s initiatives to assess and take responsibility for the company's effects on environmental and social wellbeing. As governments regulating business to focus on environmental protection, occupational health and labor security, more companies begun to make their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan all over the world. Why does many companies response to CSR? It is not only because of the great benefits to our society but also a wonderful strategy to foster a good and healthy company image. Then, the customer will have belief of the brand. That will promote the selling and gain great profits for company.

 

The first example is for Canon. In 2007, this company organized public benefits activities called protect non-material culture heritage in China. These activities aimed to called people to pay more attention on protect the non-material in China. It used the Canon camera to record some culture heritage by traveling in some national minorities. Then, Canon donated all of the record to the Intangible Culture Heritage Organization in China. This activity gains a great reaction in public in China. At that year, the sales volume digital camera increased 27% and the single-lens reflex camera increased 75% in Chinese market.

The second example is for Starbucks. In 2008, Starbucks begin to recognize that the producer who plants coffee bean directly for its company could only earn little from supply the coffee bean so that they has difficulty in support their family. However, most of the profits were grabbed by other people during the process of transportation. In order to deal with this problem, Starbucks made a promise that it only buys the Fair Trade coffee bean. This decision did not bring debt burden, however, Fair Trade coffee become very popular in developed countries.

Some people said that CRS is only a way for company to present a false appearance of peace and prosperity to public, and they main goal for them is gain more profits. However, I think it still make some benefits for our society. In any case, it conveys the concept of the right value to the public in our society.

References:

Starbucks. The Starbucks Mission Statement and Corporate Social Responsibility. Web. 20  Feb 2016.

Canon Global. Canon's Social and Culture Supported Activities. Web. 20 Feb 2016.

Image from: 

Si, Zhang. & Tong, Sun. The Power of CSR for Canon. Digital image. http://www.domarketing.org/html/2012/brand_0308/2904.html. 8 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Feb 2016.
The Fair Trade of Starbucks. Digital image. http://www.csrworld.cn/article-1818-1.html. Web. 20 Feb 2016.