Corporate social responsibility and sustainability

Question 1

corporate social responsibility easy definition

Answer 1

business practices involving initiatives that benefit society

Question 2

what was corporate social responsibility like in the early industrial era (1848-1918)

Answer 2

poor relief (help for the poor), 
workhouses (live in workhouse and have job and house but very poor conditions),
welfare capitalism (more services that workers cannot access like social insurance childcare etc, more job security)

Question 3

what was corporate social responsibility like in post world war settlement (1945-1979)

Answer 3

industrial relations system (representatives from workers, firms and government act as mediator) produced lots of social wealth,
Keynesianism,
welfare state

Question 4

what was corporate social responsibility like at the end of the cold war (1989-present)

Answer 4

rise of civil society organisations (increase of information, social media, popular initiatives eg consumer boycotts, human/labour rights defence organisations),
a popular reaction to expansion of markets (enhanced legal position of firms, lack of political checks on firms),
business response in form of policies like csr, sustainability

Question 5

how prevalent is corporate social responsibility / sustainability in leading UK companies

Answer 5

on average contribute 2-3% pre-tax profits to community projects and other CSR/sustainability initiatives,
90%+ FTSE100 companies publish CSR statements in annual reports,
100% FTSE500 companies mentioned CSR activities

Question 6

are high numbers of companies involved in CSR anything more than reputation management

Answer 6

data often lacks detail about what and how done,
PWC reports 30% CEOs think CSR is strictly PR-related,
further 40% state some relation between CSR and PR

Question 7

where has lots of corporate social responsibility in firms come from *

Answer 7

role of international organisations and NGOs (major growth of NGOs after cold war),
standardising examples (ILO, OECD initiatives),
monitoring examples,
push for voluntary codes of conduct

Question 8

problems with pushing for voluntary codes of conduct

Answer 8

problem with legislating and enforcing,
who has jurisdiction,
which governments are prepared to do it