KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment Sample Introduction
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a key element of concern undertaken by companies along with the stakeholders for the sake of improving environmental and social norms (Hur et al. 2020).http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment Sample Besides, CSR can also be portrayed as a concept of strategic business management.
In the present report, the functionality of CSR and the ways of strategically implementing it in actual business will be discussed. In order to discuss the understating of the topic, a renowned multinational company, Amazon will be taken into consideration. This report will therefore provide in-depth knowledge about how CSR incorporates business strategies and increases their opportunity to grow.
Company background
Amazon is one of the renowned multinational e-commerce companies based in America and is considered to be one of the five big companies operating in the region. Apart from being an e-commerce company, it also focuses on cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.
The e-commerce giant came into existence in 1994 and was introduced to the business markets by Jeff Beroz, the executive Chairman of the company (Amazon, 2021).http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment Sample
In context to CSR, Amazon has been taking initiative by investing in different sectors to eliminate the issues and increase their brand value over the market. The company has also developed strategies that will mainly focus on eliminating loopholes in business processes and attain sustainable development in the future.
Importance of CSR into business
Corporate social responsibility is referred to as the means by which the company pays back to society through several activities and initiatives in order to benefit the society, environment and the planet. CSR plays an important role in terms of globalisation by providing branding to the organisation as well as helping the company to gain political legitimacy (Farooq et al. 2019). http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment Sample
The CSR boosts innovation by integrating economies through trade, which help the company to grow as well as boost the nation politically. Employees always look for job opportunities in those companies, which are compassionate towards treating all the employees and the surrounding people well. It incorporates a feeling of being valued, cared and respected which helps to attract employees into a company as well as helps to retain the existing employees.
Furthermore, the image of the company becomes highlighted in the view of the consumers. It has been observed in several cases that the consumers tend to buy more often from companies that follow an extensive policy of CSR (Anastasiadou et al. 2019).http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment Sample The loyalty of the customers is a key for the survival of the company in the long run, which is promoted by the activities of CSR. It might also be possible that by carrying on the activities of CSR, a company might get in the light of the media coverage and can be spotted by consumers across the world.
Furthermore, businesses that are responsible for society and the environment become more attractive for investors. Investors always look for the business from where their investment fund gets increased and they can profit from the company but not at the cost of harming the environment (Onyusheva and Seenalasataporn, 2018.). http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment SampleTherefore, a company that is responsible for not only the generation of profits but also for the betterment of the environment becomes automatically more attractive for the investors and the consumers.
On the flip side, CSR can also save money from investing in several marketing strategies as the company gets the branding from the initiatives and the activities only. A company cannot expect to improve its bottom line, as CSR will require investments in different initiative projects.
However, it can be said that the customers which get attracted through these activities will become a point of generating profit without marketing of the company to the public (Singh and Misra, 2021.).http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment Sample CSR also boosts Industrialization 4.0 by bringing unique concepts together into a finished product, which can be useful for society by lowering the pollution rate and carbon footprint.
How CSR is implemented into actual business strategies
In relation to CSR, Amazon has undertaken several initiatives that pledge to protect the environment, people and community. In 2019, Amazon launched The Climate Pledge partnering with Global Optimism in order to achieve net-zero carbon emission by 2040 (Amazon, 2021). http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment SampleFurthermore, the company also spent about $2 billion in the year 2020 to promote The Climate Pledge and encourage other businesses to develop and innovate products that will eliminate carbon footprints.
Alongside the company have also undertaken the Right Now Climate Fund by contributing around $100 million to mitigate climate change and finance projects on reforestation (Amazon, 2021). http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment Sample
Other than this, there are four specific strategies that have been undertaken by the company to ensure support to limit carbon footprint and protect the environment from further destruction (Vollero et al. 2021). http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment SampleThese strategies are
- Incorporating 100% renewable energy by the year 2025
- Targeting to make 50% of total shipment to reach net-zero carbon by the year 2030
- Ensuring to use 100,000 electrical vehicles for delivery purposes by 2030
- Implementation of FFP (Frustration-Free Packaging) Program which will promote minimal wastage, 100% recyclable and easy to use
Apart from the above-mentioned environmental CSR strategies, Amazon has also been taking initiative in building a transparent supply chain. (Ertem-Eray, 2020) In the year 2020, the company has revised their policies and procedures and expanded by further incorporating governing supply chain standards as well as rigorous and comprehensive requirements.
