Starbucks and Corporate Social Responsibility

This assignment examines Starbucks' approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It requires an analysis of their CSR activities, including a discussion of the challenges faced in implementation and the strategies employed to overcome them. The assignment also delves into the impact of CSR on stakeholders and business success, drawing upon relevant research methodologies like positivism.

MANAGING SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PROJECT
(IMPLEMENTING CSR ACTIVITIES WITHIN
ORGANISATIONS TO MEET SUSTAINABLE OBJECTIVES)

Table of Contents
Part 1:.........................................................................................................................................3
Introduction: ..............................................................................................................................3
Aims of the project: ...................................................................................................................3
Objectives of the project:...........................................................................................................4
Project management plan: .........................................................................................................4
Gantt charts of the project: ........................................................................................................5
Research specification: .............................................................................................................6
Data Collection Method: ...........................................................................................................6
Data Collection Tools: ..............................................................................................................7
Sampling Size and Technique:...................................................................................................7
Accuracy and Reliability: ..........................................................................................................7
Qualitative analysis: ..................................................................................................................8
Quantitative analysis: ..............................................................................................................10
Recommendation to overcome the challenges of implementing CSR activities: ...................13
Linking with the objectives: ....................................................................................................14
Reference List:.........................................................................................................................16
APPENDIX: QUESTIONNAIRE...........................................................................................18

Part 1:
INTRODUCTION:
Business management project is a formal plan approved by the development
managers in order to manage a business project successfully. The project defines the
methodology of how a business project is organised in order to maintain sustainable
economic accountability and product quality. A business project can be managed by proper
monitoring the project works, for developing adopting sustainable practices and approaches.
This assignment mainly focuses on the Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) of the
project. It highlights the aims, objectives, cost and scope of the project. The current
assignment also focuses on the quality of the project, its risk factors, its resources and its
communication systems. Therefore, it is the overall assessment of a business project for
Starbucks working on the corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Aims of the project:
The aim of the current project management plan is to focus on the business activities
of Starbucks in ensuring sustainable development with the practice of corporate social
responsibility (Basu 2014, p. 178).
Attracting partners:
The Starbucks Company has a commitment with the CSR they have lead their company to
the higher typical levels of their satisfaction Beringer et al. (2013, p. 83).
Customer Loyalty:
CSR helps the company to maintain a loyal relationship with the customers by making
perfect criteria (Schmiedel 2014, p. 53).
Strengthening the company for their supply chain:
CSR helps the company to strengthen their power by increasing their supply chain.
Licence to operate:
CSR helps the company to maintain a good reputation as a corporate social responsible
company.

Objectives of the project:
 To promote CSR in order to ensure community involvement of the company.
 To initiate CSR activities in the development of Starbucks and to focus on its
investments.
 To identify the issues faced in implementing CSR activities
 To apply strategies in order to overcome the issues of implementing CSR activities
 To identify the benefit to the stakeholders by implementation of CSR in the company
 To identify policies and programme that can be implemented for promoting CSR.
 To identify various dimensions of adopting CSR activities.
 To focus on investment required in promoting CSR activities in the organisation.
Project management plan:
Cost of the project:
Estimate cost of the project is 2 billion including recruitment of the staffs, setting
project materials and including consultants. According to Braglia and Frosolini (2014, p. 18),
the entire budget of the project also includes graphic designing, advertisements and mailing
expenses in CSR activities regarding Starbucks Company. The budget also includes work-
study, security management and exhibitions (Cavusgil 2014, p. 56).
Scope of the project:
The scope of the project includes the sustainable developments of Starbucks
Company. In order to organise a good project management plan the CSR is a main point to
understand the sustainable development issues. As specified by Davis (2014, p. 18), the
scope of the project includes the importance of attracting the partners in order to develop
their business management plan. It also includes the behaviour of customer loyalty. In order
to fulfil the scope of the project the CSR activities helps the company to strengthen their
power by increasing their supply chain (Flyvbjerg, 2014, p. 6).
Time taken to complete the project:
In order to complete, the project the company has to maintain many business strategies and
that needs 30 days.
Quality of the project:
To maintain the quality of the project the company needs to develop its product qualities.
Communication:

