Research Methodology: Case Study on the Company of Cheung Kong - Essay Example

? Topic Page No Executive Summary 2 2 Research problem ment 3 2 Background 3 2.2 Management question 5 2.3 Research Questions 5 2.4 Significance of study 5 3 Research objective 6 4 Literature review 6-9 5 Research design 9 5.1 Methodology 9-10 5.2 Data collection 10-11 5.3 Sampling design 11 5.4 Data analysis method 12 6 Limitation of study 12 7 Time schedule 13 8 References 14 Research Methodology 1. Executive summary: The paper studies the importance of Corporate Social responsibilities in the modern business. The paper focuses on the real estate sector of Hong Kong and particularly on Cheung Kong ad looked for measures for incorporating CSR and gaining the number position in the industry. Management Dilemma: Reviews reflect that Cheunk kong has overall low scores of CSR in comparison to all the other companies in Hong Kong. Management Question: How Cheung Kong can emerge as the top organization in Hong Kong in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility? Significant of this study: In-depth property industry analysis in green management, discover the importance of CSR and ways to incorporate it Research objective: The study is designed to study the rising importance of the CSR in the present business environment and to highlight the areas of improvement for Cheung Kong, a leading business house in Hong Kong in matters of CSR. The importance of CSR in raising the productivity of the business has also been considered. Target sample size: 100 people Time for the research proposal: 6-months 2. Research problem statement: 2.1 Background Definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) Corporate Social Responsibility is defined as the commitment by the organization to maintain ethics in their business activities and contribute for building sustainable livelihoods of the overall society. General situation of HK property industry with CSR CSR has become an important issue in almost all the leading industries in the global scenario. The implementation of the CSR has been a latest trend in the business houses. The property industry in Hong Kong has been one of the growing sectors in the country. The real estate organization in Hong Kong devotes them in building iconic sky scrapers. The government has been concerned over the environmental degradation due to such measures. The large building in Hong Kong uses 89% of the territories electricity. It also contributes to more than 70 % of the total greenhouse emission. In the maintenance of the CSR the industry should try to meet up the commitment. Beside this other environmental concerns which has been raised by the sector is in the overdevelopment of the harbors of the country which had led to the scarcity of water in the area. Due to this reason the need for the implementation of CSR has become more urgent and the notion is supported by stronger grounds. The government has also supported and has encouraged the property dealers to implement CSR as a part of their business strategy. Agenda has been raised that the implementation of energy saving buildings will be much helpful in gaining economic as well as social advantages. Hong Kong government have opted for the method of green building which incorporates design and structure for crating the least environmental by the skyscrapers along with the low cost impacts. Much importance is given in the property industry of Hong Kong as it is one of the leading revenue earning sectors of the economy. The Hong Kong government has effected numerous regulations for the implementation of the implementation of the CSR policies for the overall prosperity of the society. (Lewis, 2010) Cheung Kong and Corporate Responsibility: Cheung Kong group has been one of the largest groups in Hong Kong and is one of the largest players of the real estate business in the country. Other than real estate the organization deals in investment, Life science, hotels, IT & telecommunications. It has a strong employee base and is one of the largest revenue earners in the industry. The major focus of the business is always on the real estate sector. (About Cheung Kong holdings, n. d) Though the organization has considerable employee strength it has failed to implement a successful strategy dealing with CSR. In matters of social responsibility which has been one of the primary business ethics in today’s generation the company has failed to do so. According to the report published by CSR the overall results of The CSR as evaluated by them is significantly as low as 37 compared to the overall company average of 49. The main weak area of CSR development has been the community. The results reflect that it has scored a considerable low value of 34. As evident from the result the organization has not done much in favor of the community building. The organization has also been negligible towards the environmental aspect as it has incorporated projects that has sufficiently led to environmental degradation and has violated environmental regulations in building up their projects. As signified from the study above the large buildings do considerably harm the environment as it consumes a lot of electricity and emits a lot of the green house gases. The company also has exhibited weaker result in matters of showing concerns for the employees. It has secured a low score of 3.7 in comparison to the industry standard of 48. The below table shows the comparison of the CSR ratings of the organization in study and the overall ratings of the companies based in Hong Kong. Overall Score Community Employees Environment Governance Overall company Average 49 47 48 49 50 Cheung Kong 37 34 37 36 40 (Cheung Kong Holdings Limited, n. d) 2.2 Management question How Cheung Kong can emerge as the top organization in Hong Kong in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility? 2.3 Research questions 1. Why has Cheung Kong not able to emerge as the top organizations dealing with Corporate Social Responsibility? 2. What are the strategic measures which the organization can incorporate to claim a top position in measures of Corporate Social Responsibility? 2.4 Significance of study Worldwide environmentalist has raised their concern for the protection of the environment for the sake of the global cause. Environmental degradation has been caused majorly due to the activities of the industries. The industrialist and the business house needs to be careful in exploiting the resource of the nature for the overall protection of the environment. In the present economic arena of globalization the business houses all over have implemented various Corporate Social Responsibility guidelines for protecting the environment and contributing towards the overall society. In the context the importance of the retail sector in China has been considered. Major focus has been highlighted over Cheung Kong which is one of the biggest players in the retail sector. The Strategies incorporated by the organization has been studied in details and the areas of improvement of the overall CSR are suggested. 