The Social Responsibility of Business: Increasing Profits Analysis

This essay examines the complex relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the primary goal of businesses: profit maximization. It begins by defining CSR and exploring its importance, including its positive effects on brand image and differentiation, using Starbucks as a key example. The essay then outlines the implementation process of CSR, detailing steps such as research, cost determination, employee engagement, and stakeholder communication. It presents both sides of the argument regarding the statement that the social responsibility of business is to increase profits, referencing Milton Friedman's perspective and contrasting views. Finally, it provides real-life examples of CSR initiatives, such as BMW, to illustrate how companies integrate social responsibility into their business models. The essay aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the topic for students and is available on Desklib, a platform offering AI-powered study tools.

Running head: THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS IS TO INCREASE ITS PROFITS
The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

1THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS IS TO INCREASE ITS PROFITS
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility.........................................................................2
2.2 Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility.....................................................................3
2.3 Implementation Process of Corporate Social Responsibility................................................5
2.4 Views on the Statement.........................................................................................................7
2.5 Real-life Examples.................................................................................................................8
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

2THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS IS TO INCREASE ITS PROFITS
1. Introduction
This report is based on focusing on the topic “The Social Responsibility of Business in
order to increase their Profits.” This term was firstly coined by Milton Friedman in 1970. The
discussions based on this topic would be notable for the analytical looseness. Based on the views
of the author, it could be discusses that the managers have a high form of moral responsibility to
act in a better way based on the interest of the shareholders (Tai and Chuang 2014). According to
the author, the sole motivation of the manager would be to engage in long-term increase of the
wealth of the shareholder. The author also puts focus on the responsibility of the manager base
on the evaluation of stakeholders and discuss the issue faced during such evaluation. Based on
the different kinds of social responsibility for businesses, it could be discussed that these
businesses should be able to make use of their resources (Epstein 2018). They should also be
able to engage in different kinds of activities, which would be designed for increasing the profits.
The following discussion is focussed on the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility, the
process of implementation and the accompanied real-life examples of companies.
2. Discussion
2.1 Meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) could be defined as the ways in which different
companies would be able to manage the different processes of the business. This would be highly
helpful in producing an overall impact on the society. CSR would be able to cover the aspect of
sustainability, social ethical impacts and the ways in which the core business would be able to
correctly function together (Schultz, Castelló and Morsing 2013). The CSR could also be defined
as a form of business approach that would be able to contribute towards the sustainable

3THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS IS TO INCREASE ITS PROFITS
development of the organization. This would be able to deliver based on social, economic and
environmental benefits based on the stakeholders.
CSR could also be defined as a concept that would be supported with many forms of
practices and definitions. The way of understanding, adopting and implementation of CSR
practices would vary from one company to another. Moreover, CSR could be defined as a broad
concept that would be able to address many and various kinds of topics (Höllerer et al. 2013).
These topics would include corporate governance, human rights, environmental effects, health
and safety, efficient working conditions and various contribution towards economic
development.
Based on the consideration of CSR at the level of organisations, the CSR could be
considered as a form of organisational policy. The CSR should be able to align and thus
integrated within the model of business in order to achieve successful measures within the
business (Khan, Muttakin and Siddiqui 2013). Based on different kinds of ethical perspective, it
could be considered that some businesses and organisations should be able to adopt the policies
and practices of CSR due to the ethical beliefs based on senior management.
2.2 Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility
It would be highly important that the concerned company would be able to operate in
such a way that would be able to demonstrate the social responsibility of the corporate sector.
Though this is not a legal requirement but it could be defined as a good practice for accounting
on the social and environmental issues (Saeidi et al. 2015). Some of the most important benefits
of corporate social responsibility are:

4THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS IS TO INCREASE ITS PROFITS
 Improvement of Brand Image – Consumers would only assess the websites of such
companies that would have a brand image within the highly competitive market. With
the help of improving the quality of the services of the businesses, it would be helpful for
the business to give their best output to the customers (He and Lai 2014). These
customers would be able to use their services and based on the service, they would be
able to put a major feedback about the brand. This would eventually lead to an impact
within the business.
Starbucks focuses on creation of an experience, which would be remembered by the
customers. The company has evolved for taking advantage of the emerging platforms
based on customer engagement. The discussion is based in ‘for’ of the statement. The
company also supports a website, where customers would be able to leave their ideas for
the betterment of the company and improvement of products (Time 2018). This would
improve the level of engagement based within the community and also enhance the
social responsibility of the business. Based on the commitment of the organisation
towards the use of ethical practices, it would be useful to maintain the recognition of the
brand (Tschopp and Nastanski 2014). High quality of performance of the brand would be
helpful for recognising the brand based on the feedback of the customers.
 Differentiation of the Brand – The impact of CSR for the organization would be able to
provide a massive opportunity to stand apart within the highly competitive massive
market. The participation of the concerned organization in different businesses would be
able to benefit the community. This would be extremely beneficial for fostering the
image of the brand (Hur, Kim and Woo 2014). This form of corporate identity would be
integral to the shared impressions of the public.

