Corporate Social Responsibility: Ethics, Legality, and Sustainability

This essay provides an overview of corporate social responsibility (CSR), examining its key concepts such as cognitive biases, motivated reasoning, and the importance of sustainable practices. It discusses how heuristics and emotional attachments can influence decision-making in business and politics, highlighting the ethical implications of biased decisions and unethical marketing strategies, as exemplified by the BlueTEC vehicles case. The essay further explores the role of corporate philanthropy in building a positive brand image and creating shared value, emphasizing the importance of adhering to sustainable guidelines and reducing carbon footprint to achieve ecological balance. It concludes by suggesting practical ways to lower carbon footprint, such as planting trees and consuming less meat, to promote environmental sustainability.

Running head: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Corporate Social Responsibility
Name of the university
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Question 1
Daniel Kahneman won Nobel prize for economics and famous for his book based on
cognitive Biases and heuristics. According to his theory discussed in de Balbian (2017),
Heuristics determines a persons’ intelligence in terms of solving problems quickly yet with
efficiency. Based on oldest version of the theory described in Romanycia and Pelletier
(1985), Heuristic is helpful in case of taking decisions in critical situations. However, it leads
towards biased decisions at times too. While making rational decisions or choices, there are
several cognitive restrictions humans face. The capability of quick decision making depends
on individual intelligence as well as depth of perception. As per the study of Thehindu.com.
(2019), these are limitations of human reasoning too. In case a person is not capable of
understanding a concept or he lacks knowledge over a matter; in that case deciding efficiently
or presenting logical reasoning over that matter is difficult for them as far as theory of
heuristic is concerned.
Question 2
As described in Lenker (2016), motivated reasoning refers to the practice of decision
making influenced by the emotional attachment. Emotional attachment has a biased impact
over logical decisions. Their prior perceptions lead them to evaluate scenarios without
revising the logics. Despite of logics and evidence people generally believe to talk for people
where they have invested their emotional intelligence.
It was back in 1950, when biased decision making practices started to be considered
as noticeable behaviour among people working in press. According to Yeo, Cacciatore and
Scheufele (2015), scholars have identified it as a serious matter in case of press persons as far
as choosing authentic news is concerned. This practice has been shaping media environment
since last 50 years or more. Individual moral sense, knowledge and ethical orientation helps

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to cut out the tendency of influence decision making behaviour. However, if current mode of
media platforms are concerned; people do have opportunity to air their grievances. Therefore,
variety of information is increasing which delivers chances of accessing various arguments.
Not only the case of media content, but also in cases of political decision making one can find
existence of biased decisions everywhere. Political power is capable of deciding various fates
along with influence people with ideologies. Biased political information or government
decisions shape young generations’ intellect. Although, such practices cannot be accepted yet
this is the most common behaviour within political and media platforms.
Question 3
A business is termed as responsible and legal only if it is adhering to the sustainable
guidelines. A business with social, economic and environment responsibility is considered to
be the right choice of customers too. According to Futerra’s ten signs of greenwash, as
supported by Truthinadvertising.org. (2019), the third one instructs to promote green images
like controlled pollution before launching vehicles. Moreover, as described in fourth rule,
BlueTEC vehicles has made some irrelevant claims regarding green fuel system yet in reality
which is not true. The company was accused of making diesel engines which discharge
contaminants more than its legal units. Although they have marketed the engine as “earth
friendly” and clean diesel engine yet report says their engine spew 65 times higher Nitrogen
Oxides than the guideline allows. Therefore, the company was accused of projecting false
claims and following unethical marketing strategy. For consulting the company not only
Mercedes-Benz but also Volkswagen were accused of aligning with the company. Although,
Volkswagen has tried to reprogram the engine to remain safe and guilt free during pollution
test.

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Question 4
A business organisation will be able to build a positive brand image only if the
organisation is believer of creating shared value instead of thinking only about profitability.
Corporate philanthropy is a part of company’s CSR policy. This concept helps to promote
business through publicizing acts of charitable donations. As supported by Šontaitė-
Petkevičienė (2015), corporate philanthropy is the process of giving away some of the gained
value in order to develop society, overcome economic and environmental crisis.
Acknowledging the social, environmental and economic need organisations are expected to
perform in a specific way where they shows responsible behaviour towards burning issues of
society. Donating money or aids to educational and social needs are considered as responsible
business practice. The tendency among consumers is to choose products from responsible
companies, is the major reason behind a business’s concentration over philanthropic
practices. Therefore, adherence to philanthropic philosophy can increase competitive
advantage and profitability along with developing social image of organisation.
Simultaneously, it can create value together with society.
Question 5
According to Carbontrust.com. (2019), carbon footprint is measured multiplying
emissions of each of the six greenhouse gases by its global warming potential for next 100
years. Organisational carbon footprint includes, the usage of energy, suppliers’ adherence to
green technology, recyclable products and how raw materials are being processed. As
discussed in Overshootday.org. (2019), earth overshoot day is basically a method of
calculating the ecological deficit globally in terms of balancing people’s capacity of
exploring resources and earth’s potential to renew that same amount of natural resources
within a gap of one year. Reducing carbon footprint will help to maintain the balance and
celebrate the target of not crossing the potential of earth. It involves the task of controlling

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population as per the capacity of a particular area. It will help to restrict rapid usage of
resources and develop economy.
There are various ways to lower carbon footprint. Among all the solutions plating
trees, designing own garden can seriously mitigate issues of increased green house gases
within environment. Urban areas are filled with factories along with rapid establishment of
housings where people need trees for shade and tranquillity. Consuming lesser meats can also
help to make a huge difference to issues of climate change. The practice is not popular as
people do not know connection between the meat consumption and climate change. It is
surprising yet true that to satisfy the needs of meat, ecosystem is being damaged gradually.
Saving electricity is another way to reducing footprint.

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References
Carbontrust.com. (2019). Carbon Footprinting Guide | Resources & Guides | Carbon Trust.
Retrieved from https://www.carbontrust.com/resources/guides/carbon-footprinting-
and-reporting/carbon-footprinting/
de Balbian, U. (2017). Philosophers' Thinking (Heuristics and Problem-Solving( Volume 2).
Lenker, M. (2016). Motivated reasoning, political information, and information literacy
education. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 16(3), 511-528.
Overshootday.org. (2019). About Earth Overshoot Day. Retrieved from
https://www.overshootday.org/about-earth-overshoot-day/
Romanycia, M. H., & Pelletier, F. J. (1985). What is a heuristic?. Computational
Intelligence, 1(1), 47-58.
Šontaitė-Petkevičienė, M. (2015). CSR reasons, practices and impact to corporate
reputation. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 213, 503-508.
Thehindu.com. (2019). What is motivated reasoning in psychology. Retrieved from
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/what-is-motivated-reasoning-in-
psychology/article23962224.ece
Truthinadvertising.org. (2019). Earth Day 2016: Seven Companies Accused of Greenwashing
| Truth In Advertising. Retrieved from https://www.truthinadvertising.org/six-
companies-accused-greenwashing/
Yeo, S. K., Cacciatore, M. A., & Scheufele, D. A. (2015). News selectivity and beyond:
Motivated reasoning in a changing media environment. In Publizistik und
gesellschaftliche Verantwortung (pp. 83-104). Springer VS, Wiesbaden.