3. Research objectives: The study is designed to study the rising importance of the CSR in the present business environment and to highlight the areas of improvement for Cheung Kong, a leading business house in Hong Kong in matters of CSR. The importance of CSR in raising the productivity of the business has also been considered. 4. Literature Review: In simple terms Corporate Social responsibility has been defined as the relation between the corporations and the society of their interaction. Among the various responsibilities of the organization the predominant are economic responsibility, Legal responsibility, ethical responsibility and discretionary responsibility. The matter of corporate social responsibility falls under the wing of the ethical responsibilities of the organization. The importance of CSR lies in the fact that it plays a significant role in all the aspects of a company’s operation. CSR provides satisfaction among all the stake holders of the business. CSR provides strategies for the organization which can help to rally the major constituents of the business. Most of the big firms operate in affluent societies and they face the burden of proving their social responsibility. This has led to the pushing up of CSR in the business environment. The public trust over the organizations has decreased significantly over the period of time and CSR has an important role to play in bringing such situations under its control. Another factor which needs to be stressed in highlighting the importance of CSR is the raise in the societal concern for the environment. Environmentalist has brought the matter to our concern. Most of the industries are held responsible for the environmental degradation. The latest technologies adopted by them in raising their effectiveness of work are taking a heavy toll on the nature. Maintaining of ecological balance has been one of the prime concerns. The human activity has been considerably using of the resources and is resulting in depletion. The result of such depletion is causing dramatic changes to the environment. In such scenario the firms should behave indifferently and responsibly for the sake of the environment. In order to protect the nature government of major countries have deployed restrictions and fines on various acts which may cause damage to the environment. The corporate houses have also strategized their policies for the protection of environment through incorporating major policies in their CSR modules. The incorporation of CSR policies by an organization also adds to the brand value of the organization. In present generation the media plays a crucial role in focusing the functioning of the companies worldwide. As the concept of the CSR has already gained its popularity so the adoption of its policies certainly helps the organization to gain more attention among their stake holders. Another proposition which has been popular over the years is the contribution of the firms towards the society. Other than the economic terms in concern the organizations should deliver something of human value for the benefit of the overall society. (Werther & Chandler, 2010, pp.5-22)The implementation of CSR also appears beneficial for the organizations in a wide number of ways. CSR adds a lot to the market value of the organization. Such market value will help to reap a lot of financial benefits for the organization. Research studies reveal that a single unit of increase in CSR helps to gain considerable amount of profit for the organization in the coming years. Engaging in activities of corporate social responsibility also reduces the probability of the exposure to reputational risks. The CSR policy helps the organization in their image building and adds to their overall reputation and mitigates the occurrence of financial risks. The incorporation of the values relating to CSR also enhances the culture prevalent in the organization. It has a positive impact on the employee strength and helps in the retention of the employees. Overall it leads to a strong employee relation within the organization and results in better productivity for the organization. Adherence to proper CSR policies also results in receiving relaxations from the government and award prestigious contracts to them because of the renowned reputation for corporate social responsibility. CSR also benefits the global companies in carrying their operation across diverse markets. (Maloney, 2009) The key elements of CSR involves rule of law, regulation, complementary institutions and internal corporate structures and policies.( Main Elements of CSR , n. d) A direct economic benefit can be linked between the CSR and the property industry all over. CSR acts an important tool in enhancing the value of the property firms and strengthen their reputation in the market. Incorporation of CSR helps to enhance the sales of the property brand to a large extent. The real estate organizations should be self motivated to incorporate CSR in their organization without any compulsion from the government. The motivation should concentrate on economic and profit maximization and the organizations should understand the fact that it should lead to an overall improvement in the reputation of the organization. The property business involves a lot of resource management and CSR will be instrumental in guiding the proper usage and utilization of the resource without causing much damage to the industry. The incorporation of CSR in the real estate sector of UK has resulted in the overall cost savings by decreasing the consumption of energy by 25 percent. Thus studies suggest that CSR helps in increasing efficiency and decreasing the overall cost factors. In implementing of CSR often the business houses faces difficulties in matters of behavioral approach of the organization. Often organizations are reluctant to devise strategies for the implementation of CSR. Small and medium sized organizations often face financial constraints in the implementation of the CR policies. Organizations dealing in real estate should realize that the business has a direct impact on the society and environment and so they should be much more active in implementing CSR as their business may cause hazard to the living condition of the general public. 