Corporate Social Responsibility and Poverty - Essay Example

The business world has expanded into international boundaries through the globalization movements. All nations around the world and the enterprises in them are interrelated and depend on the collective efforts of the global union to prosper by building mutually beneficiary relationships. There are enterprises such as Microsoft, General Motors, and Toyota Corporation whose capitalization value is greater than economies of some developing nations around the world. The private sector has a great impact in the balance of the world’s economy. Industrialized nations have achieved high levels of prosperity based on the support provided to them by private organization that invested in the nations and help out in others ways through corporate social responsibilities initiatives. This paper provides analyzes the effect of corporate social responsibility in developing and developed nations. Corporate responsibility is the commitment of businesses to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families, local communities and society at large to improve the quality of life of everyone (Centidamar & Husoy, 2007). The contributions of corporate responsibility towards the sustainable development of a region and the globe can either be directly or indirectly. An indirect contribution of a company’s presence is a region is lowering the government’s unemployment rate by creating a substantial amount of new employment opportunities for the unemployed residents of a region. Coca-Cola is a multinational firm the as of 2003 employed nearly 30,000 people in the People’s Republic of China and creates through the supplier chain effect nearly 410,000 in the country (Thecoca-colacompany, 2007). This beverage company has applied corporate responsibility initiatives to directly help the community of China. Two examples of the types of social project in which the company donates resources is an HIV initiative which donates on a yearly basis 340,000 RMB to help support 150 organ children infected with the HIV virus and Coca Cola’s sponsorship of the 2012 Olympic Games in Beijing, China (Businessfightsaids, 2007). Corporate Responsibility is a balancing act between the global stakeholder’s interest and the shareholders interest. A shareholder has a narrow mind as far as what they feel is the most important goals since their only interest is to have the value of their investment go up which typically occurs with increase revenue and profitability. The manager of the firm is the one responsible of establishing a corporation corporate responsibility strategy and policies. Corporate responsibility is a long term strategy that builds value and branding recognition over time as the residents of a region start to realize the contribution a company’s presence is having on their region. A problem the industrial revolution and the accelerated global economic growth had on humans was a massive depletion of earth’s natural resource and the imposition of polluting agents into earth’s ecosystems such as air and water pollution. The green movement has been a positive worldwide corporate responsibility movement that is helping both developed and developing nation equally. Green products are social responsibility initiative that benefits the world population. Green products are goods manufactured in an environmentally friendly manner utilized materials with characteristics which protect the environment such materials that can be recycled and are biodegradable. Corporate responsibility following a green strategy includes finding ways to reduce the company’s daily energy consumption to save the produced energy of a nation for other uses other than industrial consumption. A green product developed in the continent of Australia by Papyrus Australia LTD can change the paper consumption around the world. The green product developed by this innovative firm is called banana ply paper, a new paper made out of a renewable natural sourced extracted from the tree trunk of banana trees. The manufacturing methods of the firm use 99% less energy that typical wooden production including cero water utility, are chemical free, and promote agriculture worldwide (Papyrusaustralia, 2007). Another firm whose corporate social responsibility strategy recognizes that corporations have to take measures to produce in more environmentally friendly matters is Mitsubishi Corporation. A joint venture company owned by Mitsubishi in Canada called Alberta Pacific Forest Industries received an accreditation from the Forest Stewardship Council in recognition for the company’s demonstrated environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable forest management practices (Micusa, 2007). Coca- Cola is also a firm improving its green product practices into its manufacturing process. The company plans to build in 2009 the world 6th largest bottle recycling plant in the world to be located in the United States of America (Seabright, 2007). Toyota Corporation is a firm that utilized its corporate social responsibility strategy to create a greater emotional bond between the company and the North American customers (Jean, 2007). The company is fighting against congress on petroleum and fuel efficiency standards, two topics which Americans feel very passionate about. The company has is using its influence to be a good citizen of the people which has similar interest as the general human population in the area. The company invested in 2006 $40 million in media intelligence campaigns such as the fuel