Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility refers to practices and policies undertaken by corporations that are intended to have a positive influence on the world through develop sustainable solutions to the business. the organisations in the recent era of globalisation aim at maximising their CSR ranking, in order to secure future sustainable development through people management, following company’s rules and regulative practice, contributing in social development and running their business operations ethically (Agudelo, Jóhannsdóttir and Davídsdóttir, 2019). The study focuses on CSR practices of the firm Tesco, in order to explore the reasons of getting CSR ranking and identify the approach that Tesco adopts in running their operations ethically and providing positive environmental footprint. For scholars who are seeking deeper insights into this particular subject, exploring business dissertation help resources can offer the most valuable support.

Overview of the company

Tesco is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer, which is the third largest retail in the world by its gross revenue and ninth largest in the workplace its revenue. the company provides diverse product in daily lives and also luxury products to the customers through the super market, hyper market and discounted stress. The company is successful to run their business across the international markets like United Kingdom, Ireland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia through store expansion where there are more than 7,005 shops in 2020 (Tesco, 2021a). Total revenue of the company in the previous year was £64.760 billion and Tesco was successful to generate operating income about £ 3.005 billion. Total numbers of employees at Tesco was more than 423,092 who are efficient to manage their operations and contribute positively to achieve the company aim. Tesco holds over 28.4% of the overall market share in the UK. Tesco is a large U.K grocery firm whose main competitors are Sainsbury's, ASDA, and Morrison's (Tesco, 2021b).

Explain how CSR contributes to company’s future sustainability with examples where appropriate

The CSR activities contribute in the company’s future sustainability, as the multinational corporations can run their operations sustainably. The ethical practices and legal structure of the organisations provide a scope to the organisations to run their business ethically and secure future development. On the other hand, the sustainable solutions of the organisation are helpful to provide positive environmental footprint that further creates values for all the stakeholders, who are engaged with the organisations. The operations of the company Tesco is also effective to create values for the social communities by contributing in social developmental project as well as ensuring positive environmental and economic impacts (Jones and Comfort, 2018). Sustainability of Tesco can be enhanced through such solutions, where the firm focuses on providing the best quality products at affordable price. The online activities and e-commerce services are totally safe where the customers can purchase online through monetary transactions. The company is also efficient to manage the operations sustainably, where the Little Helps Plan sets out how they make a big difference to their colleagues, stakeholders, communities and the planet. Food distribution and community engagement are also other strategies of Tesco to create values for the customers, which enhances positive brand image and it is effective for the brand to secure future sustainable development (Abbas, 2020).

The company focuses on climate change principles as well as manage food waste by distributing it among the needy people. This is a great strategy to help the people who need food at free of cost as well as there are charitable programs in which the company invests for creating values for the social communities. Hence, positive brand image and contribution of Tesco in society further protect future sustainability of the brand. Hence, the sustainable solutions of Tesco will be helpful for the organisation to provide green environment footprint which protect future sustainability of Tesco (Tesco, 2021c). The impacts of Tesco’s operations are positive towards the social communities, where the company is successful to provide high return on the investment of the shareholders, suppliers and investors. The customers are also satisfied with the quality products and efficient services, provided by Tesco, where they can choose their basket of goods according to their needs and budget constraint. The social communities are also satisfied with the initiatives of Tesco for protecting natural resources and reducing greenhouse gas emission, which enhance positive brand image. Hence, Tesco’s operational principles are effective to manage their corporate social responsibility and secure future sustainability in long run (Tesco, 2021i).

CSR ranking of selected company in its industry against competitors

As per the global fortune 500, Tesco ranked in 99 and the CSR rating of the company was approximately 32, out of 100, where the company is efficient to manage their CSR activities to provide green environmental footprint. Tesco has strong market share and it is successful to gain high competitive advantage over other competitive firms like Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s. The company is successful to retain the employees and develop good S practice for strengthening their employee base and run the operations sustainably. through the CSR practices, the company aims at meeting their vision statement which is “To be the most highly valued business by the customers we serve, the communities in which we operate, our loyal and committed colleagues and of course, our shareholders” (Tesco, 2021d).