According to Hesselbarth and Schaltegger (2014, p. 24), in order to improve its
communication system the company has taken the help of many communication systems. It
includes telephonic conversations and electronic gadgets.
Risk:
As described by Polonsky and Waller (2014, p. 23), the risk factors of a business project plan
include lack of time, lack of quality-based products and lack of productivity of the
organisation.
Resources:
The three essential resources that are needed in completing this project are proper
management staff, material goods and capital in order to ensure sustainability in Starbucks
Hill et al. (2014, p. 189).
Gantt charts of the project:
Activities 1st five
days
2nd five
days
3rd five
days
4th five days 5th
five
days
6th five
days
Prepare
strategies to
promote CSR
activities
Promoting
strategies
among
stakeholders
Involving the
stakeholders
Making them
aware about
different
dimensions of
CSR
Planning
action
Self-
assessment
and evaluation
of the project
Final
submission of
the project
Table 1: Gantt chart

(Source: Created by the researcher)
Part 2
Research specification:
1. Positivism: Philosophy is used to describe a systematic approach for studying the
society that depends specifically on experiments, scientific evidence and reliable
statistics to reveal how a society operates (uwe.ac.uk, 2017).
2. Deductive: Deductive approach is taken in consideration for this research. As this
approach is helpful in deducing the relative information from general point of view to
specific, Saunders et al. (2015, p. 71). This approach studies the effectiveness of a
successful business plan in order to implement Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
for attaining objectives for sustainable development and competitive advantage.
3. Descriptive: Descriptive approach is an approach which is attempted to describe,
determine and to identify the design of any model (Giorgi, 2010). Here it is used to
describe the business model which is used to implement Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) activities within organizations to meet sustainable objectives
and competitive advantage.
Data Collection Method:
For data collection method we must take both qualitative and quantitative methods to
get the extensive picture on the implementation of CSR (Hilson et al. 2012, p. 132). In this
research Qualitative data has been gathered from the top managers of Starbuck company for
collecting relevant information on their various designing techniques on efficient business
model for implementing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in maintaining sustainability
of development and gaining advantages in competition. Qualitative data is collected from the
managers of the Starbucks regarding their CSR activities and quantitative data has been
collected from NGOs who promote CSR activities in order to ensure sustainable
development in the company.

Data Collection Tools:
In doing this project some interview questions has been asked from the managers of
Starbucks and survey questionnaires are conducted from the NGO's who ensures CSR
activities.
Sampling Size and Technique:
Probability sampling has been used in this research in order to collect information
regarding CSR activities of Starbucks. In qualitative collection method, 2 managers are
interviewed and in quantitative method 23 respondents are selected for survey from NGO
institutes, who are ensuring sustainable development.
Accuracy and Reliability:
Here the research part shed light on the accuracy and reliability of information
regarding CSR activities of Starbucks which are gathered from managers and NGO institutes.
The information which is gathered was ethical and it was found out to be highly accurate as
well as reliable because Starbucks has added better ways for attaining sustainable
development beside its coffee production. On working on its Corporate Social
Responsibilities (CSR) it has launched some guidelines called C.A.F.E practices to ensure
environmental protection, economic accountability and maintaining the quality of the product
(Werther Jr et al. 2010). The findings also outlined another major social responsibility of
Starbucks, where it supports “Ethos Water” that provides clean water to nearly one billion
people around the world. Another major social work of Starbucks is that it also planned to
recycle all their materials including 25% of useable cups from 2016 from their stores and
shops and control their waste disposal by an efficient waste management system.
Furthermore, Starbucks also offers an additional discount of 10% on their products to
those customers who will bring their own mugs thereby decreasing overall disposal of cups
on the environment (Starbucks.co.uk, 2017).
Part 3

