The Impact of CSR on Waitrose's Marketing and Financial Sustainability

This project examines the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on Waitrose, a prominent retail company, focusing on its marketing department, profitability, and financial sustainability. The project begins with a detailed project proposal outlining the aims, objectives, project management plan, and timeline. It then delves into a comprehensive research project, employing a research onion framework, post-positivism philosophy, and a deductive approach. The research design incorporates a descriptive approach and utilizes primary research methods, including surveys with close-ended questions to collect quantitative data from Waitrose employees. The sampling technique is based on probability sampling. The project also addresses accessibility and ethical issues, including data reliability and validity, while acknowledging research limitations. Quantitative data analysis is performed to interpret the survey results. The project aims to identify the influence of CSR on brand reputation, sales, employee engagement, investor attraction, customer retention, and overall profitability, with the ultimate goal of providing recommendations to enhance Waitrose's CSR strategies for improved financial sustainability. Finally, a critical reflection of the entire project is included.

MANAGING SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
(THE IMPACT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
ON THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT WITHIN JOHN LEWIS
TO PROMOTE PROFITABILITY AND FINANCIAL
SUSTAINABILITY)
1

Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1: Project Proposal..................................................................................................................3
Task 2: Research Project.................................................................................................................6
Task 3: Quantitative Data Analysis...............................................................................................10
Task 4 : Critical Reflection............................................................................................................17
Reference List................................................................................................................................18
2

Introduction
In the modern times, corporate social responsibility is one of the standard business ethics
practised by the organisations. Companies that are committed to its corporate social
responsibilities possess an enhanced reputation and stands out in the cynical business
environment. A crucial part of the organisation’s competitive advantages is the establishment of
the CSR strategies. Carroll, A.B. (2015) stated that CSR strategies help to promote the
profitability of the company and contributes to the sustainable development. CSR mainly
constitutes policies and several procedures that integrate and practice the social, ethical,
environmental and consumer concerns. These concerns should be to the core of the business
operations and strategies and must include the company’s stakeholders. The current assignment
will initially prepare a project proposal, and then conduct a research on the extent to which CSR
of Waitrose contributes to its profitability and sustainability. At the end, recommendations are
provided on modifying the CSR strategies of Waitrose.
Task 1: Project Proposal
LO1
Project aims and Objectives
The research will focus on the Waitrose Company and its corporate social responsibility.
Corporate Social responsibility is considered to be the inseparable and core component of the
service or product offerings. Ragas and Culp (2014) opined that the ethical practices and
maintenance of rules by the company benefits the marketing department as well as the
employees. According to McWilliams (2014), if the employees are satisfied with the employees,
they will work hard and improve the company’s performances.
The aim of the research is to identify the extent of the impact of corporate social responsibility
on the marketing department of Waitrose.
Based on the mentioned aim of the research, the objectives of the study are:
● To identify the impact of corporate social responsibility on brand reputation and sales
● To identify the relation between employee engagement and corporate social
responsibility of Waitrose
● To understand the effect of corporate social responsibility on attracting and retaining
investors
3

● To analyse the customer retention abilities of CSR
● To identify the degree of profitability increase as a result of practising CSR
● To identify the influence of corporate social responsibility on Waitrose’s financial
sustainability
Project Management Plan
Cheng et al. (2015) mentioned that the project management plan is required for a better
understanding of the requirements of the project. The sales manager of Waitrose has appointed
the researcher to carry out a research of the CSR practised by Waitrose to increase their
efficiency, functions and reputation. The project will result in a clear understanding of the effects
of CSR on Waitrose’s profitability and financial sustainability.
Project Management Approach
According to Di Giuli and Kostovetsky (2014), the project management approach is needed so as
to scrutinize and monitor the working of the project in an able and apt manner. The project
manager will control the entire project. The manager will be responsible for the total
management and execution of the project. The project team will assist the manager in conducting
the surveys and finding information. They will check the maintenance of quality, technical fields
and test the reliability of the findings. Frynas (2015) mentioned that the project team acts as a
matrix, in which the members will report each of the findings. The manager will be responsible
for communication among the team members about the conduction of the program in an orderly
manner.
Project Breakdown Structure and Timeline
According to Dahlsrud (2015), it is important to breakdown the work of the project in order to
properly segment the division of labours between the people or the workers in any organization.
It is imperative for any work or in this case the project to be organized in an orderly manner for
the fruitful completion of the work. The project and its supplements should be distributed in an
orderly manner, as it would aid in the proper completion of the project. In order to conduct the
breakdown structure a timeline is to be generated so that it helps in the conduction of the
programme.
The table presents the timetable for the research:
4

