The Strategic Imperative: Unraveling the Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility

The business case for Corporate Social Responsibility can be defined as the rationale as well as an argument in support of the fact that why a business needs to include corporate social responsibility (CSR) into their most important activities. This study is going to make a critical discussion on the reasons behind maintaining CSR for any business, which is a critical topic for those who are seeking business dissertation help. Through using relevant evidence, this study will analyse the benefits that are associated with CSR activities of a business and how it contributes to the organisational success and enhancing the reputation of the business. This study will also use suitable theories and models to discuss critically why the CSR is an undeniable activity for a business and how it connects the business with community people in terms of improving their overall physical and mental wellbeing.

According to Abdelhalim and Eldin, (2019), corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an evolving business practice that assists markets of a business to think beyond their profit and invest in social improvement and community welfare. Several studies on CSR have stated that today's socially conscious environment, makes it obligatory for the marketers and owners of a business to take useful CSR strategies to maintain sustainability in their business model. Through developing effective CSR strategies businesses can improve their business image and brand reputation in front of community people. On the contrary Bohn and Walgenbach (2019) argued that, business case for CSR is associated not only with improving the brand reputation of the business but also with setting strong connection between the society and business, in term of understanding the needs, preference and social, condition of the community people. On supporting this viewpoint, several studies have stated that, through developing effective CSR strategies, business markets can track the social changes in the community, such as changes in social perception, beliefs and tradition in the community. Through performing CSR activities, corporate can improve the economic standard, educational level, employment and living standard of society people.

In this context Carroll and Laasch (2020), mentioned that, while it comes to analyse business case for CSR, it is important to evaluate the benefits of CSR for any business. One of the most important and common benefit of CSR for business is to improve the overall brand reputation. In this context * Garay et al. (2016) mentioned that, through developing CSR strategy, the businesses can represent their brand reputation in front of the community people in term of making the people aware about uniqueness of product and services For example, Tesco UK invests considerable amount into child education and women empowerment campaign in the UK, which assists its marketers to represent the strong brand image of this company in front of local as well as international customers, investors and marketers. In this context Einwiller et al. (2019) argued that, sometimes CSR strategies developed by marketers of a business cannot be implemented properly in the society due to lack of proper financial support from the business and poor interaction between the community people and marketers of business. on supporting thus viewpoint several studies have stated that, sometimes organisations are unable to understand the social needs and changing social trend in the community which makes them unable to set right CSR strategies that are needed to meet the basic needs of community people. In this context Carroll and Laasch (2020) stated that business marketers need to research on the overall social perception, changing community needs and preference of community people, which will assist them to set effective CSR strategies in terms of meeting the needs. Another important benefit of CSR in business is, boosting long terms profitability, which assists business to grab huge market profit and strong competitive advantages in the international market. Several recent studies have stated that, CSR strategies not only assist the business to make healthy relation with community people but also it assists the marketers to track the changing market trend, customer buying behaviour and their interaction with the local marketers. In this context, Freda (2017) mentioned that, through developing the CSR strategy, a business can communicate with the needs, interest and preference of community people. By analysing the business case for CSR recent studies have mentioned that, through performing CSR activities, a business can understand the economic, social and demographic condition of the society which is important for marketers to set relevant selling and business strategies to grab high-profit margin as well as strong customer base. On the contrary Garay et al. (2016.) argued that, sometimes, CSR strategy of a business is not only associated with boosting the long terms profits but also ensuring the high level of competitiveness of the business. recent studies on CSR strategy of business have shown that through using useful CSR strategies marketers are not only able to communicate with the society people and local marketers but also they can communicate with the international investors and marketers to determine the market trend and business activates done by the potential rivals in the international market. on supporting the viewpoint Hafenbrädl and Waeger (2017) mentioned that, through setting proper CSR strategy a business can represent their brand image in the international market which not only enhances the chances of getting attracted by the international investors but also assists the company to grab strong competitive position in the overseas market. On the contrary Lievens (2019) argued that, sometimes, the business case for CSR focuses more on engaging workforce to social welfare than improving the competitive position in international market or making international business relation with the marketers. On supporting this viewpoint, several studies stated that through performing CSR activities such as determining financial needs of local people, promoting their health and wellbeing, assuring them free healthcare service, and improve their living standard, a business can involve its entire staffs in promoting social wellbeing.