Qualitative analysis:
In this section the research focus on top three questions related to this topic which
interviewed two managers of the Starbucks Company based on these three questions. In the
following sections Qualitative data analysis mainly focuses on the real life information
regarding the CSR activities performed by the top managers of Starbucks.
Question 1 What is your opinion regarding the CSR activities that are performed by
you?
1st manager 2nd manager
“ We always believe Starbucks should have a
strong impact on the society we serve, we focus
on each and every person and their
neighbourhood”
“It is our duty to elevate our employees,
suppliers, partners, customers to create
positivity through more innovation for our
healthy environment”
While interviewing the managers of the specific company, different managers of Starbucks
has different opinion about Corporate Social responsibilities (CSR). The first manager stated
that CSR activities are his foremost priority in his to-do list. He emphasizes the CSR
activities focusing on every customer. He also describes his holistic approach in integrating
the CSR activities into company’s strategies, practices, commitments and operations in
achieving its goal towards community development. The second manager mainly stressed on
company overall. He strongly believes in the performance of the company and its value in
implementing CSR for their business. He also showed that he care not only his customers but
also his employees and guide them to work for the development of the community.
Question 2 What are the challenges faced by you while implementing CSR activities?
1st manager 2nd manager

“We often experienced a lack of
interest among the local community in
contributing the CSR activities”
“There is also non availability of organized Non
Governmental Organization in other areas of our
branch that can access the real needs of the community”
In the second question, the different managers stated their own challenges faced by their
companies respectively. The first manager basically focuses on the non involvement of the
local community in expanding the CSR activities. The reason he cited for this is the little
knowledge about CSR activities, the community took no responsibility in spreading the
awareness among them. While the second manager stated that there are no well organized
NGO in remote areas which can identify the community needs. The reason he gives that not
enough funding was provided to these NGO’s for implementing the CSR activities properly
to those areas.
Question 3: What strategies are taken by you to overcome the challenges while
implementing CSR activities?
1st manager 2nd manager
“We have partnered with business firms and
nonprofit organization in perfectly
implementing the CSR principles”
“We have to embrace all the criticism that are
levelled against us in overcoming the challenges of
CSR and work towards it overcome those”
While answering this question, the first manager stressed about their partnership with various
business firms and well established NGO. He emphasized a strong linkage with Starbucks
and other entities in overcoming the challenges in due time. The second manager was
however bit diplomatic, he accepted that they are facing challenges in implementing CSR but
also at the same time he also prioritized the strategies by giving more importance to farmers,
employees towards greener environment.

Quantitative analysis:
In the following sections Quantitative data analysis mainly focuses on the real life
information regarding the CSR activities. The survey is based on 23 respondents from
various NGO institutions who are ensuring sustainable community development.
Q 1 How far do you agree that CSR activities ensures product quality of an
organization?
Responses No of respondents Total no of respondents
Strongly agree 7 23
Agree 8 23
Neutral 2 23
Disagree 3 23
Strongly disagree 3 23
In the first question, the outcomes were generally favorable where most of the respondents
agree that CSR activities ensure quality products of the Starbucks. Their Clean Water
programme like “Ethos Water”, C.A.F.E guidelines and their recycle discount on useable
cups has really made the majority of the respondents to agree on their quality products. Some
however believed that these strategies are not good enough for the development of
community. They believe the company needed to think more out of the box.
Q 2 How far do you believe that CSR activities maximize stakeholder value and
expectations?
Responses No of respondents Total no of respondents

Strongly believe 9 23
Believe 7 23
Neutral 5 23
Disbelieve 2 23
Strongly Disbelieve 0 23
The second question also comes out as a favourable outcomes where the majority of the
respondents believed that all the stakeholders like employees, customers, suppliers and
management level were happy that the CSR activities of the Starbucks company has
maximized their value and expectation. This is hugely due to the development of the
community where it not only increases the profit but also maximizes the market share and the
scope of their business productivity.

