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Management and corporate social responsibility

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Management and corporate social responsibility
“If a business wants to maximize profit, it cannot be concerned with corporate social responsibility’. Critically discuss this statement.”

Corporate social responsibility is a significant issue in the current business environment. There is now a significant shift in businesses to become recognized as being socially responsible whilst achieving the primary business objective of profit maximization. Business now strive particularly to reach the triple bottom line as a key objective as it incorporates; people planet and profit objectives. Corporate social responsibility is often difficult to define, as there are many different definitions and understandings amongst academics and professionals. However corporate social responsibility can broadly be defined as a ‘‘concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis’’ (Falkenberg and Brunsæl 2012). The relationship between socially responsible business actions and profit maximization is generally mixed and controversial. Generally the view is that in order for a business to undertake socially responsible practices there is often increased financial and non-financial costs in order to ensure this and thus leading to decreased profits in the short term. However it is also evident that socially responsible business actions and strong relationships with business stakeholders may lead to significant long-term profit maximization.

Corporate social responsibility is now an essential factor within business management. A firm’s corporate social responsibility must be evident throughout all its business functions, in which the ethics and values of the business must align to meet all stakeholder expectations. Including social, environmental and ethical factors of business. In the article “Is harm reduction profitable? An analytical framework for corporate social responsibility based on an epidemic model of



References: Falkenberg, J. and Brunsael, P. (2012) corporate social responsibility: a strategic advantage or a strategic necessity?. Journal of business ethics, 99 p.9-16. [Accessed: 24th April 2013]. Lioui, A. and Sharma, Z. (2012) Environmental corporate social responsibility and financial performance: Disentangling direct and indirect effects. Ecological economics, 78 p.100-111. [Accessed: 24th April 2013]. Maretno, H. and Harjoto, A. (2012) The casual effect of corporate governance con corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business ethics, 106 p.53-72. [Accessed: 20th April 2013]. Massin, S. (2012) Is harm reduction profitable? an analytical framework for corporate social responsibility based on an epidemic model of addictive consumption. Social Science and medicine, 74 p.1856-1863. [Accessed: 24th april 2013]. Soana, M. (2011) The relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance in the banking sector. Journal of business ethics, 104 p.133-148. [Accessed: 24th April 2013].

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