Dissertation Proposal: CSR's Impact on Nike's Business Growth

This dissertation proposal investigates the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business growth, with a specific focus on Nike. The proposal outlines the research topic, objectives, and a comprehensive literature review exploring the benefits and issues associated with CSR. It...Read More

Dissertation Proposal
( Corporate social
responsibility and the impact on
business growth. A case on
Nike)

Table of Contents
RESEARCHABLE TOPIC AREA..................................................................................................2
OBJECTIVES FOR THE RESEARCH:.........................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................................................4
DETAILS OF YOUR RESEARCH................................................................................................7
RESEARCH ETHICS....................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
TIMETABLE FOR YOUR RESEARCH......................................................................................11
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES......................................................................................13
.......................................................................................................................................................14

RESEARCHABLE TOPIC AREA
Background of the research
Corporate social responsibility is an effective business approach that contributes to
sustainable development by delivering environmental, social and economic benefits for all
stakeholders. It is a self-regulating business model that assists an organisation be socially
responsible to itself (Abdullah and Abdul Aziz, 2013). For this project given organisation is Nike
which is an American multinational organisation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, in the
Portland metropolitan area. It was founded on January 25, 1964 by Bill Bowerman, Phil Knight.
In order to develop overall business growth and reputation in market, company should follow
CSR activities which will help them in retaining strong relation with customers and many other
stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility has direct impact on business growth of Nike. There
are some impact of corporate social responsibility on growth of organisation, including, better
brand recognition, positive business reputation, increased sales and customer loyalty, operational
costs saving, better financial performance, organisational growth, easier access to capital, greater
ability to attract talent and retain employee etc. All these are major benefits of CSR which will
help an enterprise to improve their growth and reputation in market. (Dutot, Lacalle Galvez and
Versailles, 2016). Thus, CSR is essential for Nike by improving its public image, increasing
brand awareness and recognition, increasing customer engagement, providing greater employee
engagement, more benefits for workers, saving organisation's cost and providing advantage over
competitors.
Issues of the research
There are different issues related with corporate social responsibility such as global
climate change, other environmental concerns, health and safety of employees, challenge and
promise of CSR etc. All these are major issues that effects on reputation and growth of company
at market. (El-Garaihy, Mobarak and Albahussain, 2014). Abusive practices within working
environment of an organisation are considered by many to be one of the major serious categories
of social issue in enterprise, and are a main challenge to enterprise that want to organise
themselves with greater social responsibility. Thus, it is a biggest issue ad in order to overcome
this issues, company conduct a research program. This will help an enterprise in reducing
negative impact of CSR on their growth and reputation.

OBJECTIVES FOR THE RESEARCH:
 To understand the benefits associated with integration of CSR in different business
strategies within 1 month of time period to analyze its contribution in process of building
the Growth of an organization.
 To Implement CSR activities Within 2 months of time period to ascertain its positive
impact on existing business strategies and its influence over the growth of an
organisation.
 To improve the profitability of an organization at global level by 20% after
implementation of CSR activities within existing strategies of business within 2 months
of time period.
CSR is a biggest concept that help an organisation by providing positive impact, related
to improving reputation and developing business strategies at different level (Guthey and
Morsing, 2014). It provides potential outcomes to Nike like: better brand recognition, positive
business reputation, maximised sales and customer loyalty etc. It will also help an enterprise in
identification of CSR issues like legal, economic, ethical and environmental as well as by
providing ways through which company can easily overcome such issues. Thus, corporate social
responsibility has positive impact upon growth and success of an organisation.

