Business society and Planet Assignment

Running head: BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND PLANET
Business, Society and Planet
PART A – BUSINESS VALUES ASSESSMENT REPORT
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Author’s note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. Core business activities of Nike and Adidas; the countries and industries in which they operate
.........................................................................................................................................................2
2. Evaluating the differences evident between Nike and Adidas range of issues dealt with in their
social reports....................................................................................................................................3
3. Explaining social activities differences of Nike and Adidas by the country...............................5
4. Explaining the social accounting approach utilised by Nike and Adidas according to Zadek et
al.’s (1997).......................................................................................................................................6
5. Discussing the extent to which the social reports provided by Nike and Adidas reflect their
stated values.....................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Reference List................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Corporate social responsibility provides the value of positive understanding and
perception of regulatory authority, financial markets, communities, shareholders and institutional
investors also with business partners. Multinational organisations maintain the corporate image
and branding through the corporate social responsibility (Suliman, Al-Khatib& Thomas, 2016).
In this report, Nike and Adidas; two organisations have been chosen as these companies both are
in apparel and accessories industries; however, both belong from two different countries. In the
first section of the study, differences between two companies have been specified in terms of the
range of issues dealt with social reports. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the two
organisations has been discussed. Apparent quality of the social accounting approach utilised by
both companies is discussed in this report. In the final section, shared values of both Nike and
Adidas have been explained.
1. Core business activities of Nike and Adidas; the countries and industries in which they
operate
Nike Inc.
Nike Inc. is an American organisation and it has it headquarter in Washington County,
Oregon. Nike is a multinational company and it is in the industry of apparel, accessories and
sports equipment. It was founded in 1964 and it is a public company. It serves on a worldwide
basis and Nike is famous for athletic shoes as well as for apparel. Nike has made segregation of
the business in a few parts, footwear, apparels, equipment and global brands. Revenue of Nike
was US$ 34 billion in the year 2016 and the organisation employed almost 74,000 employees in

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2017 (About.nike.com, 2018). Core activities of Nike are associated with designing, marketing
and development of products (Abount.nike.com, 2018). Nike itself does not have any
manufacturing site as the organisation produces the products from the independent contractors.
Nike focuses on designing and development of new products in order to be a market leader. Nike
uses DyeCoo technology and it also uses the advance waterless textile dyeing. Nike also uses the
technology like Plant PET Technology Collaborative (PTC) in to order to enhance fibre and Poly
Ethylene Terephthalate materials.
Adidas AG
Adidas has it headquarter in Herzogenaurach, Germany and it is in apparel and
accessories industry. Adidas manufactures the clothes, shoes and accessories. Adidas was
established in 1924 and at present, it serves on a worldwide basis. Adidas is the largest
sportswear company in Europe and Adidas is the sponsor of major sports' club. Adidas collected
the revenue of €19.28 billion in the year 2016 (Adidas.group.com, 2018). Adidas follows the
business activities like increasing the product lines and Adidas has a strong identity in sports.
Moreover, Adidas appeals to sports lovers and the athletes. Adidas identified six cities to
increase the revenue Adidas focuses on various sportswear like Baseball, basketball, cricket,
golf, lacrosse, gymnastics, tennis and kabaddi.
2. Evaluating the differences evident between Nike and Adidas range of issues dealt with in
their social reports
Nike does not have the manufacture units and it emphasises on the manufacturers which
have less impact on the society. Nike is using FlyKnit technology to decrease four million
pounds of waste. Nike converted three billion plastic bottles to polyester to make Vapour

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football. Therefore, Nike is conscious about the social responsibilities and Nike has contracts
with more than 700 shops in more than 45 countries. Nike has been facing the issue of
contracting with the factories in Indonesia, China and Vietnam. Nike has its sweatshop in
developing countries as these countries have low wages. Nike violated the minimum wage and
the company exploited the labourers through cheap wage. In addition, Nike has been facing the
social issue of child labour allegation in Pakistan and Cambodia. In Pakistan and other
developing countries, Nike used the child labour to make the soccer balls. Nike’s manufacturing
centre in Yue Yuen; China; the employees did strike for the underpayment (Agan et al., 2016). In
addition, CSR report of Nike states about the sustainable innovation plays the catalyst to
revolutionise the process of doing the business. Nike takes the three strategies in order to
improve the sustainability; the first; the organisation minimises the environmental footprint
through focusing the energy, water, waste and chemistry. Second, Nike is transforming the
manufacturing process through introducing the sustainable labour innovation (Buckler, 2017).
Third, Nike is focusing on the human potential which drives to encourage the human resources.
Adidas focuses on the supply chain so that the supply chain should be more socially
responsible to empower the staffs in order to promote fair, safe and healthy condition to the
suppliers' factories. In addition, Adidas has been faced criticism for the sweatshop in Indonesia.
Adidas also rejected some of its suppliers which do not support the unions and do not follow the
reputed labour rights. Adidas follows the policy including the freedom of the workers and the
workers can choose the collective bargaining. Adidas bought a paper packaging company and
this company was labelled as destroying the precious habitat (Adidas-group.com, 2018). NCAA
corruption scandal was another part of Adidas corruption According to Caridi et al., (2014),
Adidas has brought technological innovation and it has made a partnership with Parley in order

