Corporate Social Responsibility of Coca Cola: A Case Study

This report discusses the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of Coca Cola, a multinational beverage corporation. It analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the program, its impact on the organization, and the shared value approach. The report also discusses the triple bottom line approach and the sustainability policies and strategies adopted by the company.

Running head: CSR
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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The given report follows a structured format whereby the different Corporate Social
Responsibilities of the given organization have been discussed in detail. A brief introduction
about the organization has been provided followed by the CSR and sustainability initiatives as
adopted by the firm. The strengths and the weaknesses of the program have been discussed along
with suggestions for improvement of the same. The company taken for the purpose is the Coca
Cola Company. Theoretical references along with practical examples have been used.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
About the company..........................................................................................................................3
Identification of their CSR...............................................................................................................4
Sustainability policies and strategies...............................................................................................5
Impact on the organization..............................................................................................................6
The Strengths and weaknesses of the Coca Cola CSR activities.....................................................7
Failures............................................................................................................................................8
Shared value approach.....................................................................................................................9
Triple bottom line..........................................................................................................................10
Success theme................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Corporate Social responsibility can be defined as the sound strategy which is formed by
the organization in order to give it back to the society. It can be described as the initiative which
is adopted by the organization to take responsibility of the efforts of the company which tends to
have an effect on the social as well as environmental wellbeing. The CSR Activities can be
described as the continued commitment which a firm can adopt in order to contribute towards the
overall welfare of the organization (Schwartz 2017). The primary motto behind these activities is
to ensure that the goof company helps the good people and contributes to a good environment.
As it is a common saying that the organization`s industrial activities tend to have a
harmful impact on the society, this makes up for it and contributes to the wellbeing of the
society. According to Schwartz (2017), there are around 55% of the consumers who want to pay
extra for the product when it comes out of socially responsible companies. A total of 18 billion
dollars are spent by the companies to help the society. Therefore, it can be stated that the
corporate social responsibility initiatives taken by the firms are compulsory in nature. The given
report will be discussing the CSR activities of the company Coca Cola and determine its success.
About the company
The company Coca Cola is an American multinational company which is a beverage
corporation and manufacturer retailer. It has a large market share of non-alcoholic beverage
concentrates and syrups. The company has headquarters in the Atlanta, Georgia and since then
the company has had a franchised distribution system. The company sells these syrups to

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different companies present in worldwide (Coca-colacompany.com 2018). The company is listed
under the NYSE and the S&P jones as well.
Coca Cola is popularly known for their CSR activities which it has carried out since the
past few years. The activities of the company are often taken as examples for other large
organizations present in the industry. The given section will be discussing the different activities
of the company and analyze the same.
Identification of their CSR
The Coca Cola Social Responsibility report stated down the different activities which the
company engages in and discusses the CSR Program objectives. According to the report, the
company`s main objective behind the CSR program is Sustainability. In order to ensure
sustainability, the company engages in various programs like that of packaging, consumer health,
employee development, energy and climate along with sustaining supplier relationships.
With respect to the Consumer health, the company has objectives that help it to meet the
consumer trends and in order to implement this the company has broadened its portfolio and
reduced the calories present in each of the products. To look out for csr in packaging and
recycling, the company has introduced a PET bottle system which uses a blend of petroleum and
other elements which make it sustainable.
In order to initiative development strategies for its employees, the company has used
various training and other facilities to ensure that the skills and abilities of the different
employees are developed. The CSR activities also promote the equality of the employees and
provide them with diverse cultures. The company has achieved a 100% score in the domain and
this reflects that the company is performing well. To conserve the energy and the climate, the

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company has signed the Copenhagen Communique (Saeidi et al. 2015). It has agreed to take
supportive action with respect to climate change and has considerably reduced its carbon foot
print.
The company serves and has its operations in more than 200 countries and the CSR is at
the core of its business activities. The CSR is an essential part of the commitment of the
company and the company tries to spend at least 1% of its operating income to different causes.
Along with the above mentioned activities, the company also engages
Sustainability policies and strategies
As stated earlier, the primary objective behind the company`s CSR activities is the
achievement of sustainability and hence, Coca cola follows a sustainability approach in order to
integrate the corporate responsibility and sustainability activities at every aspect of the business.
The Coca-Cola’s CSR and sustainability form an essential part of the organizations and acts as a
huge determiner of the long term investments and decisions taken so that they deliver everlasting
value (Deng, Kang and Low 2013).
The company ensures that it can attain commitment from different parties to ensure
overall success of the program. Lastly, the primary strategic objectives which are the basis of the
sustainability approach of the Coca Cola Company is as follows:
 Promotion of wellness and health- This it does by improving the calorie content of the
products it is offering. It also assists in conducting medical campaigns towards the
society at large.

