Corporate Social Opportunity

Don't be misled by the word social in the title. This is a book about how to improve corporate performance and gain competitive advantage. In Corporate Social Opportunity! Grayson and Hodges challenge perceived wisdom that adherence by business to corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a zero-sum game where the impact on companies is added costs and extra regulatory burden.?? From their unique vantage point working with leaders of global businesses and of local communities, the authors explain how powerful drivers forcing companies to adopt stringent social, ethical and environmental standards simultaneously create largely untapped opportunities for product innovation, market development and non-traditional business models. The key to exploiting these opportunities lies in building CSR into business strategy, not adding it on to business operations. With examples from 200 companies to illustrate their case, they outline both in theory and practice a seven-step process managers can apply to assess the implications of CSR on their business strategy and identify their own corporate social opportunities. Business is operating in a whirlwind of interacting global forces: revolutionary developments in communications and technology, significant changes in markets, shifts in demographics, and a transformation of personal values. The fallout from these forces is the underlying reason that corporate social responsibility has come of age. These global forces have led to a number of issues-such as ecology and environment, human rights and diversity, health and well-being, and communities-becoming potential liabilities for companies. Once regarded as 'soft' management issues, they are now increasingly recognised as hard to predict and hard for the business to deal with when they go wrong. Corporate Social Opportunity!, by the authors of the best-selling Everybody's Business moves the argument from the "why" of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the "how" and beyond – to a future where CSR is perceived as an opportunity for business both in terms of reaping the benefits of retaining brand or organisational value and by developing new products and services, serving new markets and adopting new business models. This is not always a story of black and white, of what is right or what is wrong. Often it embraces apparently conflicting demands which require the application of judgement, guided by a clear sense of overall direction and corporate purpose. This book is designed to act as a compass for aiding navigation through such dilemmas and complex decisions. Using examples of current good practice, detailed interviews with leading CEOs and newly created diagnostic planning tools, all framed within a seven-step model for making CSR happen, the book aims to provide a practical guide to help business leaders and their managers understand how to assess the impact of corporate social responsibility factors on their core business strategy and operations and help them identify and prioritise between subsequent options and resulting business opportunities. The book is structured into two parts. Both parts describe the same seven-step model which, if followed, will help managers think through desired changes to business strategies, and necessary corresponding changes to operational practices. In Part 1, the seven steps-triggers; scoping; making the business case; committing to action; resources and integrating operations; engaging stakeholders; and measuring and reporting-are described and illustrative evidence and corresponding data provided. In Part 2, the authors have created a worked example of the diagnostic processes that form the backbone of the seven steps, based on the health and well-being issue of fast food and the growing problem of obesity, particularly among children, along with notes on how a manager might work through the processes with colleagues. The authors are pro-business although not business-as-usual. The book is written first and foremost with the purpose of helping to improve business performance, because business is after all the principal motor for growth and development in the world today. The authors argue that companies adhering to best practice in CSR and taking advantage of possibilities inherent in Corporate Social Opportunity! are good for shareholders as well as customers and employees.

In today's global business environment it is no longer acceptable that a corporation does well simply by doing good. It is expected. With increasing pressures from stakeholders to improve the bottom line as well as to be good corporate citizens, business leaders face tough decisions. What social issues should we support? What initiatives should we develop that will do the most good for the company as well as the cause? Do we include social messages in our advertising, encourage our employees to volunteer, do we modify our business practices? How do we integrate a new initiative into current strategies? These and other challenges will continue to face future leaders. This book provides thoughtful answers to these important questions, and to many more. The book offers suggestions on how to choose among major worthy causes and also how to measure the amount of good achieved both for the recipients and the companies themselves. Of course, all is not only about challenges, there are loads of opportunities that go along with them but it’s only responsible and sustainable leaders who would be able to spot these opportunities. That is the future which awaits 21st century leaders.

This book examines anti-corporate activism in the United States, providing a nuanced understanding of the changing focal points of challenges to corporations.

This introductory textbook explores the key issues in global business in corporate social responsibility.

This volume sets the agenda for a developing field of thought from a variety of perspectives from academia, policy, business and the professions. Articulating current thinking, each subject is represented by a scholarly presentation, together with responses from other researchers and practitioners in the field. The book explores and critiques corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals and national, organizational and managerial strategies, whilst reviewing the importance, sustainability and long term value of CSR practice to corporations and civil society.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept that has been evolving since the 1950s; by 2015, it has evolved into an integral mindset, a strategy by which firms may promote and attain business and societal growth and development. CSR is a strong business strategy and a determining factor in stakeholder perceptions and ultimate decision making. As firms and society are acknowledged as equal parts of a symbiotic relationship, the effective engagement in CSR enables businesses to tackle and alleviate social issues, such as poverty, hunger, lack of healthcare, the environment's destitution, and warrant empowerment and education, amongst others, whilst tending to core objectives and strategies. The effective design, execution, and transparent communication of corporate social responsibility endeavors, in fact, shape the outcome of business and social growth and development. The communication of CSR efforts is, therefore, vital to the fulfillment of strategic objectives because social networking sites (SNSs) are ubiquitous and have rapidly become a preferred source of information. Firms' use of such platforms proves to be fruitful because SNSs not only enable stakeholder to stakeholder word of mouth, but also facilitate firm-to stakeholder communication. As such, the notion of marketing CSR via social media is more than buzzword or trend. It is potential viral information, or viral marketing. The book offers strong results from the perspectives of both stakeholders and firms' CSR related practices in an emerging market. It also demonstrates that as corporate social responsibility is viewed as an investment, it provides fruitful outcomes for business as well as for the communities surrounding firms. CSR is addressed as a strategically co-created proactive plan that prompts sustained social and business growth and development.

This book offers a remarkable collection of chapters, written by the leading scholars in CSR and employee engagement. Using the existing literature, new empirical studies, case studies and thought-provoking insights, this collection of authors discuss why and how to engage employees in CSR and through CSR. Employee engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility focuses on engaging employees in socially responsible initiatives with three major parts of the book: the antecedents that lead to employee engagement in CSR; the processes and opportunities to involve employees; and the impact of the above on employees, the company, non-profit organisations and society. This book contributes to both research and managerial practice by presenting cutting edge knowledge from leading CSR scholars and practitioners.

This book examines the rise and spread of corporate social responsibility across the globe and its impact on corporate reputation and behaviour.