Reasons behind ranking

There are mainly three strategies of Tesco behind the success in maintaining corporate social responsibilities which are,

Environmental

For protecting natural resources, Tesco aims at offering quality, healthy and sustainably sourced agricultural products that create value to the supply chain. Sustainable agriculture and producing organic products are the major practice to protect environment, where Tesco is successful to ensure 50% of key suppliers have robust on-farm biodiversity improvement plans as well as they protect animal welfare by mitigating cruelty towards animals. Supporting the farmers to conduct agricultural activities smoothly without harming the natural resources as well as investment towards organic agricultural products is effective to maintain CSR in long run (Tesco, 2021d). Using renewable energies that emit fewer GHG, are less polluting, and contribute less to climate change are effective where Tesco utilise solar panel and electric cars. Renewable energy use and reducing greenhouse gas emission through electric cars further create green supply chain, where the suppliers and distributors are operating across the countries efficiently. Promoting healthy ocean and fish stock as well as tackling deforestation are also effective strategy of Tesco to get high CSR ranking (Tesco, 2021f).

Social

Social contribution of Tesco is helpful to get such high rank in CSR where the company donated £129m through Corporate Giving and Customer and Colleague fundraising in 2020/21. additionally, the company focuses on food redistribution where € 146k worth of food collected through the Tesco Surplus Food Donations Programme in Ireland in 2020/21 (Tesco, 2021g). They are in partnership with race for life and £31m contributed to Race for Life over the past 20 years Tesco provides 29m meals every year to thousands of charities across the UK and every single day supports hundreds of thousands of people in our communities, which has positive impacts in social development. Charity partnership with cancer research UK and Race community are effective for Tesco to promote CSR and create positive brand image (Tesco, 2021h).

Corporate governance management

The company is successful to create good corporate governance by engaging with the board members and manager. There is donations and political stability through which the organisation is successful to develop good structure and promote ethical practice to manage their stakeholders. There is good relationship with all the stakeholders including employees and managers as well as customers, shareholders, investors, government and supplier where Tesco is successful to provide high return on the investment to protect stakeholder’s interest (Tesco, 2021h).

Description of specific examples of corporate actions in Tesco resulted in company’s current CSR performance

As per the annual report of the company, Tesco is efficient to develop code of business conduct which is people, products, planet and places. The company focuses on enhancing employment opportunities and skills development as well as managing diversity and inclusion, promoting health and safety at the workplace and ensuring to fulfil human rights in the workplace. These are effective code of conduct for people management where there are more than 423,092 colleagues that Tesco is working with. In addition to this, the product quality, managing food waste, sustainable packaging, protecting animal welfare and the healthy sustained diets are effective initiatives of Tesco to maximise he product portfolio through which the company is successful in serving millions of customers across the international places. The performance of the brand is improving over the period of time, where the organic foods are include in the product list along with green packaging system (Agudelo, Jóhannsdóttir and Davídsdóttir, 2019). Hence, the sustainable solutions of Tesco is effective for the company to run their business and hold more than 28.4% market share in the retail industry. In addition to this, group sales of the company in the last year was £53.4 billion along with group operating profitability was £1,815 million. Statutory revenue of the firm in the last year was £57.9 billion and Tesco was successful to generate £1,736 million operating profit. The financial performance of the company is stable and the firm is successful to strengthen their customer’s base in long run (Tesco, 2021i).

The contribution social developmental project and food waste management practice further create positive brand image where the customers refer to make effective purchase decision for Tesco’s products. The CSR performance of Tesco is improving over the period of time, where it aims at moving towards zero emission for creating values for the overall social communities. Tesco is hereby efficient to manage their performance and ensure financial stability to runt heir operations worldwide. As per their performance, 100% of palm oil is certified to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standard. 82% unsold food redistributed in the UK, which shows positive brand image, where Tesco is bound to feed the people who are in need which provides a scope to Tesco to manage food waste and reduce create social welfare in long run. the use of solar panel further reduce the energy resource where it focuses on renewable energy utilisation along with there was 54% reduction in greenhouse gases in the previous years, which is also considered as positive contribution of the firm towards protecting natural resources.