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 Minimizing the environmental impact- The environmental impact is reduced by making
products which are environmental friendly in nature and conduct minimum impacts on
the chosen organization (Pedersen 2015).
 Returning it back to the community- The organization returns it back to the society by
conducing programs which benefit the health and education of various children. It is
helping the environment by reducing its emissions, decreasing the waste to landfill,
disaster relief operations, creating positive impact, creating sustainable value chain so as
to ensure successful consumption.
 Promoting informed choices-In order to build informed choices, the company recognizes
the importance and the value of a comprehensive framework to ensure that the customers
enjoy the benefit of being with the company Coca Cola (Flammer 2013). The company is
also contributed towards committing excellent corporate governance and leadership
policies in order to ensure transparency in their disclosures. The form regular reports for
the same (Khan, Muttakin and Siddiqui 2013).
Impact on the organization
Hence, after analyzing the different CSR activities which have been taken by the firm
Coca Cola, the given section will be analyzing the different impacts of these activities on the
overall functioning of the organization. Very often CSR is not considered to be just a choice but
it can also improve the company in various ways. The experts in the given field have identified
that that sustainability refers to the improvement of the climate, conservation of the resources,
corporate governance and even improvisation of the various ethical aspects of the business

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Even from the customer`s point of view, they believe that they would like to switch to a
better option to a company who is providing benefits to the society. Hence the following was the
impact of the Corporate Social Responsibility conducted by the company on its operations:
1. Increased brand recognition-The CSR activities have increased the brand recognition of
the company Coca Cola. In fact the activities of the company in this field are often
considered to be in sync with the CSR activities (Grayson and Hodges 2017).
2. It has improved the reputation of the company and it has become one of the best places to
work in.
3. The CSR activities have contributed towards improving the customer and sales loyalty of
the organization thereby saving the operational costs of the company.
4. It has also lead to improve the financial performance of the company. It leads to
increased sales which has improved the brand name and popularity of the company
(Clapp and Rowlands 2014). It also leads to savings of the operational costs as it tends to
improvise the different operations which then help to contribute towards the wellness of
the firm. It has also been successful in promoting organizational growth and prosperity.
The Strengths and weaknesses of the Coca Cola CSR activities
The strengths of complying with the CSR Activities of the organization are as follows for
the company:
 It tends to have a positive impact on the financial performance of the organization.
 It leads to easy availability of the capital as the government and banks are willing to lend
the money to the different companies who have a good track record. Furthermore, the
Corporate Social Responsibility of an organization also encourages diversity of the

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employees and ensures safety and quality standards are maintained throughout (Servaes
and Tamayo 2013).
Weaknesses
The given section discusses the weaknesses of the Corporate Social Responsibility of the
Coca Cola Corporations.
 There lacks a sense of communication between the companies and the general public
(Crane, Matten and Spence 2013). Very often a large percentage of the customers do not
want to know what the company is doing.
 Very often in the sub units of the company, there is a lack of transparency among the
different companies and this leads to the problem that the CSR initiatives cannot be
undertaken because there is no detail about profitability, auditing issues, utilization of
funds and accurate information (Servaes and Tamayo 2013).
 The CSR activities often suck up the different funds of the organization and due to this
the management does not want to indulge in the activities when they have shortage of
funds.
However, the company needs to take an effort and ensure that it engages in proper CSR
activities, as these activities tend to foster good business relationships in an organization and
strengthens the mutual understanding between the society and the firm (Kilkenny 2014). On the
government`s side they should engage in proper rules and regulations so that the company is able
to achieve success in the long run and the society benefits (Cavico 2013).