Stage of the research Days and
Months required
Commence
Date
Close
date
FIRST STAGE: Primary Research
a) Research topic identification 1 day
b) Internet and Library
research
1 month
SECOND STAGE: Plan
a) Preparing the research plan 15 days
THIRD STAGE: Initial Writing
a) Writing the different sections 15 days
b) Conduction of qualitative
and quantitative research
2 months
FOURTH STAGE: Compilation of first part
a) First draft compilation 15 days
b) Research flow check 5 days
c) Scrutiny of the length 1day
d) Editing and further research 7 days
FIFTH STAGE: Final Compilation
5

a) Checking the errors 5 days
b) Final preparation for
submission
3 days
c) Final edit with proof-reading 5 days
d) Compilation of Bibliography 7 days
e) Final binding of the proposal 2 days
f) Submission of the project 2 days
Table 1: Time-Table for the dissertation
(Source: Self-Created)
Task 2: Research Project
LO2: Research methodology:
2.1 Introduction:
Research methodology is the most systematic and theoretical methodology associated with
researchers while collecting primary and secondary data. This chapter will not only helps in
studying appropriate tools in collecting real and authentic data from the employees but also helps
the researcher in analyzing the entire research related to the Waitrose Company’s corporate
social responsibility and its implication on profitability and financial structure.
2.2 Research onion:
6

Figure 2.1: Research onion.
(Source: Saunders et al. 2015, p. 85)
According to Saunders et al. (2015), the research onion will be formulated to explain at every
stage in developing the various strategies of research. It will provide an effective tool which
conducts research method which will be further used in various context of the implication
company's corporate social responsibility on profitability.
2.3 Research philosophy:
In this topic the research has selected post positivism research philosophy because this
philosophy helps in analyzing the impact of corporate social responsibility to promote
profitability and financial sustainability efficiently.
2.4 Research Approach:
Here the researcher will prefer deductive approach because the deductive approach is less time
consuming and gives clear and transparent conclusion and it will also help in transforming the
general information into specific information (Lardbucket.org, 2013).
2.5 Research Design:
7

In the research design methodology the descriptive approach will be considered for describing
and identifying the impact of corporate social responsibility in affecting the profitability and
financial sustainability.
2.6 Research Methods:
Primary methods will be considered in this research project to collect information on the
effectiveness of corporate social responsibility on sustaining finance and profit of the Waitrose
Company.
2.7 Data Collection Method:
The researcher will focus on the quantitative methods where information will be collected from
various employees of the Waitrose Company by conducting survey regarding the implication of
Corporate Social Responsibility and their sustaining function on financial and profitability
structure.
2.8 Data Collection Tools:
The researcher would mainly focuses on close ended questions which will be asked to various
employees of the Waitrose Company in order to understand the increase in the degree of
profitability due to corporate social responsibility. It will also use to analyze the employee's
retention abilities due to corporate social responsibilities, (Ccrm.in, 2016).
2.9 Sampling Technique:
The researcher will select probability sampling technique for this research project in order to
gather information from the employees. This sampling technique will be taken because it will
give an unbiased result. The employees of Waitrose Company will share their opinion about the
effectiveness of corporate social responsibility on their working culture with the company.
2.10 Population and Sampling Size:
The researcher will carry out a survey on the employees of the Waitrose Company in order to
extract the relevant information and knowledge of the compactness of corporate social
responsibility on the company itself. Here the researcher will conduct the survey on 10
employees choosing randomly to get the relative unbiased information, (Arxiv.org, 2015).
2.11 Research Strategy:
The researcher will switch to the survey of the employees of the Waitrose Company. This survey
will prove to be an efficient strategy that will help in the research project immensely in gathering
the required information about the company’s application of corporate social responsibility on
8