issue campaign. Toyota demonstrated another way corporate responsibility can affect the community of a region through the use of power and politics. A corporate responsibility strategy in a develop country focus more on intangibles such as brand value, strong ethics and building a solid reputation in order to retain customers and build customer loyalty in a competitive marketplace (Ifc, 2007). Starbucks is one of the world’s leaders in retail sales of coffee beverage products. The enterprise during the last two decades has emphasized its strategic focus on always to perform business in ways that are socially responsible business practices. The company works daily with employees, suppliers and farmers to help create a more sustainable approach to high quality coffee making (Starbucks, 2007). Starbucks operates and has supplier relationship in many international locations including many developing nations. Corporate Responsibility in a third world country plays a the role of helping a troubled and poor region out of poverty by injecting capital investment and bring knowledge, technology and infrastructure improvement projects into countries which are in dying need of corporate industrial activity and economic, social and technological growth. In Africa Starbucks created the African Wildlife Foundation to promote coffee quality, environmental sustainability and natural resource conservation in the East African region (Starbucks, 2007). The company’s global corporate responsibility initiatives reached the poor South American of Guatemala through a program called Save the Children geared towards improving the quality of life of Guatemalan minors. Starbuck’s Guatemalan children initiative is based on raising money to fund bilingual education for children living in the rural highlands of Guatemala (Starbucks, 2007). Corporate Social responsibility is a way for a firm to build social value by improving the communities in which they are located which help enterprises build their corporate empires. Building social value in a community directly benefits the company and the entire region. For example if a company invests $2 million into the a fund to pay for the higher education of promising high school students in a region it will create new professionals in the region that can come and work for them and contribute to the corporate efforts of the company for long amount of years. General education for the entire community of a poor village will create networks in remote region which can help companies performing explorations, scientific experiments, or any type of business endeavor with a network of allies in a region that can provide valuable information to a business regarding the culture, customs and traditions of a region which can be integrated into the company corporate culture in its local operations. Philanthropy is a corporate action associated with corporate social responsibility efforts. Philanthropy involves acts of donating resource such as money, equipment and time into a cause to help out people in need of assistance. Corporation such as Amgen Corporation, a global biotech company, donate large sums of money to make a difference in the standards of life of humans suffering around the world. Amgen donates at least $10 yearly to various efforts around the world as well as in-kind product donations (Amgen, 2007). Social responsibility from business organization is a necessary action that must continue to occur in order for the world to truly change. There are lots of good social initiatives by many corporate players to help people in need and to provide examples of goodwill in developed nation, but more needs to be done in the future to help eliminate world hunger and poverty. American and Europeans are privilege people who enjoy three nice meals a day and have nice shelter and other luxuries to enjoy at home. In third world nation such as the ones located in the African continent food is scarce and millions of people are starving to death or dying because they are not receiving the basic medical treatment all humans deserve. The collective private business world has a lot of money saved up and large, medium, and small firms must to more to remedy traffic situation such as the living standards of the people and children in poor nation worldwide. http://www.businessfightsaids.org/live/cases/cases.php?id=8 used http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/careers/china_opps.html used http://www.papyrusaustralia.com.au/pulp_details.html used http://www.micusa.com/corporatecitizenship_socialresponsibility.shtml used http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/csr.asp used http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/economics.nsf/Content/CSR-IntroPage used http://www.amgen.com/citizenship/giving.html used All of the 3 references below were extracted from Business Source Complete database. 6. Add Added Corporate Social Responsibility Practices and Environmentally Responsible Behavior: The Case of The United Nations Global Compact. By: Cetindamar, Dilek. Journal of Business Ethics, Dec2007, Vol. 76 Issue 2, p163-176, 14p; DOI: 10.1007/s10551-006-9265-4; (AN 27162836) Cited References (39) PDF Full Text(175K) 17. Add Added Touched by Toyota: Automaker gets all emotional in latest push. By: Halliday, Jean. Advertising Age, 11/5/2007, Vol. 78 Issue 44, p3-40, 2p, 2c; (AN 27403188) HTML Full Text 46. Add Added A New Age. By: Seabright, Jeff. Beverage World, 10/15/2007, Vol. 126 Issue 10, p38-38, 2/3p; (AN 27183423) HTML Full Text PDF Full Text(519K) Read More