Mark & Spencer's CSR: Evaluating Issues and Benefits in Retail Sector

This report evaluates the issues and benefits of adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within the retail sector, focusing on a case study of Mark & Spencer (M&S). It begins by defining CSR as practices that positively influence the world and promote sustainability. The research aims to identify the challenges and advantages of CSR implementation at M&S, addressing questions about the meaning of CSR, issues faced by the retail sector, benefits for M&S, and strategic recommendations. The literature review explores the meaning of CSR, challenges such as resource constraints and conflicting stakeholder interests, and advantages like enhanced brand image and employee engagement. The report also touches upon the importance of transparency, ethical standards, and the need for employee training to overcome CSR challenges. It concludes by offering recommendations for M&S to improve its CSR practices, emphasizing the importance of community involvement and sustainable development.

SUMMATIVE PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPIC..............................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background of the study..............................................................................................................3
Research aim and objectives........................................................................................................3
Research Questions......................................................................................................................4
Problem statement.......................................................................................................................4
Rationale......................................................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
Theme 1: Understanding the meaning of CSR............................................................................4
Theme 2: Issues and challenges with CSR for retail sector.........................................................6
Theme 3: Advantage of adopting CSR practices.........................................................................8
Primary and secondary research..................................................................................................9
Critically review of research result............................................................................................15
Recommendation and Action plan.............................................................................................18
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................25

TOPIC
To evaluate issues and benefits of adopting corporate social responsibility within an
organization in context of retail sector- A study on Mark and Spencer’s.
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) are practices that are undertaken by the organisations
to create positive influence on world. Firms have responsibility to do good for the society and to
move forwards towards sustainability in order to reduce the carbon footprints from their
operational tasks (Rashid and et.al 2020). CSR means that company must require to be self-
regulate their actions and approaches to become more socially accountable to their different
stakeholders, environment. CSR plays a significant role in developing the organisational brand
perception, attractiveness to the consumers, workers and investors and give overall successful
image to the business. There are four type of approaches which the company can proceed with
which are to begin with environmental initiatives, community work, volunteer work and ethical
practices for the labours. However, there are many firms who faces problem in implementing the
CSR in their business functionalities.
Following project highlights the study on Mark and Spencer company a British
multinational retailer company, headquarter is present in London, England. They offer good
range of products and services to their customer. Following project covers the research
methodologies, literature reviews and aims or objectives of the study that helps in developing the
understanding about the CSR values.
Research aim and objectives
Aim
The aim behind conducting current research is to determine the issues and benefits of
corporate social responsibility within the Mark and Spencer’s.
Objectives

 To develop an understanding about the concept of corporate social responsibility.
 To analyse various issues and challenges of CSR practices within the retail sector.
 To evaluate certain benefits of adopting corporate social responsibility within Mark and
Spencer’s.
 To recommend strategies that enable the M&S to resolve corporate social responsibility
issues.
Research Questions
1. What is the meaning of corporate social responsibility?
2. What are the CSR issues and challenges faced by retail sector?
3. What are the benefits of adopting CSR practices by Mark and Spencer’s?
4. What are appropriate recommendations in context of strategies to adopt in order to handle
CSR issues?
Problem statement
Issue has been identified that company is facing problem in adopting the CSR value as it is
difficult as environmental management, stakeholder’s engagement, human rights and so on
creating major challenges for the organisation. As involving CSR is itself a biggest challenge for
which the company require proper commitment and strategy to get benefit of it to smoothly run
their business.
Rationale
Rationale behind conducting research on this topic is to bring concern about CSR in context
with the M&S organisation. This study will help in fulfilling the loop holes which is found in
previous study (Lu and Wang, 2021). This topic is becoming a major issue which the businesses
are concern with also lack of participation from communities in such also a barrier. Therefore, it
is important to have detailed information regarding topic to analyse its benefits and challenges
associated with it.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1: Understanding the meaning of CSR
According to the Yoo and Lee, (2018) CSR refer as the international private business
regulations that mainly aims to contribute towards the society and to account the responsibility to