financial and profitable strategy. The survey will be conducted on 10 employees. It is highly cost
effective and will help in collecting real life data regarding the working conditions of the
employees and other factors which affects their overall participation in the operations of the
company regarding its sustainability in the long run.
2.12 Accessibility Issues:
The researcher while accessing the relative data of the Waitrose company’s corporate social
responsibility will face various accessibility issues like unavailability of proper theories which
will define the Corporate social responsibility, the researcher will also lack accessibility in
finding the company’s employees trust while conducting the survey. The customer’s retention
abilities are also another issue which will have difficult to access.
2.13 Ethical Issues:
The researcher will go to conduct the research with proper interpretation and maintenance. It
should follow some basic ethical code of conduct like the ideas which will be gathered from the
research should be not used in any kind of commercial purpose. The researcher will maintain
privacy with the managers of the Waitrose Company regarding its knowledge and information.
The researcher will maintain the anonymity of the employees surveyed in the research and most
importantly the researcher will take permission from the company management of Waitrose
before conducting the survey. His entire research work and survey conducting will be done
according to Data Protection Act, 1998.
2.14 Reliability and Validity of Data:
The researcher who will collect the data, information and knowledge regarding the effectiveness
of the corporate social responsibility on the company’s marketing structure and profitability will
be genuine and authentic. The data will be valid with the knowledge of the employees and the
management of the company. The data will also be reliable enough to draw any conclusion from
the findings
2.15 Research limitation:
The researcher while gathering the data about the Waitrose Company might face difficulty in
doing the research work. There are several limitation while completing the research methodology
like low time frame, he might not get proper data in due time, there is also a fear of huge
generalization of data gathered from the employees, the researcher can also face low budget
problem. The researchers also have the difficulty to find any relevant theory regarding the
9

effectiveness of social corporate responsibility on company’s profitability and financial
sustainability.
2.16 Summary:
The chapter is consisted of various statistical and analytical methods which will help the
researcher in conducting his research on the Waitrose Company to identify the effect of social
corporate responsibility on company financial and profitability structure. The researcher will
undertake the post positivism approach in designing the descriptive research design to collect
primary qualitative data. It also says the researcher will conduct close-ended questions to
employees to conduct the survey. The researcher will switch to probability sampling for getting
effective results which will help him to analyze the implication of corporate social responsibility
on company’s financial structure and to maintain sustainability in profit.
Task 3: Quantitative Data Analysis
In this chapter, the researcher strives to frame a suitable research methodology for carrying out
the research effectively. For this purpose, the researcher gathers knowledge from several
theoretical underpinnings and conceptual models in the previous chapter. Appropriate selection
of research methodology assists the learner in solving the problems that have been raised in the
study so that the desired objective based results are obtained. The researcher has used data
representation process for the representation of the collection of the data, which is being gained,
through the survey. All data are being represented properly for the execution of the research
Survey of 10 employees with respect to CSR
In this project under the organization Waitrose survey of question is being done among the 10
employees to check whether the application of Corporate Social Responsibility will able to
provide a core component in the service or product of the respective company. The survey of the
10 employees is given below:
Q 1: Can corporate social responsibility will able to create a good impact in the sales and
brand reputation?
Options Participants Respondents Percentage
Yes 10 7 70%
10

No 10 0 0%
Maybe 10 3 30%
Yes No Maybe
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
10 10 10
7
0
3
70%
0% 30%
Participants
Respondents
Percentage
In this survey question it can be seen that a majority of the respondents which is about 70% of
the respondents or 7 out of 10 respondents agrees with that the social responsibility will create a
good impact in the sales and reputation of the band. The remaining 30% of the respondents or 3
out of 10 respondents are not sure about how it will bring change in the sales and brand
reputation.
Q 2: Can the effect of the CSR be able to attract and retain several investors?
Options Participants Respondents Percentage
Yes 10 8 80%
No 10 1 10%
Maybe 10 1 10%
11

Yes No Maybe
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
10 10 10
8
1 180%
10% 10%
Participants
Respondents
Percentage
In the given survey question it can be seen that majority of the respondents which is about 80%
of the respondents or 8 out of 10 respondents agrees that the effect of the CSR will attract and
retain many investors for the organization. The other 10 % of the respondents or 1 out of 10
respondents does not agree with the term that will it will attract more investors. The remaining
10% is not sure whether the implementation of CSR will attract more investors.
Q 3: Can the degree of profitability will able to increase in the organization for practicing
the implementation of CSR?
Options Participants Respondents Percentage
Yes 10 6 60%
No 10 1 10%
Maybe 10 3 30%
12