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Starbucks has differentiated itself from most of the other brands based on a unique and
unconventional method of advertising their products. The company would rarely
advertise their products on newspapers, magazines or billboards. Few of the television
advertisements would generally put focus on the offerings of specific products. These
would mostly highlight the way of preparing the products and also for promotion
campaigns (Time 2018). The company mainly puts focus on the development and
building of brand image based on word-of-mouth channels and also by being visible in
the life of the consumer. The principle of building of brand image and differentiating
themselves is clearly reflected within the promotion of the brand and their adopted
strategies of communication.
With the help of following such kind of principles, it would be helpful that the customers
associated with the organization would remain contented and stay for a longer time
within the organization when they would feel that the organization would be thinking
about their concerns. The company has 13 million Starbucks Reward members. Besides
the success of the company in using useful technologies such as coupon downloads, QR
codes and virtual gift cards, they have also leveraged AI for permitting customers to
place their orders with a messaging interface or a simple voice command (Time 2018).
This form of brand differentiation has led to an increase in customer engagement.
2.3 Implementation Process of Corporate Social Responsibility
The organisations that are able to implement a fully structured and thorough planning
with the help of CSR would be able to demonstrate a trustful form of leadership within the
expanding world of business. The use of corporate social responsibility would imply a certain
process of implementation. This would include:

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 Research on the Objectives of the Organization – The primary step that is taken by the
organization in the implementation of corporate social responsibility is on the
identification of the focus of the current program (Baumann-Pauly et al. 2013).
Narrowing the focus of the organization based on the current program, it could be helpful
for the helpful for the participants of the program to receive the most form of participants.
 Determination of Costs – The impact of CSR would be able to involve different kinds of
financial considerations based on different levels. The organisation should decide upon
several factors based on the issues of cost. Though the focus of CSR is to help in
benefiting others, different organizations should be able to consider their costs (Asif et
al. 2013). This would be helpful for ensuring that the program would be feasible for the
organization.
 Engagement of Employees – The organizations that are successful in the
implementation of CSR would mainly involve the employees. These organization would
mainly encourage their employees in order to make use of their skills for helping in the
cause of the organizations (Bondy and Starkey 2014). These organizations also solicit
feedback from their employees, which would help them in understanding the different
causes in which they would have any form of interests.
 Communication with Stakeholders – An organization would be able to implement the
best form of CSR in order to benefit the recipients of the current program, the employees
and the entire organisation itself. The information in relation to the corporate effort
should be entirely shared with different stakeholders that includes business partners,
community and customers (Jones Christensen, Mackey and Whetten 2014). The various
organisations would be able to promote their social efforts with the help of social media

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websites, news releases and opportunities based on public relations and networking
events.
2.4 Views on the Statement
The statement proposed by Milton Friedman could be approached based on the basis of
‘for’ or ‘against’ the conclusion based on the statement.
Based on the conclusions drawn from the statement, it could be discussed that the pursuit
of social responsibility within a free-enterprise system would be able to represent an
unadulterated form of socialism. The directors of a particular organisation have a particular kind
of responsibility to perform different kinds of acts that would be based on the interest of the
stakeholders (Asif et al. 2013). Based on the approach of the stakeholders, it could be discussed
that the shareholders within an organization would serve as the economic engine within the
organization. The primary goal of different organization would be to maximize the profits. They
would also return a portion of the profits to the respective shareholders. The views regarding the
statement based on Friedman is that there would be only one form of social responsibility for the
approach to the business (Tai and Chuang 2014). This would be based on the using of resources
and engaging within different kinds of activities, which would be designed in order to increase
the profits of the business.
On the other hand, the view against the statement would be that a company would not
have any form of social responsibility to the society or public. The only concern of the company
would be to increase the profits for the organisation. They would also increase the profits for the
shareholders in relation to the organization. The shareholders should be able to decide about the
ways in which they would be able to engage with the shareholders and would also provide
benefits for the society.

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2.5 Real-life Examples
CSR could be thus defined as an idea that a company would be socially involved with the
environment of the organisation. Some of the real-life examples of social responsibility within
businesses are:
 BMW – The primary key for the success of the organisation would be based on
alignment of the organisation. This could be considered as the best example of CSR
techniques due to the balance between the facts based on help on social causes and a
good model of business. The views supported by the author based on the social
responsibility of the business of BMW, argues that free-market capitalism would be able
to increase the social welfare of the people within the organisation.
 Starbucks Coffee – The main factors of success of Starbucks based within the highly
competitive market is based on their initiatives on focusing on the needs of the society
(Schäfer 2016). Starbucks has also set different guidelines in order to increase the quality
of products, economic and social responsibility and management of environment.
 Levi Strauss and Co. – The Company is considered as one another example that would
be able to focus on their efforts based on CSR. The approach followed by the company
would be based on reducing the footprint of the environment by acting within the causes
of environmental and human rights.
 SurveyMonkey – This organisation is popularly known for their popular software based
on the creation of surveys. They have thus created a back program, which would be
helpful for improving the social responsibilities (De Colle, Henriques and Sarasvathy
2014). The example based on the CSR of SurveyMonkey would be based beyond

9THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF BUSINESS IS TO INCREASE ITS PROFITS
engagement of the organisation with their customers. This organisation based on making
betterment for the society. This would help in bringing a good reputation to the company.
3. Conclusion
Based on the conclusions drawn from the research, it could be concluded that social
responsibility could be defined as an idea for different businesses. Based on the Carroll’s CSR
Pyramid Theory, there could be four kinds of theories, which would be responsible for the
success of an organisation. These would also include the engagement of stakeholders and
shareholders who would be responsible to abide by the four responsibilities of Carroll’s Pyramid
Theory that include the economic, legal, philanthropic and ethical. Evaluation of the above
discussion based on the theory, it could be concluded that the impacts of CSR within an
organisation would emphasize on the profits of the organisation. The organisations would be
responsible to abide by the laws, act morally and ethically. They would also have the
responsibility to return something good for the society.

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