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to make aware the people about Oceans. Adidas is going to make shoes from the yarns and
filament recycled from the waste of oceans. Adidas joined UN initiative on Climate Neutral to
assist the society to understand climate change. Average resource consumption for a pair of
shoes:
2014 2015 2016
Energy usage 2.94 2.37 2.99
Wastewater use 0.33 0.44 0.56
Average VOC 20.4 19.6 20.5
Table 1: Nike’s average resource consumption for a pair of shoes
(Source: Adidas-group.com, 2018)
3. Explaining social activities differences of Nike and Adidas by the country
In apparel and clothing industry, prices of raw materials and resource scarcity and
problems of supply chain create concern for the organisations (Lu, Liu &Rahman, 2017). Nike
has set the Sustainable Development Goals to reduce the consumption of waste to bring minimal
changes. Nike is a global organisation and the organisation assesses the practices, plans and re-
evaluates the company policy. Nike has set the goal of ‘Responsible Consumption and
Production’ and Nike will work on energy efficiency, providing access to basic services,
sustainable infrastructure and green and quality life to the communities. Nike has implemented
some basic technologies to consume less of energy and this goal helps to achieve overall
development plans. Nike has sustainable plan to minimise the environmental footprint that
influences overall value chain (Parsa et al., 2015). The second goal of Nike is to build the
‘infrastructure, sustainable industrialisation and promote the innovation'. Therefore, Nike invests

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in the transportation, irrigation, information and energy. Therefore, Nike will empower the
communities to grow the product and bring improvement in health and education. Nike has
adopted FlyEase technology and Nike brings the FlyKnit technology.
Adidas has its sustainable strategy in order to target to optimise the environmental
impact. Adidas takes the approach to address the water efficiency and the Adidas is committed to
use more sustainable materials. Adidas has set the goal to improve ‘sustainable cities and
communities’. Cities have enabled the people to advance economically and socially. Adidas
works for the communities which are near to the offices and many challenges are existed to
improve the community. Adidas tries to create the job opportunity for the community and they
work for the prosperity of the community. Urban challenges are associated with the lack of
funds, congestion, shortage of space and declining infrastructure. Another goal of the
organisation is to combat ‘climate change and its impact on the society’. Adidas does not want to
make its environmental impact on the society as they want to drive towards the closed-loop
solutions. Adidas is further committed to decrease the absolute energy in order to consume CO2
emission, clean energy and energy harvesting opportunity (Plambeck& Taylor, 2015). Climate
change can affect each of the country and it can affect the lives, people, countries and
communities. People can face impact of climate change like weather change, rising of sea levels
and more extreme weather events.
4. Explaining the social accounting approach utilised by Nike and Adidas according to
Zadek et al.’s (1997)
First of all, inclusivity principle is stated about social and ethical accounting that needs to
reflect on views and opinion of stakeholders (Russell-Smith et al., 2015). When making

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decisions about any social or environmental issue, Nike considers the reasonable expectations
and interests of the stakeholders. Nike asks the stakeholders to collaborate the process of
decision-making in business. Adidas has its committee to do the market research so that the
stakeholders can make decision to make set of objectives. Comparability is the performance of
the firms and it should be judged through assessing the values of the firm (Zadek, 2004). Nike
has already set the benchmark that sells the largest amount of sportswear. Nike also sells
significant amount of money on doing the social activities. In addition, Adidas focuses on the
supply chain and the climate change issue. Reducing the waste is the process to use recycled
things and the organisation focuses on renewable energy. Adidas also focuses on the wage of
labourers. Completeness is about companies’ activities checking procedure and no areas should
be overlooked. Nike’s sustainability report focuses on the business operation and product
development process. Nike has its manufacturing contracts of the independent suppliers and it
has 1 million contract factory workers. Nike sells its products in 110K retail locations (Uhrich et
al., 2014). Adidas focuses on the business aspects and all essence of the marketing and
stakeholders are explored. It is not possible in CSR report to cover all areas of footprint;
however, companies need evolution. Nike reduces the environmental footprint through using
technologies like dry watercolour, polyethene, PET system and other technologies. Adidas on the
other side uses renewable energies, green supply chain, driving innovation and advancing human
right works. Management policy and system is another principle where companies need to do
the environmental auditing as well as financial policies. Therefore, Nike does the environmental
auditing through Internal Audits in order to do systematic policy along with developing clear
policy. Adidas allows the accounting process in evaluating the awareness of
organisation.Disclosure is the principle when the companies should provide information about

