Corporate Social Responsibility and Sourcing Strategies of Toms Shoes

Running head: AN INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
AN INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
Student’s Name
University Name
Author’s Note

2AN INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Answer to Question 1.................................................................................................................3
Answer to Question 2.................................................................................................................5
Answer to Question 3.................................................................................................................8

3AN INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
Answer to Question 1
Q1. Using Carroll’s account of Corporate Social Responsibility and information in the
case study, what are the Corporate Social Responsibilities of Toms and why? Of those
CSR you identify, which do think is most important for Toms and why?
Corporate Social Responsibility defines the expectations of the society or a certain
demographic group at a certain point of time. Carroll professes fours aspect of Corporate
Social Responsibility which can create a foundation required to delineate or characterize the
pattern of responsibilities towards a society. These four factors are also empirically
interrelated and conceptually connected. They are legal, ethical, Philanthropic as well as
economic.
1.1 Economic Responsibilities
Economic expectations as a part of social responsibility is something out of odd.
However, business organisations need to be able to profitably operate and incentivise the
shareholders so that they continue to invest resources and the business organisation continues
to be in profession. Through making profits, the business firms generate value to all the
stakeholders of the firm and thus addresses the needs of a social group (Berman et al. 2015).
In this context, the community welfare strategy that have been adopted by the company can
be highlighted. This is generally perceived as a big CSR through a passive eye. However the
company have extended the facility of giving away products to 60 countries. As an impact,
the company is receiving Word of Mouth as well as social media publicity among a very
large customer base (Boulouta and Pitelis 2014). Most importantly, by means of this
campaign the company is able to make successful market entry in to various countries. For
being able to successfully keep up the rate of giving away products and thus helping people
they have to keep their rate of profitability intact also. Mycoskie made an initially strong

4AN INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
business framework by adopting this innovative CSR based strategy of business promotion.
This helped to fulfil the economic aspect of CSR as pointed out by Carroll et al. Moreover,
in order to provide the high amount of initial investment for the company, he took two other
significant steps. These are:
 Selling his Software company to fund the beginning of production and the “One on
one” giveaway infrastructure.
 Moving the manufacturing unit of the company to China in order to reduce the
operational cost.
 Selling 50pc stake to Bain Capital, thereby increasing the valuation of the company to
$625 million.
1.2 Legal Responsibilities
Carroll’s four step model requires that the profit making organisations meet some
basic requirements like fulfilment of the legal obligations of the societal stakeholders and
establishing the business as law abiding embodiment. In this context, the supply chain of
Toms shoes have been under subtle criticism several times. The company’s supply network
was questioned and the materials involved in the production of shoes were under focus
(Brusseau, Chiagouris and Brusseau 2013). The company have been using recycled polyester
instead of standard suede. Initially in several countries, this production criteria raised
concerns. After that the company shifted its production sites to several developing countries
including Kenya, Haiti and other countries. This is how they are bringing in diversity in their
supply network, setting up alternative supply lines and meeting the regulatory obligations of
the various countries that requires that the countries which have active sales channels in those
countries should have at least 30% indigenously manufactured products in their sales line.
1.3 Ethical Responsibilities