LITERATURE REVIEW
It is a comprehensive summary of past study on a specific topic. It includes scholarly
articles, books, journals and many other relevant sources to a specific field of study. It should
provide a theoretical base for the study and support a researcher to determine the nature of
research (Esen, 2013). With the help of this section, researcher can easily address above
mentioned all SMART objectives which are determined as under:
Benefits of CSR in different business strategies to analyze its contribution in process of
building the growth of Nike.
According to Sammi Caramela, 2018, CSR is simple way for organisations to take
responsibility for the environmental and social influences of their business operations. It is the
integration of socially beneficial practices and programs into an enterprise's business culture and
model. Main aim of CSR is to enhance long term profits for offline and online companies by
enabling them to become more attract and efficient positive attention for their efforts. Apart from
this, business strategy can be understood as the set of decision or course of action which support
the leaders or managers in accomplishing specific business objectives.
According to Abhijeet Pratap, 2018, Nike is one of the best known and multinational
brands in sports shoes. Company has been best known for its great products and fabulous
advertising and marketing strategy. However, corporate social responsibility have also an
essential aspect of an organisation's image. Most multinational companies have made large
investments into environmental and social initiatives. In the organisation, different levels of
business strategies and in which role of CSR for building the growth of company are determine
as below:
Corporate Level strategy: It is action-oriented, long range, comprehensive and integrated
plan formulated by upper level management. In this level of strategy, CSR play important role by
improving its growth and success in market. For example: If organisation committed to ethical
practices, large number of people hear about their brand, which develops an increased brand
awareness and also improved growth of company.
Business Level strategy: This type of strategy is created by general manager of Nike,
who convert vision and mission into concrete strategies (Abdullah and Abdul Aziz, 2013). In
this level, corporate social responsibility play vital role by enhancing growth, increasing brand
awareness, maximising customer and engaging large number of employees of an organisation.

Thus, it will help an enterprise to improve their growth and retain strong position in market.
Along with this, Nike is now powerfully committed to enhance life quality for people in the
societies where it operates their business (Fatma, Rahman and Khan, 2015). Apart from that,
company is investing incessantly in waste reuse and advanced technologies so as to minimise its
environmental footprint.
Positive impact of CSR activities on existing business strategies and its influence over the
growth of a Nike.
According to the Sheehan and Quinn-Allan, (2015), corporate social responsibility is a
business approach which contributes to the sustainable development by fulfilling the needs and
requirements of the stakeholders. Nike has invested a lot in recent years in the sustainable
development. In the recent period of time, Nike concentration is on having its environmental
impact while multiplying its manufacturing rate. It has emphasised on developing a healthier
upcoming future all over the world and the gatherings in which it directs through sustainable
innovation. This is the most crucial element for a better future and therefore the company has
maximised its concentration on sustainability since it has the potential to revolutionise the way
Nike does business. For sustainable development, the efforts taken by the company includes a
promise to minimise carbon foot prints, innovative manufacturing which will involve more of
renewable sources of energy, develops a new palette of sustainable development, etc. For
instance, most of the environmental impact of the Nike shoes comes from the material used in it.
CSR enhances growth of company in the market which leads to better brand awareness
and ends up at increasing sales and profitability. Besides this CSR also render ability to attract
people and retain staff and workers, saves production cost, enhances better financial
performances. Therefore, CSR in business activity is more essential and necessary for growth
and success of company (Dutot, Lacalle Galvez and Versailles, 2016). CSR activities essential
for Nike in different ways such as keeping human voice at the heart of everything, developing
new palette of sustainable materials, moving to complete renewable energy, innovative
manufacturing, commitment to reducing carbon footprint etc. All these are important for
company to improve their growth and reputation at market.
Influence of CSR activities on profitability of Nike at global level
According to Jonas Sickler , 2017, there are many ways through which Nike can enhance
its growth at global level. They can reduce the carbon footprints in their organizations so as to

