Evaluating Ernst & Young's Corporate Social Responsibility Impact

This research study focuses on evaluating the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives undertaken by Ernst & Young. The report highlights how CSR has enhanced the company's reputation and led to increased stakeholder involvement. Surveys conducted with a sample size of 100 participants revealed that the majority are aware of Ernst & Young’s CSR efforts, appreciating their contributions towards society and environmental sustainability. Interview findings from four employees underscored the positive business outcomes resulting from these initiatives, such as improved stakeholder relations and profitability. The study concludes that Ernst & Young's commitment to CSR has been instrumental in establishing a favorable market position. Recommendations for ongoing monitoring and strategic planning of CSR activities are provided to ensure continued success.

BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND PLANNING
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Table of contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Part 1................................................................................................................................3
1. Project definition...........................................................................................................3
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Problem statement...........................................................................................................3
Project strategy................................................................................................................ 4
Objectives........................................................................................................................ 4
Objective with respect to Time, Cost and Objectives.......................................................4
Deliverables..................................................................................................................... 4
Scope...............................................................................................................................4
Included scope.................................................................................................................5
Excluded scope................................................................................................................5
Success criteria................................................................................................................5
Assumptions.....................................................................................................................5
2. Implementation plan.....................................................................................................5
Work breakdown structure............................................................................................... 6
Timeline............................................................................................................................6
3. Project process............................................................................................................ 8
Communication plan........................................................................................................ 8
Part 2................................................................................................................................8
A research carried out for meeting the aims and objectives............................................8
Part 3..............................................................................................................................11
Data analysis..................................................................................................................11
Quantitative:................................................................................................................... 11
Qualitative:..................................................................................................................... 15
Recommendations......................................................................................................... 17
Reflection....................................................................................................................... 18
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 18
Reference list................................................................................................................. 19
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Appendices:................................................................................................................... 20
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Introduction
Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) is an approach where the corporate take the
responsibility of discharging their duties towards the environment. Several companies
have incorporated this approach as an inseparable part of their organization.
Involvements in such movements are also beneficial for the company in terms of
revenue and reputation as well. The company Ernst & Young is highly involved in
activities like providing educational support to different sections of the society. It has
made a considerable investment in this field. In this study the aspects of CSR and the
involvement of this company in this field will be explored in details.
Part 1
1. Project definition
Introduction
This project is aimed at evaluating the importance of corporate social responsibility for
the competitive advantages and meeting the objectives regarding sustainability. This
complete project is divided into three sections. The first section is the plan for project
management where the scope and objectives of the project will be discussed in details.
In the second part research will be carried out for meeting the objectives and in the third
section, the analysis of the data received will be done and conclusions will be drawn
from the same.
Problem statement
With the increase in the competition in the market, it has become essential for all
companies to gain a competitive advantage in the market and with the concept of
globalization, the company Ernst & Young have realized the need to get engaged in the
CSR activities so that they can contribute to the society.
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Project strategy
The strategy of the project is to evaluate the contribution of the chosen company in
CSR. This has been chosen in order to understand the necessity of maintaining
sustainability through CSR.
Objectives
 To identify the CSR involvement of Ernst & Young
 To do an evaluation of the effect of CSR involvement on the business
 To recommend suitable steps regarding this
Objective with respect to Time, Cost and Objectives
According to Choi and Moon (2016, p.1518) in order to carry out any project, the time
duration and the cost of the project need to be determined in advance so that the
project can be planned and commenced accordingly. This project will be completed in
duration of 7 weeks. All the activities are to be done within this time constraint. All
possible efforts will be made to complete the project within the allocated cost and the
performance will also be kept at an optimum level.
Deliverables
This project will be able to deliver knowledge on the corporate social responsibility taken
by this company and their influence on the performance and reputation as well. Having
received this knowledge, the company will be able to evaluate its position and create
strategies for further development.
Scope
The scope of this project is to carry out a research with the use of proper research
methodologies so that the importance of CSR a can be clear. The project will deal will
the collection and analysis of data within the allocated duration. The project will also be
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able to provide suggestions for increasing the value o0f the business with reference to
the stakeholders as well as customers.
Included scope
The views of the people regarding the company and its CSR have been included to
understand the impact on the customers. In addition this, parameters like time and cost
have also been included in this. The risks and limitations have also been identified
which will be beneficial for this project.