5. Research design: 5.1 Methodology Research methodology is the process that is used in a research process to work out the objectives of the research. In other words, a research methodology explains how the procedure has been undertaken to reach to an ultimate conclusion of the study. It is necessary for any researcher to have a detailed knowledge on the different research techniques and methods that can be used. This is important to understand which method would be applicable to which study (Kothari, 2008, p.8). In the research methodology the different steps are mentioned in details that have been followed for this research. It includes the research philosophy, the research techniques that have been applied, the rationale behind selection of those techniques and rejecting the alternatives available, the methods and sources of data collection, and the procedure of studying and analyzing the collected information. The primary elements which are involved in the research methodology involve transforming of the underlined theory into hypothesis. Among the different methods for research the method adopted for the paper will be based on the survey and the case study based research. After the data collection the analyzing of the data is done and it is aimed at connecting the analysis part with the hypothesis. The research for the paper will be based on the qualitative methodology and will involve the positivism approach of research philosophy. According to positivism theory, all observable facts are required to be understood through the use of a scientific method and intend to create a hypothetical unbiased study of the examinations by exploiting the hypotheses and theories relevant to the matter of study. This approach does not believe in objective supports for values; rather it accepts the fact that values can be justified only on subjective, practical or functional views. The main reason for adoption of these method is due to the fact that research questions requires much more thinking on the importance and the impact of the social responsibility 5.2 Data collection Primary data collection A research method is based on the either primary or secondary source of collection of data. Primary data involves the data obtained by the researcher himself and often involves large expenses in collection of the data. Beside the primary data collection requires much more time in comparison to the collection of the secondary data. In this dissertation the mainly the use of primary data collection have been done to complete the paper. The importance of the primary data can be attributed to the fact that the data is collected from the respondents directly and is much more empirical in relation to the secondary data. However the disadvantage with secondary data can be attributing to the fact that it involves a lot of unpredictable elements. The primary data collection in the paper consists of the focus group interview with the employees in managerial position of the companies who have exhibited high environmental responsibilities. Their views have been collected in the form of questionnaire and the analysis of the data has been conducted in the latter half of the report. However use of secondary data source also have been used in the form of books, journal and websites to gather information regarding the various theories of Corporate social responsibility and analyzing the case study of Cheung Kong. A. Tools to collect data In the method of primary data collection, focus group interview will be used involving the employees from the managerial position of environment responsible companies. The interview will be conducted through the help of questionnaire framed before hand and will involve questions regarding the policies of the organization in adopting the corporate social responsibility. b. Procedure of Data collection: In gathering the views of the employees the process will involve more time and so first invitations will be sent to the employees of the organizations who will get involved in the research. In order to find out the defects and the limitations of the Cheung Kong an interview will be conducted on the inhabitants of the property and the employees of the organization. Once the confirmation is received from the other side fully fledged data collection will set on course. 5.3 Sampling design The sampling method incorporated for the mentioned research will involve the method of random sampling or the probability sampling. Probability enables researchers to estimate confidence intervals for the statistic. Moreover, in probability sampling, every item has a chance of being selected while in non-probability sampling, it is presumed that there is an even distribution of characteristics within the population. The sample size will involve total number of 100 people. The research target will involve the inhabitants of the Cheung Kong and the employees of different organizations. As stated before, the main instrument will be face-to-face interview; therefore the sampling process will not be too complex 5.4 Data analysis method The data analysis method in this research will be descriptive as the data collected as the primary source will involve detailed study to reach an overall conclusion in a summarized form. The analysis will be divided into several topic areas, to enable easy reading and highlight the various influence factors. 6. Limitation of study The research carried out will involve various limitations as because due to business confidentiality, not all the employees will be willing to talk about the essential steps they incorporate in their CSR policies. The response rate of the employees will be another crucial factor. Beside the response may be based on personal views from their own experience which may not reflect the true case. Further the case study conducted was based on secondary research which made it unable to highlight crucial areas in the research 7. Time schedule: Schedule (Days) Task to be achieved Work to be submitted 10 Project Workshop 20 Email with project tutor (Agree initial project outline with workshop tutor) Project title 45 Submit Project Proposal Project Proposal 30 Receive feedback from project tutor and revise according to the suggestion 15 Continue work on project with further instruction and comprehension of the project selected 10 Complete the first draft of Final Project Report 20 Revise work according to tutor’s feedback to produce final draft Final project report by submission date to local office 10 Finalize project report with combined revision 20 Craft and produce final project report in finished form and bind 10 Submit the final project and e-copy Bibliography About Cheung Kong holidays, (n. d), ckh, available at: http://www.ckh.com.hk/eng/about/index.htm (accessed on November 11, 2011) Cheung Kong Holdings Limited, (n. d), csrhub, available at: http://www.csrhub.com/CSR_and_sustainability_information/Cheung-Kong-Holdings-Limited (accessed on November 11, 2011) Lewis, R, (2010), Hong Kong Real Estate, responsible research, available at: http://www.responsibleresearch.com/Hong_Kong_Real_Estate___Issues_for_Responsible_Investors___Full_Report.pdf (accessed on November 11, 2011) Manoley, C, (2009), the new strategic marketing battleground: Corporate Social Responsibility, thesro , available at:, http://thesro.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/MaloneySR-marketing.pdf (accessed on November 11, 2011) Main Elements of CSR, (n. d), worldbank, available at: http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/57524/csr_diamond.pdf (accessed on November 11, 2011) Kothari, C.R. (2008), Research methodology: methods and techniques, India: New Age International Werther, W & Chandler, D, (2010), Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders in a Global Environment, California: SAGE Read More