protect the environment. This will allow them to attract the attention of public towards the
welfare of environment. This welfare impact the environment of consumers directly across the
globe. Thus the growth of company can be increased with the help of reducing carbon emission.
Apart from that CSR activities also includes improving the labour policies and embrace the fair
trade. Nike should improve the policies within its organization so as to protect the rights of its
employees. In order to do that business level strategies and corporate level strategies should be
implemented. This will also attract a number of viewers from the globe to increase their
reputation and growth. In addition to this, the organization should engage its elf in the charitable
trusts so that they can provide their efforts for the welfare of society. They can use any type of
charitable trust such as Save the children etc. Within the help of this the growth of company
across the globe will increase.
During the early phase of the corporate-social-responsibility movement, Nike was one of
the famous brands hit by the increasing demand from users for transparency and a requirement
for a bigger stage of ethical conduct from a business brand. Last month company launched as
Better world campaign programme through which the acquisition of information can support the
industry as an entire (El-Garaihy, Mobarak and Albahussain, 2014). With the help of this
campaign, company entirely know its effects and prepare for future trends like escalating oil
prices, climate change, food and material shortages. Therefore better understanding about this
can help an enterprise to achieve better results within given time duration.

DETAILS OF YOUR RESEARCH
The term research methodology can be defined as allocating of data and information for
the purpose of making business decisions and productive outcomes. It includes distinguished
methodologies like, interviews, publications research, surveys, and other research techniques and
can consider both historical and present information (Hur, Kim and Woo, 2014).
(a) Identify who or what you will use to obtain data or information
Researcher will use to obtain data or information from respondents using primary and
secondary research. Thus, both are useful and appropriate sources used by an investigator to data
or information from respondents.
(b) Explain how you will collect this data / information and how you will get access
In order to collect this data, there are mainly two sources one is primary and another one
is secondary. In case of primary, questionnaire will be applied whereas under secondary
research, literature review and many other publication research will be used by investigator to
gather appropriate information about the study.
(c) Identify how you are going to analyse your data / information
In order to analysis data, there are basically three methods such as deductive, inductive
and regression analysis. All these are essential but according to the topic, inductive analysis is
more suitable because it give information in numerical and numbers way.
Research onion: The diagram of research onion is based upon the three philosophies
which are: Ontology, Epistemology and Axiology. The approaches used in onion framework
goes from outer layer to inner layer of the research onion. Here are some of the research
philosophies explained below:

Illustration 1: Research Onion Framework
(Source: Research Onion Framework, 2019)
Research philosophy: The term research philosophy can be explained as a belief or faith
about the mode in which data should be used, analysed and gathered accordingly. Research
comprises of epistemology (what is known to be true or real) as opposed to doxology (what
thought to be true). The outer layer of research is known as research philosophy. These
comprises three types of research pragmatist, positivist and interpretivist out of all these
pragmatist approach will be used by researcher. The main reason behind it is that in current
scenario research is over CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) which is vast concept and also
time consuming so, by using these approaches researcher will work effectively and efficiently
(Idowu and et. al., 2013). CSR can not be viewed as a fact but social concept views on corporate
social responsibility with insights from the outcomes of the view. Pragmatist philosophy stands
in between positivist and interpretivist philosophies and pragmatist main concentration is on
finding solutions to problems through the use of these frameworks.
Research Approach: The term research approaches can be explained as a procedure or
idea that consists of course of analysis and interpretation, broad assumptions to detailed data

allocation. Approaches are of two types i.e. deductive and inductive. Here deductive approach
begins with an hypothesis while inductive approach is concerned with the emerging of the new
theory from the data (Khojastehpour and Johns, 2014). In this research inductive approach is
used as it is more authenticated medium to provide ideas over a research which think quantitative
data for concluding the outcomes. While in case of inductive approach main focus is on data
allocation by questionnaire based on research topic.
Research types: There are two types of research named as quantitative and qualitative
research approach which are elaborated below:
Quantitative research: This research focus more on quantifying the problems or
obstacles by allocating numerical data figures over specific issues so that it can be converted into
usable and understandable statistics. It is normally used for huge sample population to present
the attitudes, behaviour and quantify opinion. Mobile survey, paper survey etc. are the various
methods used in quantitative research.
Qualitative research: The other name of qualitative research is primary exploratory
research where the data are accumulated by motivation, understanding opinion and reasons
(Kim, Hur and Yeo, 2015). This work provides insight into obstacles which in future used as a
innovative idea for potential research. The various methods applied for this are, group
discussion, data collection, interview etc. in order to conduct this qualitative approaches is
widely used by the researcher.
Qualitative research is used by the researcher as quality work provides reliable and
accurate information to its readers.
Data collection: Data can be collected by two major sources they are primary sources and
secondary sources. Here in primary resources researcher allocate data by gathering information
from questionnaire, interviews, brain storming etc. which is totally new and fresh which will
help the researcher to gain authenticated results as they are not used by any other researcher
(Zhu, Sun and Leung, 2014). Whereas in secondary sources the data and relevant information is
gathered from books, journals, newspapers, articles etc. Here, researcher will use both the
sources as one provide reliable information while other provide in depth knowledge about the
topic.
Sampling: It can be explained as selecting group of people or respondents from the
crowd or population in order to allocate information from them over a specific topic of interest.

