Business Environment: Assessing Avast PLC's Innovation, Tech, and CSR

This report analyzes the business environment of Avast PLC, examining the impact of innovation and technology on its sales, profits, and growth. It explores disruptive innovation, the role of research and development, and the integration of technology. The report also evaluates the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for Avast PLC, defining CSR, and discussing its benefits, including enhanced brand recognition, improved public image, and cost savings. Furthermore, it applies Archie Carroll's CSR model to Avast PLC, assessing its economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities. The analysis covers the company's performance, revenue trends, and the significance of technological advancements in driving sales and profitability, along with ethical labor practices and employee satisfaction. The report highlights how CSR initiatives can improve Avast PLC's image and market position, while also addressing how the company can use CSR to engage with consumers, retain employees, and compete effectively.

Business Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Avast PLC was founded by Pavel Baudis and Eduard Kucera in the year 1988, the company
operates in the computer security. The company recorded an operating profit of $415.3 million and
has the largest market share in the anti malware application. The company hss its headquarter in
Czech republic and the company serve all over the world. They provide a variety of products to
their customers. The company has been performing good currently. In this report the impact of
innovation and technologies on Avast PLC. The company has good prospects and they can grow in
the future if they adapt these technological changes which happen in the external environment.(Lee
and Klassen, 2016)
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Assess the impacts of innovation and technology and how it has affected
the sales, profits and growth of Avast PLC
The new innovation and technology has a great impact on the working of the Avast PLC as they
have to adapt these changes and work accordingly so that they can be competitive and maintain
their market share in the industry. As the world of digital technology is a fast moving, bank like
Avast PLC have to constantly innovate new ideas to remain competitive in the market. The
company can use disruptive innovation.(Erasmus, Strydom, and Rudansky-Kloppers, 2016)
The theory of disruptive innovation which states that an innovation creates new market and
new value networks which will cause a disruption in the current market and will replace the market
leader, so that the company can grow in this rapid changing environment. Avast PLC is operating in
computer security so they need to continue innovate and match their product with the current
market need in order to sustain in the market. Avast PLC tend to produce these disruptive
innovation and become the market leader. The company should keep in mind that the disruptive
innovation will require time and generally take longer than the conventional approach and the risk
associated with these are also high as if the innovation does not work out it may be a great setback
for the company, but once this applies in the market then the company can penetrate the established
market. Disruptive innovation helps the company to remain updated with the current technology
and help the firm to climb upward in the market. If Avast PLC bring a new market in the market

which disrupt the market the latter goal is just to improve the performance of their product so that
the can maintain their market share. These disruptive innovation will help Avast PLC to increase
their market shares with their new technologies they can improve their product and customize them
to suit the preference of the customers. It is also noted that the product which are being considered
as disruptive innovation tends to skip stages of the traditional design and quickly attract the
customer which acts as a competitive advantage to the company. Since the product of disruptive
innovations are unique Avast PLC can charge premium for the products as these products focuses
on the customer the customer are also ready to pay premium and thus they can increase their
profitability in the long run. For making such product the company need to encourage the research
and development of the company so that they can come up with new ideas of working.
The company can use technology like mobile phones, computer so that they can become
competent in the market. Business and technological development are closely related to each other,
as the company will promote their business using these technologies and this will help the customer
to know about the new product of the company. Avast PLC need to change with the changing
technologies so that they can remain competitive as the technologies are changing very fast in the
current business environment. The modern machines and technology works better and faster then
the traditional way of working. So implementing these changes will help the company to be more
effective and efficient in the current market. (Prajogo and Oke, 2016)
With the help of these innovations and technologies the company revenue has shown an
increasing trend in the market. The company revenue has increased from $378.6 million in 2018 to
$427.7 million in 2019 which shows an increase of 13% in the current year which is an excellent
growth. This shows that the innovation and technology that is being used by Avast PLC is being
showing an excellent result in the company. The company should continue to innovate so that they
can maintain good revenue percentage in the market in order to maximize their profitability. This
profitability was although driven by other factors too but technologies have a great contribution in
this increase.(Epifanova, 2015)
Technological innovations always had a positive impact on the performance of the company.
And it will be of great impact if there is regular innovation in technology in case of IT company.
Avast PLC is one of the emerging IT companies. The reason behind the growth of company is fast
technological developments from time to time for meeting customer needs and expectations. These
technological innovations will be helpful in increased sales and profitability of the company.
Technology has a direct relationship sales and profitability. And sales and profitability is directly
related to technology advancements (Guan and Yam, 2015). The sales of an Avast PLC has been
increased due to technology change from time to time. Innovation reduces cost of production,it
reduces waste and decreases cost of production and company has a better objective focusing on the