reduce the environmental impact and promote good development in community. Its goal is to
activate the charitable nature by engaging people and supporting various volunteer program or to
practices the code of ethics. It plays a significant role for the organisation to provide the benefits
in terms of longer productivity and potential customer base, where the businesses play their
social responsibility to help community for the development and also follow some measure to
control the pollution that are created by their operational tasks. It enables the businesses to
embrace the CSR for becoming environmental friendly and encourage the equality and diversity
at the work place to ensure the ethical and efficient business decisions. However, author Kim and
et.al (2020) said that implementing CSR within businesses cost more as lack of resource
availability which involve the human capitals, knowledge, finance resources plays a role of
barrier to implement such practices. Lack of strategic mission and vision is another factor that
hinders CSR implementation, as proceeding with CSR involves the major control of the
processes which are working conditions, environmental, to prevent corruption, basic human
rights. Thus all requires a proper strategy to begin with in order to incorporate with CSR
practices.
Author Kucharska and Kowalczyk, (2019) stated that major purpose of CSR is to
encourage the employee engagement, as if the businesses are more socially responsible then the
greater engagement within workplace is found that guide in achieving the sustainable goals and
objectives. Businesses have the dedicated CSR team that concentrates on charity work, to raise
the fund various programs are conducts with the aim of involving the workforce towards the
societal work. Such activities help in boosting the morale of employee and develop meaning for
them outside of their work as well, it helps in mental wellbeing of the employees. Thus various
charity programs held by the businesses helps in guiding the community towards development
and their betterment, it develops the better relationship between community and organisation.
Author also said that it helps the businesses in improvising their brand image, as it is found that
almost 87 percent of the customers in UK market expects from the organisation to concern with
the societal impact, thus 70 percent of the people prefer buying from such organisation who are
socially accountable. Therefore, it helps in building the better and efficient brand image which
helps in driving the good revenues for the business as well as promote the better cash inflow in
the market.

However, author Wang, Lo and Lam, (2020) argued that It become more challenging for
the businesses to begin with such strategies, for this they have to undertake major changes and to
make their team to be more socially responsible and reduces the wastage and lay out the best
utilisation of the resources. as to often go green with the product packaging requires a lots of
investment which can give lots of pressure over the financial resources. better workforce team is
also required to adapt the change and to make the desired sustainable goals achievable for their
organisation. It is also important to look into the business values, visions and missions to identify
which initiatives can be best align to the business objective and culture. CSR generally makes the
businesses to stand out and to develop the better socially conscious reputation as it is clearly
identified that stakeholders usually prioritize the CSR for selecting the certain products in the
market. Furthermore, firms involve the CSR for the ethical purposes as far from the strategic
perception CSR helps in enhancing the profitability rate. It also helps in developing good relation
with the public and with the use of high ethical standards businesses will be able to reduce the
chances for the legal risks by undertaking the certain corporate actions.
Theme 2: Issues and challenges with CSR for retail sector
As per the view of Yadlapalli, Rahman and Gunasekaran, (2020) along with various
benefits with the CSR there are some challenges and issues associated with it. Initial challenge is
that businesses only shows their duties towards the shareholders. It is found that more often
consumer confuse with the business goals and objective with their CSR concept, it is said that
sole interest of the businesses is only limit to the stakeholder interest. Moreover, anything which
done against it refer as violation of the business fundamental principles in result it does not
consider by the community. Therefore, it is important to implement the CSR with better vision
and goals. Another challenge is failure of consumers to identify the business through CSR, as it
is analysed that certain activities and programs that conducts by the organisation helps the
community but sometime it is negligible by the community. Also the amount of input that is
provided by the business in result they do not get the estimated output. In contradict with above
statement author Yucel, (2018) said that CSR helps the businesses as well as it benefits the
society as CSR promotes the value driven for both community and organisation. Author also said
that businesses not mainly aim for their benefit only they support community for not only their
own benefit but with aim to help community in their development, thus it does not matter what
output they will get in return by supporting community.