According to Lodsgård and Aagaard (2017) different theory such as CSR theory, Triple Bottom Line Theory and Stakeholder Theory are used by researchers in different times to analyse the business case for CSR. Recent researches have shown that CSR Theory assists businesses to perform different responsibilities which are associated with setting and implementing relevant CSR strategies. In this context Lohmeyer (2017) stated that are four obligations such as economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities on which businesses need to focus while performing CSR activities. Through performing economic responsibility, business can have opportunities in the changing market to improve its overall financial reputation in the local as well as in the international market. On the contrary Nielsen et al. (2019) argued that financial obligations of a business are not only associated with representing the economic strategies of business in front of international marketers but also assist the business to improve the living standard of society by contributing to education, social welfare, healthcare, employment and housing facilities for the community people. For example, Sainsbury, as one of the famous supermarket chains in the UK, has played important roles in contributing to children education and employment which not only assist marketers to represent the brand reputation but also to grab strong competitive advantages in the international market. In terms of maintaining the legal responsibilities, a business needs to comply with the governmental laws and regulation in terms of following them accordingly to represent the trustworthy and loyal image of this brand in front of local as well as international customers. On the contrary Pedersen et al. (2017) argued that, sometimes, organisations that accurately performed the CSR responsibilities can face issues on complying with entire governmental laws as the legal structure as it can interfere with companies’ business strategies and decision-making process. Recent researches on CSR responsibilities of business have shown that, to maintain proper balance between the legal responsibilities and profit margin of business, marketers need to maintain a healthy relationship with the local community, government and local administrative bodies, which will assist the business to cope with the legal issues smoothly. As mentioned by Preuss (2017), ethical responsibilities are one of the important CSR strategy through which company can represent its ethics, loyalty, trustworthy brand, uniqueness and organisational values in front of the community people in terms of grabbing high customer attention. In this context, the business needs to focus on maintaining a trustworthy and loyal relationship with customers by providing genuine service. On the contrary Schön and East (2019) argued that maintaining a trustworthy relationship with community people is not enough to perform the ethical responsibilities of a business, rather the business needs to improve the overall organisational policies, ethical values, moral beliefs and work culture in terms of managing ethical framework inside as well as outside the organisation. By using the Triple Bottom Line Theory, the business can perform CSR activities to improve the economic, social and cultural condition of the society. This theory will assist marketers of a business to focus mainly on three major CSR factors such as economic, social and environmental sustainability. Through maintaining these three factors in business, marketers can promote the physical and mental wellbeing of community people (Bohn and Walgenbach, 2019). Through managing economic sustainability in the society, the business can improve the overall, financial condition of community people which is important for improving their living standard, food habit and nutrition. In this context Seeler et al. (2019) argued that, through maintaining social sustainability, the business can contribute to improve the employment, housing and education in the society which is important for young population to make their bright future. On the other hand, through maintaining environmental sustainability, the business can ensure that people will have a pollution-free environment and proper environmental resources which will help the society to get a balanced ecosystem in the environment. On the contrary Abdelhalim and Eldin (2019) argued that, sometimes, in term of maintaining environmental sustainability, the business can face economic burden. For example, the decision taken by the UK government to pose legal obligation on companies to use eco-friendly packaging and recycling raw materials will increase the overall manufacturing cost the different business operating in this country. In this context, the business needs to focus on analysing the outcomes of the legal structure of the country in which it is operating in terms of maintaining legal sustainability in business.

From the above-mentioned discussion, it can be concluded that CSR is one of the most important business activities which assist business not only grab strong brand reputation in the local and international market but also have a huge profit margin. In addition to this, through analysing the business case for CSR it can be concluded that, through performing CSR, the business can contribute to the social welfare and maintain social, environmental and economic sustainability. Through performing CSR, the business can connect to the community people in terms of understanding their basic needs and preference to the marketers. Therefore it can be concluded that, through maintaining proper CSR strategy, marketers of a business can determine the economic and social changes in the community which will assist marketers to set relevant strategies to deal with any market changes.

Reference list:

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Bohn, S. and Walgenbach, P., 2019. Is CSR Crowding Out Charity? A Case Study of CSR Implementation in a German Company. In Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Change (pp. 259-270). Springer, Cham.

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Einwiller, S., Lis, B., Ruppel, C. and Sen, S., 2019. When CSR-based identification backfires: Testing the effects of CSR-related negative publicity. Journal of Business Research, 104, pp.1-13.

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