It is generally of two types, random and non random sampling (Lee, 2016). In random sampling
every members has an equal and independent chance of being selected so the researcher will use
random sampling as it provide relevant information about the topic and chances of selected
candidates are equal. Whereas in non random sampling chances are less as researcher uses
subjective judgements to select candidates. The sample size taken by the researcher is 30
candidates or respondents that is people are randomly selected for the survey.
Research reliability and validity: The research work should be done effectively and
efficiently with no error in the research as authenticated results leads to accurate outcomes. It
will make the content more interesting and valuable for the readers and references as well as
citation will also be added from where information, data and figures has been allocated by
researcher to make information more reliable and authenticated (McWilliams, 2015).
Techniques and procedures and Research instruments: The final layer taken in the
onion research is techniques and procedures. In research both the sources are applicable weather
primary sources or secondary sources. In secondary research, researcher use relevant articles,
posts, newspaper, literature, books etc. for reliable outcomes. While in primary research,
researcher use proper questionnaire and utilize respondents providing their inputs through the
questionnaire provided.
RESEARCH ETHICS
Ethical issue should be managed throughout the investigation, especially during the
accumulation and analysis of the information (Pérez, 2015). The objectives and purpose were
clearly described to the respondents of the research. In the study, respondents participated
voluntarily and were provided the view of withdrawing from the research whenever they desired.
It was also see that confidentiality was kept up for the personally recognisable information or
data of the participates. Also, the questionnaire instrument was coded by investigator in such a
way that the respondent's actual identify could be hidden. In addition, aggregation of responses
or outcomes in this study ensures data confidentiality and anonymity. The research ethics
principles that were applied anonymity, informed consent and confidentiality. For anonymity,
participants details to secondary research are not included to any other research outputs. For
informed consent, this involved giving the better understanding to respondents about the research
objectives and questions. Finally, for confidentiality, outputs of research are only communicated
with those who have main participant in the outputs.

CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned information, it has been concluded that corporate social
responsibility is a biggest management concept whereby organisations integrate environmental
and social concern in their business operations. It will also help them by maintaining strong and
long lasting relationship with their stakeholders. Therefore, through CSR activities company can
easily develop their business strategies at different level and also improve growth in marketplace.
Corporate social responsibility introduces to the relationship between international organisation,
government institutions and individuals. It can be taken as an effective process through which
organisation's accomplishment persuade to attain a positive impact via regulating the
environment, stakeholders, employees, communities and consumers.
Main purpose of this report is to analysis impact of corporate social responsibility on
business growth of an organisation. With the help of literature review, a researcher must
analysis gaps and conflict in previous studies. For collecting accurate amount of data from the
respondents, different number of research methods used such as primary and secondary research,
inductive approach, qualitative research, interpretivisim philosophy, questionnaire etc. All these
are most appropriate methods for researcher to identify proper response of respondents related to
the impact of CSR in development of business growth and reputation of an organisation.
Therefore corporate social responsibility is positively impact on business organisation in
different ways such as improving brand recognition, enhancing business reputation, increasing
sales and customer loyalty. All these are consider biggest advantages of corporate social
responsibility which will also support an organisation to retain strong and long lasting position in
market place. It will also help an organisation by saving production costs through using less
packaging. If company using sustainable systems, they should shout it way the rooftops. Post it
on their social media platforms and develop a story out of their efforts. Therefore, company
should display their efforts to local media outlets which will help an organisation to engage all
customers towards their brand and operations.
TIMETABLE FOR YOUR RESEARCH
A Gantt chart is an essential and useful graphical tool used by researcher to identify
starting and ending time for completion of all research activities. It is a most popular tool in
project management and fundamentally drills down activities or tasks which need to be
completed by a fixed time duration. It is useful chart for planning and scheduling projects