Author Maquet and Desmet stated that there are various specific barriers regarding the whole
industry with the CSR, as sectors are showing their low willingness towards to pay for the CSR.
Despite of the fact that consumers are more likely to prefer the products from the firms which are
following the CSR practices, there are some firms which do not willingly invest on CSR values
because they thought of it as huge investment that affects their financial resources. Author also
said that consumer do not compromise when it comes to invest a premium for the CSR, they do
not buy the products from the firm which do not shows their social accountability. However,
author Barnett, Henriques and Husted, (2020) said that high regulatory standards is also a
challenge, as in retail sector it is found that most of the stakeholders are concern with the
environmental, employee safety and their wellbeing factor. Thereby it forces the businesses to
consider the environmental and safety performance by continually raising the amendments with
the regulations also to force the industry to deal with the new standards and regulations. It is
analysed that even for the large enterprise investment on the CSR can be burden author proposed
that CSR can be consider as the practice of futility, as organisation have the responsibility
towards their shareholders, investors and CSR usually opposes it, as the duty of higher executive
to the investors is just to enhance the profits.
Author Barnett, Henriques and Husted, (2020) said that any kind of stakeholders which are
team members, shareholders, consumers, suppliers all demands for the transparency and
accountability from the corporation. Thus in such businesses feels the pressure and challenge to
practice all the practices in organising and analysing their information which shows the proper
and clear report of finance and other business activities. However, it is often found that
businesses feel more pressure from the investors as to account the transparency and better
implementation of the CSR will require a other investment thus fails in create negative impact
over the overall business performance, in such there are more chances to face conflicts with the
investors that is not good for the business. Author further concluded that it is important for the
businesses to present the united front with respect to the business ethics and also to be
responsible with the political, social and environmental challenges, in such organisation fails in
getting all together especially when the businesses have the different priorities. Thus in such it is
important to conduct the training and development programs for the employees to enhance the
better level of engagement and to practice the better strategies in enabling the secure and safer
work place for employees that helps in overcoming the CSR challenges.

Theme 3: Advantage of adopting CSR practices
According to the Malik, Al Mamun and Amin, (2019) corporate social responsibility
states as strategies that have been incorporated by companies into action as a part of corporate
governance that has been designed in order to make sure about the company operations those are
beneficial and ethical for the society. CSR comes into many formats irresopective of the size of
the business whether it is little or large are expected to fulfil the basic requirements of the society
as well as community by adopting best CSR practices. It has been created in order to make
progressive CSR program that provide back to the people and the planet along with the one that
constantly depend upon the shifts those are depending upon current social as well as economic
environment.
As per the views of Chi, Zhang and Liu, (2019) CSR provides various benefits and
advantages to the establishment such as it helps the firm to increase employee engagement. It is
not just a concept related to the key performance indicators in order to measure the effectiveness
of CSR practices. Basically it is a positive Metrix to evaluate business performances. Providing
back to the community is a kind of virtuous circle under which engaged employees are enriched
by providing volunteering opportunities that further helps them to engage and encourage the
employees. This practice also enables the firm to improve the bottom line financials. It also
enables the firm to support local as well as global communities through which the companies
gets huge amount of benefits by showcasing their CSR initiatives. With an organization, the HR
managers tries their maximum to collect like minded talented people who are responsibly
working towards one common goal.
Moreover, Guzzo and et.al., (2022) illustrates that the CSR practices assist in enhancing
the investment opportunities for the firm. Moreover great amount of CSR practices helps into
excellent press which shows the struggle of gaining online popularity over CSR initiatives which
also provide appropriate route to market. From various studies it has been evaluated that
employees beliefs over CSR initiatives taken by the companies can impact workplace attitudes,
generate trust level among top management, provide job satisfaction as well as the performance
of employees. The employees are the biggest and foremost brand ambassadors who lead the
concept of authenticity as well as authentic publication opportunities. Furthermore, it also
enhances the customer retention level as well as the loyalty of employees towards the company.
Appropriately making CSR practices helps the firm to give them a chance to showcase over

