Corporate Social Responsibility of BMW: Impact and Benefits

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business model that is self regulating which
helps a business to be accountable socially to the public, stakeholders of their business and
most importantly for themselves. The practice of corporate social responsibility helps a
company understand the kind and type of impact they are having on the society which
includes social, environmental and economic. Companies or organizations engaging in CSR
means the company or the organization is conducting operations in a way that enhances the
environment and the society rather than negatively contributing to them (Martínez & del
Bosque, 2013). Practicing CSR has many advantages that benefit the company like improving
the public image about the company, attracts investors and customers and many more. This
paper is going to shed light on the corporate social responsibilities of the multinational
automobile company Bayerische Motoren Werke AG that has helped the company garner
appreciation and has acquired a positive reputation in the market and the benefits of corporate
social responsibility on a business that helps in gaining a competitive advantage in the
market. This paper will provide probable recommendations that will help the company to
enhance their corporate social responsibilities efforts.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) is a German multinational company that
manufactures and produces motorcycles and automobiles. The company is one of the leading
luxury motorcycle and automobile brands in the world. The founders of the company are
Camillo Castiglioni, Karl Rapp and Franz Josef Popp 1916 and founded the company in
1916, March, 7. The headquarters of the company is situated in Munich, Germany. The
company manufactures motor vehicles and automobiles in Germany, China, Brazil, United
Kingdom, South Africa, United States and India. The shareholders for the longest time are
the Quandt family and the public float owns the rest of the remaining shares. In 2018, BMW
was listed at number twenty as one of the world’s most valuable brands with a brand value of
$31.4 billion dollars and brand revenue of $86.8 billion dollars.

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BMW is one of the leading automobile companies in the world. BMW is one of the
most ethical companies that do not only think about the profits and benefits of the company
but also takes measures to ensure the well-being of the society and the environment. The
company aims on sustainable development for the environment, society and the corporate.
The company is a multinational company and practices corporate social responsibility all
over the world. The company promotes the active and long term participation of various
stakeholders to address the social issues and help in creating shared value. The company is
guided by strong and strategic CSR and remains true to the three principles that the company
follows stakeholder engagement, addressing social issues and long term commitment.
The company has addressed many social issues of different countries where the
company operates. The company has tried introducing and coming up with initiatives that has
helped spread awareness and solve the issues in different regions for helping the development
of the environment and the society. BMW believes and promotes road safety and has come
with Children’s Traffic Safety Education (CTSE), a CSR program to make adults and
children aware of the rules of the road safety in China. The program introduces ideas to
enhance the road safety education for children. This initiative creates a shared value and
impacts families and children across China positively (Bmw-brilliance.cn., 2019).
In China, BMW contributes to the sustainable development by actively performing
the commitment of localization strategy. The company runs BMW Sustainability & CSR
Forum that provides a platform for the key stakeholders to share exchange and demonstrate
the experiences in sustainability while the company involves in extensive forces to encourage
and provide practices and creative ideas on CSR.
In South Africa, BMW supports about 100 corporate social investment projects. The
projects the company mainly focuses on are AIDS and HIV development of the local

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community and education like environment, social and technology and mathematics. BMW
invests about millions to empower groups who are in need through partnership and upliftment
programs to provide opportunities to all and help in promoting equality in the company.
BMW does not do any charity buy they put emphasis on social investments. The company
aims on contributing to the sustainable development. The company also aims on working
with the employees of the company, their families and with the local community and the
society in order to improve the quality of life in South Africa. The company dedicates its
significant resources and time to contribute to the higher and brighter future of South Africa.
In India, BMW has focused on the relevant social issues and tried to solve the
problems and positively impact the society. India is a developing country and there is lack of
job opportunities that have been highly affecting the people there. BMW partnered with
Magic Bus, to develop and focus on a skill development program that will help in providing
opportunities to the youth of the country to earn for their livelihood (Bmw.in, 2019). This
project provides job or employment based training to the disadvantaged youths and support
these youths to conquer and achieve their professional and personal goals successfully.
BMW believes that focusing only on the active and passive safety measures in the
vehicle is not enough and people should be aware and learn about road safety especially
children. The company had come up with a “Be Safe, Be Smart” initiative and a program that
reached out to schools to spread awareness about the measures taken for road safety and
general road safety instructions in an engaging way that made the students more engaged in
the lesson and the program and later also assessed how much the students learnt and
understood the program (Bmw.in, 2019).
One of the biggest social issues of India is the lack of safe drinking water. BMW has
always been focusing on the key social issues of countries and has tried to positively impact