systematically. With the help of this chart, a researcher can determine the required resources and
assess how long a project should take. Therefore, it is useful tool for researcher to analysis
accurate time period for completing each activities of project. It includes different activities such
as Identification of issue, development of aims and objectives, creation of literature review,
development of research methodology, data collection, data analysis, conclusion and
recommendation, and submission of final report. All these are main activities and should follow
by researcher to done research timely and systematically.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abdullah, Z., & Abdul Aziz, Y. (2013). Institutionalizing corporate social responsibility: effects
on corporate reputation, culture, and legitimacy in Malaysia. Social Responsibility
Journal. 9(3). 344-361.
Dutot, V., Lacalle Galvez, E., & Versailles, D. W. (2016). CSR communications strategies
through social media and influence on e-reputation: An exploratory study. Management
Decision. 54(2). 363-389.
El-Garaihy, W. H., Mobarak, A. K. M., & Albahussain, S. A. (2014). Measuring the impact of
corporate social responsibility practices on competitive advantage: a mediation role of
reputation and customer satisfaction. International Journal of Business and
Management. 9(5). 109.
Esen, E. (2013). The influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on building
corporate reputation. In International business, sustainability and corporate social
responsibility (pp. 133-150). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Fatma, M., Rahman, Z., & Khan, I. (2015). Building company reputation and brand equity
through CSR: the mediating role of trust. International Journal of Bank
Marketing. 33(6). 840-856.
Guthey, E., & Morsing, M. (2014). CSR and the mediated emergence of strategic
ambiguity. Journal of Business Ethics. 120(4). 555-569.
Hur, W. M., Kim, H., & Woo, J. (2014). How CSR leads to corporate brand equity: Mediating
mechanisms of corporate brand credibility and reputation. Journal of Business Ethics.
125(1). 75-86.
Idowu, S. O. and et. al., (2013). Encyclopedia of corporate social responsibility (Vol. 21). New
York: Springer.
Khojastehpour, M., & Johns, R. (2014). The effect of environmental CSR issues on
corporate/brand reputation and corporate profitability. European Business
Review. 26(4). 330-339.
Kim, H., Hur, W. M., & Yeo, J. (2015). Corporate brand trust as a mediator in the relationship
between consumer perception of CSR, corporate hypocrisy, and corporate
reputation. Sustainability, 7(4), 3683-3694.
Lee, S. Y. (2016). How can companies succeed in forming CSR reputation?. Corporate
Communications: An International Journal. 21(4). 435-449.
McWilliams, A. (2015). Corporate social responsibility. Wiley encyclopedia of management, 1-4.
Pérez, A. (2015). Corporate reputation and CSR reporting to stakeholders: Gaps in the literature
and future lines of research. Corporate Communications: An International
Journal. 20(1). 11-29.
Zhu, Y., Sun, L. Y., & Leung, A. S. (2014). Corporate social responsibility, firm reputation, and
firm performance: The role of ethical leadership. Asia Pacific Journal of
Management. 31(4). 925-947.
Online
Jonas Sickler. 2017. Improving the goodwill of an organization by CSR activities. [Online].
Available through:<https://www.reputationmanagement.com/blog/corporate-social-
responsibility-examples/>.

Sammi Caramela. 2018. What is Corporate Social Responsibility. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4679-corporate-social-
responsibility.html>.
Abhijeet Pratap. 2018. Improving the goodwill of an organization by CSR activities. [Online].
Available through:<https://notesmatic.com/2018/02/nike-csr-and-sustainability/>.