Even the company has in-house evaluations and monitors independent third-party assessments to avoid any environmental or labour violations. Moreover, Amazon also mentioned in their CSR report that in 2019, the company invested around $700 million on employee training and education for more than 100,000 employees (Amazon, 2021).http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment Sample Other than this, the company provides reimbursement to employees for about 95% of the total tuition fees in categories like IT, mechanics, transport and healthcare (Amazon, 2021).http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment Sample
The implementation of CSR into an actual business is also done by identifying various areas that require development in society. This can be done by directly helping the consumers or people living in the society to achieve sustainability, which indirectly helps in the society in several ways (Toscano-Hernandez et al. 2021).http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment Sample
Furthermore, in several cases, the company also needs to comply with the laws and regulations of the language as well as create social partnerships and contractual agreements that can help in creating value and development in the society.
Apart from that, the company also focuses upon the development and training of its employees to create a positive working environment. For instance, the company provides double the federal minimum wage to all the employees, which are at least $15 per hour (Amazon, 2021).http://KOLM691DEL English for International Business Assignment Sample This aspect linked with the company’s employee benefits program increases their job satisfaction and also helps in achieving a better employee retention rate in the long run.
Conclusion
Based on the findings of the above study, it can be concluded that the corporate social responsibility of an organisation is necessary to achieve a strategic position in the market both ethically as well as in terms of benefiting society. In this regard, the case of Amazon has been taken into consideration and the company’s various CSR strategies are evaluated.
Furthermore, the study also reflects the importance of CSR for Amazon and identifies how it helps the company to maintain a positive reputation in the market. Apart from that, the study also reflects how the company has implemented the CSR strategy into the actual business strategies of Amazon.
References
Amazon, 2021. Employee Benefits. [Online]. Available at: <https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/employee-benefits> [Accessed on: 3 November 2021].
Amazon, 2021. Facts. [Online]. Available at: <https://www.aboutamazon.com/facts> [Accessed on: 3 November 2021].
Amazon, 2021. Our Workplace. [Online]. Available at: <https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace> [Accessed on: 3 November 2021].
Anastasiadou, E., Lindh, C. and Vasse, T., 2019. Are consumers international? A study of CSR, cross-border shopping, commitment and purchase intent among online consumers. Journal of Global Marketing, 32(4), pp.239-254.
Ertem-Eray, T., 2020. Addressing corporate social responsibility in corporations: a content analysis of Amazon’s and Walmart’s websites. Corporate Communications: An International Journal.
Farooq, Q., Fu, P., Hao, Y., Jonathan, T. and Zhang, Y., 2019. A review of management and importance of E-commerce implementation in service delivery of private express enterprises of China. SAGE Open, 9(1), p.2158244018824194.
Hur, W.M., Moon, T.W. and Kim, H., 2020. When and how does customer engagement in CSR initiatives lead to greater CSR participation? The role of CSR credibility and customer–company identification. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(4), pp.1878-1891.
Onyusheva, I. and Seenalasataporn, T., 2018. STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF GLOBAL E-COMMERCE AND DIVERSIFICATION TECHNOLOGY: THE CASE OF AMAZON. COM INC. The EUrASEANs: journal on global socio-economic dynamics, (1 (8)), pp.48-63.
Singh, K. and Misra, M., 2021. The evolving path of CSR: toward business and society relationship. Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences.
Toscano-Hernandez, A.E., Alvarez-Gonzalez, L.I. and Sanzo-Perez, M.J., 2021. Cause-Related Marketing in Retail e-Commerce as Support for the Sustainability of the University: The Case of Amazon and University of the Andes (Colombia). In Cause-Related Marketing (pp. 189-200). Springer, Cham.
Vollero, A., Sardanelli, D. and Siano, A., 2021. Exploring the role of the Amazon effect on customer expectations: An analysis of user‐generated content in consumer electronics retailing. Journal of Consumer Behaviour.
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