Company’s approach to CSR influencing purchasing decisions

The company’s policies and practice influence the customers to make effective purchase decision and the major factors are products, prices and placing that are adopted by Tesco. The organisation focuses on delivering the best quality products which ensure animal welfare and cruelty free products, fresh and organic products and sustainable packaging (Agudelo, Jóhannsdóttir and Davídsdóttir, 2019). This creates values for the customers where they try to choose the best basket of goods provided by Tesco. The company also aims at setting lower price to be competitive and provide the products at affordable price so that the customers can make their purchase decision. Moreover, e-commerce services and online activities further strengthen their distribution network to deliver the products at customer’s doors which also influence customers purchasing decision positively (Servera-Francés and Piqueras-Tomás, 2019). Hence, the performance of the firm through corporate social responsibility is enhancing over the years, where Tesco aims at transforming their operations towards zero emission to gain the high market share across the retail industries of the world (Tesco, 2021i). This further creates values for the customers where Tesco is successful to create positive brand image and ensure green environmental footprint. The activities of Tesco are hereby effective to influence the customers as the clients can purchase more quality products at affordable price which meets their requirements and satisfies them.

Explaining challenges of your company in meeting societal expectations for CSR

In the recent era of globalisation, there are several challenges faced by Tesco in meeting the societal expectations for CSR. The major challenges are such as lack of green supply chain management, lack of worker management at the workplace, non-cooperation and poor communication as well as lack of environmental sustainability and poor socially responsible policies (Lee, 2021). In the recent years due to COVID 19, the employees are working remotely, where the challenges of poor communication, non-cooperation and mismanagement happens. Additionally, greenhouse emissions and lack of protection of natural resource further hamper the environmental and social sustainability. In this critical phase, there is low economic growth and social development which deteriorate the growth rate of the company and Tesco also face problems in generating revenue and maximise their profitability. There is lack of organic products availability as well as poor performance in terms of greenhouse gas emission which become serious problems to meet societal expectations for CSR at Tesco.

Conclusion

As per the discussion, Tesco is successful to manage their corporate social responsibility, through providing green environmental footprint, social contribution and managing corporate governance. The CSR rank of Tesco is along effective along with its good performance. Financial stability and strong customer base further help the firm to secure future sustainable development and gain high market share. It would be beneficial for the firm to meet the vision of zero emission and maximising social contribution to achieve future success.

Reference List

Abbas, J., 2020. Impact of total quality management on corporate green performance through the mediating role of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Cleaner Production, 242, p.118458.

Agudelo, M.A.L., Jóhannsdóttir, L. and Davídsdóttir, B., 2019. A literature review of the history and evolution of corporate social responsibility. International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, 4(1), pp.1-23.

Jones, P. and Comfort, D., 2018. Storytelling and corporate social responsibility reporting: A case study of leading UK retailers. European Journal of Sustainable Development Research, 2(4), pp.1-11.

Lee, J.Y., 2021. Corporate Social Responsibility. In Encyclopedia of Sport Management (pp. 106-109). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Servera-Francés, D. and Piqueras-Tomás, L., 2019. The effects of corporate social responsibility on consumer loyalty through consumer perceived value. Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja, 32(1), pp.66-84.

Tesco, 2021a. About us. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/about/ [Accessed on 20 December 2021].

Tesco, 2021b. Key facts. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/about/key-facts/ [Accessed on 20 December 2021].

Tesco, 2021c. Environment. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/taking-action/environment/ [Accessed on 20 December 2021].

Tesco, 2021d. Farming and sustainable agriculture. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/taking-action/farming-and-sustainable-agriculture/ [Accessed on 20 December 2021].

Tesco, 2021e. Community. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/taking-action/community/ [Accessed on 20 December 2021].

Tesco, 2021f. Charity partnership. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/taking-action/community/charity-partnerships/ [Accessed on 20 December 2021].

Tesco, 2021g. Healthy sustainable products. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/taking-action/healthy-sustainable-products/ [Accessed on 20 December 2021].

Tesco, 2021h. Looking after colleagues. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/taking-action/looking-after-colleagues/ [Accessed on 20 December 2021].

Tesco, 2021i. Annual report. [online] Available at: https://www.tescoplc.com/media/757589/tesco_annual_report_2021.pdf [Accessed on 20 December 2021].

Looking for further insights on Exploring Content Creation and Promotional Trends in the Fashion Industry? Click here.