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Failures
Although the different Corporate Social Responsibilities of the Coca Cola Company are
considered to be quite good, there are various activities which may have not been that successful
in the domain of the business environment. Very often corporate sustainability goals need to
have a balance between the ambition and realism. Coca cola has very often not been successful
in its ventures (Cheng, Ioannou and Serafeim 2014). The company according to its reports has
missed out on the goal of returning all the water which has been used in its manufacturing
procedures and has also been unable to support the aquatic life aimed by 2015.
Although the company got closer to achieving its goals and that 94% of the different
system facilities were complaint with the waste water treatments which it planned to conduct,
they were faced by unplanned challenges which lead the criteria of not meeting the targets
(Deng, Kang and Low 2013).
As the company has its operations in more than 200 countries, the locations where the
treatment of the plant is done is only at a few places and hence, the firm might face challenges in
this aspect (Carroll 2015). The main challenge lies because for some countries, this process is
totally new and thus, they faced some problems with respect to the given system.
Shared value approach
The CSR programs have been crucial parts of the different organizations over many years
and initially they were considered to be a charity function and this is the reason why only big
businesses engaged in it. However the manner and the approach of the different organizations
with respect to the CSR activities has changed considerably. The evolution has taken place and
the companies have begun to extract value by performing the different CSR activities and

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program in order to ensure that there exists a situation whereby there are long term benefits to
the different partners who are involved in this (Bhattacharya et al. 2017).
The given concept is preferably known as “shared value”. This was developed by
Michael Porter and that was stated that the different CSR Activities which are initiated not only
help the firm but also help out the different parties in all the ways involved.
If a given CSR program which is being used is a useful one then it involves more
engagement from the side of the different corporate entities and the partners by fostering a
culture of understanding and trust in the organization. The CSR of a firm should encompass
various parties in the given realm which comprise of stakeholders, management, shareholders,
government, customers and employees. It needs to be the primary aim of the organization to
ensure that these different activities in which the firm engages in are sustainable instead of being
quick and successful. The perfect CSR is required to comprise of strategic investment.
In this context, it can be said that the initiatives as adopted by Coca Cola tend to incorporate
shared approach and shared value in the society by bringing together the different employees in
the organization. Furthermore, it also involves the amalgamation of the different partners like
suppliers, stakeholders and other parties involved.
Triple bottom line
The triple Bottom line approach in the different activities involving the CSR activities
tends to work on the assumption that as the given firm is a member of the society, it has certain
corporate social responsibilities which will have to be abided by (Huss 2014). The given theory
focuses on sustainability and it needs to ensure that the society before engaging in different
activities and it also needs to ensure the sustainability in three different scales which comprise of

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economic sustainability, social sustainability and the environmental sustainability (Tai and
Chuang 2014). The economic sustainability must focus on the long term welfare of the given
company and the manner in which a CSR activities tends to create an economic boon in the
society at large. Secondly, the social sustainability aims to provide a sense of balance in the
society by ensuring that the different competition in the business do not sense to succumb to
pressure. However, this is always not successful (Kobzar, Nikolayeva and Shvets 2014).
Lastly, the environmental sustainability looks out to seeing to it that the resources remain
in the organization and that they do not degrade the general environment. The firm should not
cause harm to the society and its members at large.
Coca Cola engages in a triple bottom approach by ensuring environmental sustainability
and that the social balance in the society is maintained. It also ensures that the society benefits
largely and the people can make up for the resources which have been lost.
Success theme
Therefore, the business has been successful in initiating the CSR activities and has
ensured that the organization maintains the success theme throughout. The CSR activities of the
organization has been on social purpose which has clearly brought about a huge change in the
organization. The manner in which the people conduct business has changed considerably
(Ruggie 2017). Furthermore, there has been a concentrated effort on the side of the organization
to improve the long term welfare of the organization.
Lastly, the firm has partnered with different experts in order to ensure that the activities
have a rippling impact on the firm.

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Conclusion
Therefore, from the given analysis it could be stated that the Corporate Social
Responsibilities tend to form an essential aspect of the organization and that the different firms
which engage in the given process tend to have a positive impact on the long term sustainability
and are able to gain the respect and brand image of the company. The given report tends to
concentrate on the importance on the Corporate Social Responsibility of the organization and
discusses all the theoretical concepts which are related through practical examples as well. The
company used as an example is the Coca Cola Company. The CSR and sustainability programs
of the company has been highlighted along with the strengths and weaknesses of the same.

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References
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