long term goals of the company,it reduces waste of resources, improves customer relationships, if
company has better customer relationships with their clients profitability of the company will surely
increase, customer will not have an option to move to next alternative, Improves employees
relations, and hence all these factors improves sales and profitability of Avast PLC.
TASK 2
Importance of corporate social responsibility in the organization-
Corporate Social Responsibility is when organization operates in the sustainable and ethical
way and deals with its social and environmental impacts. A careful consideration of the human
rights, environment, the community and society in which the business operates. It gives a chance to
all employees of company to contribute for society, country and environment so on. It renders the
opportunity to company for working towards betterment of society and making it the better place
for living. It is not legally bounded for companies to follow it but it is the good practice which can
be taken into consideration environmental and social issues. Corporate social responsibility will
often leads to the better image of organization ad goes a long way in changing the negative image
into positive ones. When organizations does something for their customers, shareholders, and the
overall society then it eventually creates a great image within minds of the stakeholders. Customers
begin to talk favourably for the organizations while employees began to perceive organization as
good and mode who is satisfying their needs. Thus, in this way CSR becomes one of the most
important factor which helps the organizations to improve their image and thus establish position in
market. This will help Avast Ltd to gain a better publicity among audience and serve all the
stakeholders in a more efficient manner. This is the another importance of CSR which have
revolutionized the working and organizations and the way through which they perform their work.
Being part of the socially responsible and sustainable organizations, it helps the employees of
organization to perform their wok in sustainable manner.(Kljucnikov, 2016) The ethical labour
practices mainly involves providing highly competitive salaries to the employees, providing
favourable and high compensation packages to them, providing tuition reimbursement thus through
CSR, organizations are able to establish an ethical code of practice which eventually raises the
satisfaction level of employees and thus helps to retain them. This will be highly helpful for Avast
as it would enable them to reduce the labour turnover by practising ethical practices and motivating
employees. This is the most apprehensive importance of CSR which will help Avast in long run.
Some importance are being mentioned below-
 It is helpful for Avast to raised brand recognition and awareness among the consumers. If the
company is committed to ethical and social practices, this news will be spread to the while
marketplace and thus wide range of consumer will be attracted towards the company's

product and services.
 It aims to enhance the public image of brand's product and services among customers. When
consumer tends to buy any product they used to search about the brand image of company.
As staff of the Avast is committed towards volunteering an hour in a week at charity, this
reflect that the company is associated with helping others and thus the company becomes
more favourable to consumers.
 Cost can be saved by this as the less packaging is helpful for company in reducing the cost.
 Enhancing customer engagement by promoting the sustainable system on the social media,
news so that more and more customer's engagement is gained by Avast. The consumers will
be attracted towards the company's product and services so that it can be helpful for
company in raising their profit and revenues.
 Along with the consumer engagement company also needed to ensure that employees should
know the companies CSR strategies. As employees can enjoy working with company who
had the good image among the public. It is helpful for company in retaining the top
candidates for them and attract the new talent to company.(Deasy,2016.)
 There are many benefits that can be provided to the employees when CSR is followed by
company. The workplace of company become more productive and positive place for
working, and helpful in promoting things that can be like volunteering. It is helpful for
encouraging and employee for its professional and personal growth.
 Avast by embracing the CSR activity in their business can compete with their rivals
effectively and further can stand out from them. They can establish as company where Avast
can move further towards the consideration to the environmental and social factors.
 Company can raise their profits and revenue with the help of CSR activities directly towards
the company. It is a positive step used by the company for their growth and development
along with employee engagement towards the company's growth.
Application of Archie carroll's (1991) CSR model to Avast PLC.
Archie carroll's model is a simple framework that usually helps to argue that how and why
the organizations have to meet their social responsibility. The model states four basic levels of
social responsibility among them first level is economics, it is responsibility for the business to earn
profits, next is responsibility to meet legal obligations, it states that business must comply with the
law and regulations, third stage is that companies have responsibility to act ethically and morally,
and last fourth level states that business have to be philanthropic, that they have to contribute its
resources for the society and public. These are the four basic level of CSR model.
The CSR role of Avast PLC can be analysed with the help of application of Archie carroll's
CSR model. The Four levels of model and its application on the company will be discussed one by

one (Gomez-Carrasco, Guillamon-Saorin and Garcia Osma, 2016). First level of model states that
company has to focus on its profitability. So Avast PLC is a software developer and marketer of IT
services to the consumers. In an emerging digital arena Avast is being among the IT companies
making large profits. The demand of its services has been increased with the increased pace of
digital world. So, company is making good amount of profits from its business activities. The next
second level of model states that company should meet legal obligation. So, Avast PLC is working
in the appropriate legal environment. Company follows all the laws and policies laid down by the
legal bodies of Prague. As an IT company it has also legal binding to follow various cyber laws laid
down by national and international legal bodies. Company has to provide its customers with hazard
free IT services and hardware. The data of company and its users has to be kept confidential. There
is no unethical malware practices hacking data or information. It focuses on safety of data and
information. The company is legally bind to protect the customers' data to which they has access
(Quazi, Nejati and Amran, 2015). Any unethical practices will be punished by the concern bodies.
Company has also legal binding to follow the rules and policies and restriction of the company
where it is rendering its operations. Rather, it may be in other territory. Third level of CSR model
states Company has to act ethically and morally. Avast has a responsibility to act ethically and
morally. The concerns is to be followed both in the organization and outside the organization as
well. The company has strong ethical norms that companies follows to make its high image in the
market. This is also helpful for the company to make its public image and branding. The company
overall abides by the environmental laws and social welfare. The ethical issues related to the
company's personnel also comes under this level of CSR. The last and fourth stage of Archie
carroll's model is philanthropic, it means company has to follow certain social responsibility by the
way of contribution of its resources to the society for its welfare. Avast PLC contribute to the
society by the way various social welfare activities. Company is volunteering many educational
programmes for the students in various universities and schools of the country. The company is also
ahead in donation of study material to the backward class of students. They had provided
scholarships to many students for their upliftment. Along with all this company had a great help for
upliftment of weaker sections of the society. So, from the above analysis it can be stated that Avast
PLC is efficient in performing its corporate social responsibility at all four level of Archie carroll's
model.(Prajogo, 2016)
CONCLUSION
From this report we have come to a conclusion that the company is performing well in the current
environment. The report include 2 tasks which include initially the innovation and technologies
which Avast PLC have and how these can impact the sales, profit and growth of the company, then

there is a discussion about the importance of corporate social responsibilities, the there is a brief
about Archie Carroll's CSR model which has shown the importance of corporate social
responsibilities to Avast PLC. Overall the company is performing excellent and has good prospects
in the future.
REFERENCES
Books and journals
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