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ethical and social accounting made for external and internal audiences. In addition, Nike uses the
CSR report and website Public Relation to publish the report for both internal and external
public. Moreover, Adidas focuses on publishing the CSR report for strengthening the company’s
legitimacy. External verification is very significant for making strong accountability (Zadek,
2004). Nike has taken the permission of USA government and agencies in setting the standard of
products. Adidas takes the permission of external agencies after validates the report. Continuous
improvementis the main of the organisations and it is about retrospective performance. Nike tries
to take the opportunity trough grabbing the future by improving the sales and values, mission and
objectives. Adidas establishes the measurement to develop the production, profit and people
through ethical and social performance.
5. Discussing the extent to which the social reports provided by Nike and Adidas reflect
their stated values
Shared values of Nike:
 Nike likes to innovate and it is the organisation’s core competence
 Nike uses Swoosh logo
 Nike uses social responsibility as technique of brand management
 Nike believes value co-creation
For Nike, it is important to set bold and business-oriented ambition. Stakeholders
encourage Nike to consider the ambition. Nike needs to refine and frame a better way about
corporate social responsibility narrative. On social perspective, Nike can consider three
audiences; employees, customers and long-term investors. Nike needs to consider the
demonstration of linkage between business and sustainability (About.nike.com, 2018). Nike

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needs to consider the next move about labour transparency. Nike is considering the reporting
model so that it can remark on the future about responsibilities stories.
Shared Values of Adidas:
 For Adidas, passion is the heart and Adidas supports the passion for work
 Adidas supports athlete in sports and believes in performance
 Adidas supports the diversity in the workplace
Adidas organisation believes in collaboration in order to share the knowledge of experts
with the stakeholders, partners and suppliers. Adidas mainly does the technical specification to
come up with better sports equipment and sportswear. In addition, Adidas works for the
community to provide the people with employment opportunity. Adidas does products
innovation through technology and it conserves water, energy and resources. Adidas provides
special emphasis on supply chain and Corporate Information Transparency Index (CITI)
provides great recognition to improve greener supply chain (Adidas-group.com, 2018).
Conclusion
Corporate social responsibility provides the value of business development and
employees retention. Both the organisations Adidas and Nike both are world famous for apparel
and accessories industry. These organisations are competitors in the global market and both the
organisations maintain sustainable development. Nike focuses more on the different elements of
sustainable development and the organisation wants to reduce the environmental footprint. On
the other side, Adidas focuses on CSR; planet, people and profit. In addition, Adidas focuses on

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the empowering the people, inspiring the community and improving the health. Both Nike and
Adidas have been integrating the sustainability into the core business.

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Reference List
Adidas Environmental approach. (2018). Retrieved 14 May 2018, from https://www.adidas-
group.com/en/sustainability/compliance/environmental-approach/
Adidas Social Responsibility (2018). Retrieved 14 May 2018, from https://www.adidas-
group.com/media/filer_public
Ağan, Y., Kuzey, C., Acar, M. F., &Açıkgöz, A. (2016).The relationships between corporate
social responsibility, environmental supplier development, and firm
performance. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 1872-1881.
Buckler, S. (2017). Imagined Communities Incorporated: Corporate Social Responsibility and
Value Creation in a Globalised World. In Corporate Social Responsibility, pp. 3-22
Caridi, M., Moretto, A., Perego, A., &Tumino, A. (2014). The benefits of supply chain visibility:
A value assessment model. International Journal of Production Economics, 151, 1-19.
Lu, X., Liu, H. W., &Rahman, M. (2017). The impact of corporate social responsibility on
customer loyalty: a case of Nike and Adidas in China. Strategic Change. 3(3), 23-34
Parsa, H. G., Lord, K. R., Putrevu, S., &Kreeger, J. (2015). Corporate social and environmental
responsibility in services: Will consumers pay for it?. Journal of retailing and consumer
services, 22, 250-260.
Plambeck, E. L., & Taylor, T. A. (2015). Supplier evasion of a buyer’s audit: Implications for
motivating supplier social and environmental responsibility. Manufacturing & Service
Operations Management, 18(2), 184-197.

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Russell-Smith, S. V., Lepech, M. D., Fruchter, R., & Littman, A. (2015).Impact of progressive
sustainable target value assessment on building design decisions. Building and
Environment, 85, 52-60.
Suliman, A. M., Al-Khatib, H. T., & Thomas, S. E. (2016).Corporate Social
Responsibility. Corporate Social Performance: Reflecting on the Past and Investing in
the Future. 2(4), 12-15.
Sustainable Innovation.(2018). Nike News. Retrieved 14 May 2018, from
https://about.nike.com/pages/sustainable-innovation
Uhrich, S., Koenigstorfer, J., &Groeppel-Klein, A. (2014).Leveraging sponsorship with
corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Research, 67(9), 2023-2029.
Zadek, S. (2004).The path to corporate responsibility. Harvard business review, 82(12), 23-34.