constant basis along with win the loyalty of consumers. This action finally lead towards
conversion of customers into retention and thus able to enhance the sales volume of the
company. Various studies highlights that the people are highly interested to purchase items and
products from those companies who appropriately fulfil the requirement of society as well as di
something for the betterment of the overall community. This shows the better alignment of
values of the company towards the society due to which sometimes the customers are ready to
pay even more prices for the offered goods as well as services.
Author Amiraslani and et.al (2018) stated that along with various benefit which the CSR
offers, it Also helps in encouraging the professional as well as personal growth, as when the
businesses have the culture for CSR they are often seen as efficient in encouraging the
volunteerism to their worker as well as enable them to donate to the non-profits. In such workers
become individually minded when their firm motivates their behaviour. Also by reducing the
waste and emission guides the businesses to help the environment it also allows them to save
money, CSR also empower the businesses to compete in their field as consumer only look for the
product where the businesses are usually following CSR values.
Primary and secondary research
In order to elaborate the aspects related to the specific topic of the study, the primary as
well as secondary research method has been utilized. For primary data, the questionnaire has
been prepared and filled by 20 employees of Mark and Spencers in order to mitigate or identify
corporate social responsibility issues along with their benefits of adopting them into appropriate
manner.
Theme 1: Maximum number of employees do agree that they are very much aware about the
theme of social responsibility.
Do you understand the concept of social
responsibility?
Outcome
Yes 19
No 1

Total 20
Interpretation: From the above pie chart it has been interpreted that maximum number of
employees i.e. Around 95% share their vote in favour that theye are highly able to understand the
concept of social responsibility while 5% are still unable to understand the aspects in detail.
Theme 2: Majority of employees do highlight that the policies towards employees is the
appropriate area of social responsibility which is extremely important for the company.
Which area of social responsibility is highly
significant for your company?
Outcome
Policy towards employees 11
Relationship with clients and suppliers 4
Environment protection 3
Relationship with the community 2
Total 20
95%
5%
Understanding the concept of social responsibility
Yes
No

Interpretation: From the above pie chart, it has been elaborated that as per maximum number of
employees such as around 55% out of the total do states that the policy towards the employees is
the area of social responsibility which requires extreme attention of the company. Although other
options also have been considered by the employees such as relationship with clients and
suppliers got 20% votes, 15% employees share their consent in favour of environment protection
and the remaining 10% go for relationship with community option.
Theme 3: Majority number of employees do share their vote in favour of irregular work which is
the major problem according to them within the enterprise.
Which of the following problem your
company has recently faced?
Outcome
Employee safety 5
Irregular work 8
Fair pay 4
Over time 3
Total 20
55%
20%
15%
10%
Area of social responsibility which is highly important for
company
Policy towards employees
Relationship with clients and
suppliers
Environment protection
Relationship with the
community

Interpretation: From the above illustrative diagram, it has been analysed that majority number
of employees i.e. 40% do share their views in favour that irregular work is the major iossue faced
by Mark and Spencer. While 25% employees voted for employee safety issues. On the other
hand there are few employees such as 20% who voted for fair pay scale and remaining 15%
voted for over time issue.
Theme 4: Increasing efficiency level and enhancing corporate reputation both option get equal
amount of votes in order to elaborate the benefits of adoption of adopting appropriate social
responsibility.
What do you think could be the main
benefit of the adoption of measures for
social responsibility?
Outcome
Enhancing corporate reputation 6
Improving relationship with suppliers and 3
25%
40%
20%
15%
Major problem faced by company
Employee safety
Irregular work
Fair pay
Over time