Q 3 Do you agree that strong CSR policies can build up stakeholder trust and loyalty?
Responses No of respondents Total no of respondents
Strongly agree 8 23
Agree 10 23
Neutral 4 23
Disagree 1 23
Strongly disagree 0 23
The third questions shares similar result with the second question. Here also majority of the
NGO’s agree that the community development programme of Starbucks would continue to
maintain their stakeholder’s trust and loyalty. This was due to one of the initiative launch by
the company three months back by investing heavily in charity events, supply chain
management, donation of products and reducing energy consumption across the NGOs in
community development.
Q 4 How far do you do agree that CSR initiatives and programmes should be taken in
urban areas in order to ensure sustainable development?
Responses No of respondents Total no of respondents
Strongly agree 6 23
Agree 6 23
Neutral 6 23
Disagree 3 23

Strongly disagree 2 23
The last question which was surveyed gives complete different outcomes from the rest of the
questions, where more than 45% of the respondents were neutral or disagree in believing that
CSR initiatives were not enough taken in urban areas for community development. Their
major demand was that Starbucks should increase their area of CSR activities into organic
farming, energy efficiency; carbon offset sales, labour practices and workplace safety.
Recommendation to overcome the challenges of implementing CSR activities:
CSR is a process or a discipline that should be made compulsory in the entire organisation in
order to maintain sustainable economic accountability, social development issues and product
quality.
The CSR activities help to develop the partnership levels between all the stakeholders, the
employees, the private sectors and the local communities. In order to overcome the
challenges the CSR initiatives should extend their activities to large corporate houses. In
order to overcome the problems the CSR initiatives have also started their programmes in the
urban areas. In order to maintain the sustainability of the environment the CSR activities
have actively involved the NGOs in implementing their resources as the best CSR activities
to innovate their systems. The Government should reward the CSR activities for
implementing their innovations and projects in order to help the poor and underprivileged
people. The CSR activities help in maintaining the partnerships between the Government and
other groups in order to develop many strategies and policies. The CSR activities also
focuses on education processes, health related issues and livelihoods of the people. The CSR
activities also draw the attention of the readers towards women empowerment and
management of disasters. It also focuses on the practices related to ethics and other social
issues. The CSR initiatives have planned their processes on the leading Government issues in
order to build up public cooperation. The new models should be innovated in the way that it
is popularised among the corporate areas. In order to develop the CSR activities they should
explore their realistic models more vividly to increase the popularity. The CSR is not the
indirect process of expense rather it is the important process of maintaining the goodwill and
reputation of the companies and helping them to defend their attacks. Therefore, it can be
said that it is necessary to implement the CSR activities in order to overcome the challenges

and problems faced by the business organisations. In order to maintain a good reputation in
the market the business project planning should innovate many new technologies and
equipments to build up their market value and productivity. To overcome the challenges a
business organisation should ensure CSR activities and plans to innovate their strategies and
project planning. The CSR activities help the company to strengthen their power by
increasing their supply chain. The role of the CSR helps the company to maintain a good
reputation as a corporate social responsible company. The CSR activities help the company
to maintain a loyal relationship between the customers and the organisation. The CSR
activities have the power to lead the company to the higher typical levels of their satisfaction.
Linking with the objectives:
Objective 1: To promote CSR in order to ensure community involvement of the
company:
This objective is linked with question number 1 and 4 of Quantitative Method and with
questions no 3 of the same Method, where the company initiates the CSR activities in urban
areas in order to promote community development. From linking the objectives with the
questions, it can be stated that the many NGOs provided fund to different organisation like
Starbucks in order to ensure sustainable development. It is the responsibility of the CSR
activities to ensure good community involvement process in a company in order to support
various communities.
Objective 2: To initiate CSR activities in the development of Starbucks and to focus on
its investments:
This objective is linked with question number 1 and 2 of Qualitative Method, where the CSR
activities have helped the Starbucks Company by maintaining its good reputation as a
corporate social responsible company and by developing its sustainable environment. From
linking the objectives with the questions, it can be stated that the CSR activities have also
developed its business strategies by implementing innovative technologies, increasing its
product qualities, reducing its price rates and by causing no harm to the environment. The
CSR activities have also helped the company to maintain the higher typical levels of their
satisfaction. It has also helped the Starbucks Company in increasing its product quality and
by reducing its investments in the market.
Objective 3: To identify the issues faced in implementing CSR activities:

This objective can be linked with question number 2 of Quantitative Method, where the
Starbucks Company has faced problems in implementing CSR activities. From linking the
objectives with the questions, it can be stated that the issues that are faced by the company in
implementing CSR activities includes lack of proper resources, lack of strategies and visions
and lack of measurement. The company have also faced many problems in implementing
CSR activities such as none willing to pay for the CSR activities, high standards of regulation
and methodological problems.
Objective 4: To apply strategies in order to overcome the issues of implementing CSR
activities:
This objective can be linked with question number 3 of Qualitative Method, where the CSR
activities have implemented many strategies in order to help the Starbucks Company to
maintain its goodwill in the market. From linking the objectives with the questions, it can be
stated that the strategies includes maintaining a loyal relationship between the customers and
the organisation, in order to strengthen their power by increasing their supply chain and by
maintaining the sustainability of the environment. The CSR activities have also implemented
the strategies of maintaining the sustainable economic accountability, social development
issues and product quality of the company. The CSR activities have also helped the Starbucks
Company in ensuring its sustainable development with the practice of corporate social
responsibility.

REFERENCES
Basu, R., 2014. Managing quality in projects: An empirical study. International
journal of project management, 32(1), pp.178-187.
Beringer, C., Jonas, D. and Kock, A., 2013. Behavior of internal stakeholders in
project portfolio management and its impact on success. International Journal of
Project Management, 31(6), pp.830-846.
Braglia, M. and Frosolini, M., 2014. An integrated approach to implement project
management information systems within the extended enterprise. International Journal
of Project Management, 32(1), pp.18-29.
Cavusgil, S.T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J.R., Rammal, H.G. and Rose, E.L.,
2014. International business. Australia: Pearson.
Davis, K., 2014. Different stakeholder groups and their perceptions of project
success. International Journal of Project Management, 32(2), pp.189-201.
Flyvbjerg, B., 2014. What you should know about megaprojects and why: An
overview. Project Management Journal, 45(2), pp.6-19.
Giorgi, A., 2010. The descriptive phenomenological method in psychology: A modified
Husserlian approach. Duquesne: University Press.
Hesselbarth, C. and Schaltegger, S., 2014. Educating change agents for sustainability–
learnings from the first sustainability management master of business
administration. Journal of cleaner production, 62, pp.24-36.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an
integrated approach. London: Cengage Learning.
Hilson, G., 2012. Corporate Social Responsibility in the extractive industries:
Experiences from developing countries. Resources Policy, 37(2), pp.131-137.
Lyon, F., Mšllering, G. and Saunders, M.N. eds., 2015. Handbook of research methods
on trust. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Polonsky, M.J. and Waller, D.S., 2014. Designing and managing a research project: A
business student's guide. London: Sage Publications.
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at https://repository.ntu.edu.sg/handle/10356/51543 [Accessed on 18 April 2017]
starbucks.co.uk, (2016) starbucks and corporate social responsibility Available at <
https://www.starbucks.co.uk/responsibility > [Accessed on 19 April 2017]
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Stakeholders in a global environment. London: Sage publications.

APPENDIX: QUESTIONNAIRE
(Kindly give responses as honest as possible, we will really appreciate your valuable beliefs
and thoughts)
Name……………
Age:…………………
Occupation:………………………….
Descriptive
Q.1 What is your opinion regarding the CSR activities that are performed by you?
Ans.
……..............................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................
Q.2 What are the challenges faced by you while implementing CSR activities?
Ans.
…..................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................
Q.3 What strategies are taken by you to overcome the challenges while implementing CSR
activities?
Ans.
…..................................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................
Objective
Q 1 How far do you agree that CSR activities ensures product quality of an organization?
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neutral

 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
Q 2 How far do you believe that CSR activities maximize stakeholder value and
expectations?
 Strongly believe
 Believe
 Neutral
 Disbelieve
 Strongly disbelieve
Q 3 Do you agree that strong CSR policies can build up stakeholder trust and loyalty?
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
Q 4 How far do you do agree that CSR initiatives and programmes should be taken in urban
areas in order to ensure sustainable development?
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree