Shared Value in Corporate Responsibility

Running head: SHARED VALUE IN CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
SHARED VALUE IN CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE
PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN ADIDAS AND GRAMEEN BANK
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1SHARED VALUE IN CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
Introduction
According to Klein (2020), an important challenge that the business corporations are
presently facing can be attributed to the manner in which they can adequately utilize Michael
Porter and Mark Kramer’s principle of shared value. Jones and Wright (2018) are of the
viewpoint that the focus of the contemporary business corporations which are utilizing the
framework of corporate social responsibility (CSR) should be on the manner in which they
derive economic value from their business operations while creating societal value for the larger
world. This notion in turn had given rise to the extensive usage of the concept of shared value of
corporate responsibility that the corporations are required to follow as part of the framework of
business ethics (Corner & Pavlovich, 2016). An important example of the concept of shared
value seen within the contemporary business world is the partnership between the corporation
Adidas and Grameen Bank, founded by the Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, for the
production of low cost shoes in the nation of Bangladesh. The purpose of this paper is to
undertake a critical analysis of the concept of shared value of corporate responsibility in the
particular context of the partnership between Adidas and Grameen Bank for the manufacture of
low cost shoes in Bangladesh.
Concept of Shared Value
Corazza, Scagnelli and Mio (2017) are of the viewpoint that the concept of shared value
was first introduced in the article “Strategy & Society: The Link between Competitive
Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility” and further expanded in the article “Creating
Shared Value: Redefining Capitalism and the Role of the Corporation in Society” (2011) of
Harvard Business Review by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer. Adding to this, Kramer

2SHARED VALUE IN CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
and Pfitzer (2016) have noted that the concept of shared value mainly focuses on the manner in
which the attain competitiveness within the business markets of their operations through the
enhancement of their economic value while creating adequate amount of societal value for the
improvement of the health of the society or the different societies. More importantly, it is seen
that an important assumption made by this particular concept is the fact that the aspects of
economic value and societal value are inextricably tied together and it is the conglomeration of
these two factors which helps the business corporations to attain the required competitive
advantage within the business markets of their operations or for that matter over their rivals
(Porter & Kramer, 2019). The concept of shared value had become an important part of the
domain of business ethics and thus it had become imperative for the business corporations to
take this particular concept into consideration along with business ethics (Acquier, Valiorgue &
Daudigeos, 2017). This can be explained on the basis of the fact that the business corporations
over the years in a bid to enhance their economic value or for that matter the profitability earned
had resorted to the usage of the kind of strategies or measures which in the longer run had proved
to be detrimental for the society or the different communities (Lüdeke-Freund et al., 2016).
Furthermore, the business corporations had justified this particular action committed by them on
the basis of the fact that they were following the narrow view of CSR.