Excluded scope
The personal details of the employees have not been included and the project is done
within a specific area. The survey will be done on a limited number of people which is a
limitation to the scope.
Success criteria
This project will be considered as successful if the company is able to bring about
enhancements in the activities related to CSR. Another factor to be considered is the
satisfaction of the stakeholders which needs to be improved.
Assumptions
It has been assumed that the data collected from the people will be a genuine reflection
of their thoughts and they will not provide the response at random. Moreover, it has also
been assumed that the managers will share their plans ad views in proper context and
will not provide any fake answers.
2. Implementation plan
The project will begin from the next week. Prior to the advancement of the project, the
resources required for the project will be identified. The basic requirements for this
project are time and money. Questionnaires need to be prepared for the survey as well
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as interviews. The research will be carried out o\in offline mode and the data will be
analyzed after collecting the data. Thereafter, the recommendations will be provided.
Work breakdown structure
Figure 1: Work Breakdown structure of project
Source: Created by self
Timeline
Steps Week Week Week Week Week Week Week
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Choice of topic
Requirements specification
Selection of Research
methodologies
Data collection
Analysis
Recommendations
Conclusion
Final compilation
Table 1: Project timeline
(Source : Created by author)
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3. Project process
There are several processes involved in this project. The main process are conducting
surveys, conducting interviews, collecting the data through these and analysing the data
to find conclusions.
Communication plan
In order to carry out the project effectively, there needs to be effective flow of
information so that this information can be used for making improvements. As said by
Caillaud et al. (2016, p.1567) there must be specifications which define the authorities
of different people related it the project regarding the access to the information. The
people who will be chosen for the survey will be properly explained about the reason
behind conducting this survey. There will not be misleading. After having selected the
methodology of the research and determining the requirements for the project, it will be
communicated to the management. However, the information regarding the data
collected will be communicated at the end of the project after having done the complete
analysis. The managers to be interviewed will be provided with this information in
advance so that they can share the time of interview as per their schedule.
Part 2
A research carried out for meeting the aims and objectives
A research is to be conducted to identify the CSR activities performed by Ernst & Young
and identify their impact on the customers. Moreover, the views of managers of this
company regarding this topic also need to be determined.
Research philosophy
The research philosophies are classified into three types. These are named as
positivism, interpretivism and realism. In case of realism, the data obtained by the
researcher is evaluated on the basis of different aspects which do exist in reality. In
case of the interpretivism, the data which is obtained is interpreted by the researcher as
per the perception he or she is able to draw. According to Porter et al. (2017, p.23) the
positivism philosophy believes that the data can only be analyzed on the basis of facts
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which already exist in the real world. In this study, the positivism is used as the data will
be analysed on the basis of existing facts.
Figure 2: Research philosophies
(Source: Karp et al. 2016, p.440)
Research approach
There are two different approaches which can be used for carrying out any research. It
is essential to make the selection of the approach judiciously because this has a direct
impact on the outcomes of the research. As per Karp et al. (2016, p.440) the two types
of approaches are named as inductive approach and deductive approach. Inductive
approach deals with the creation of theories on the basis of the observations made. In
case of the deductive approach, the conclusions are deduced from the existing theories
and then the genuineness of these theories. In this case the researcher basically makes
an attempt to do the validation of the existing theories with the help of the collected
data. In this study, the deductive approach is considered as this research deals with the
existing facts and no new theories or facts are created.
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Research Design
The research design can be three types which are explanatory, exploratory and
descriptive. In the explanatory design, the data is gathered from various sources and
the analysis is done. In this case, the pros and cons of these data are not evaluated. In
the words of Vaioleti (2016, p.23) the exploratory design does involve exploring different
aspects of a research. However, this is unable to provide any conclusions for the
research. The descriptive design, as the name suggests, deals with a descriptive study
of the data collected in order to draw proper conclusions from the research which can
be used for finding the solutions to the problem for which the research is done.
Therefore, this research design is used for this study.
Data collection
In order to do a research, the main step is the collection of data as the research cannot
be carried out without data. The collection of data can be done in two different ways
which are known as primary and secondary method of data collection. Primary data
refers to the data which have collected by a researcher in person with the help of
surveys and interviews. As mentioned by Silverman (2016, p.36) the secondary data
can be collected from the literary work done by the researchers in the past. There are
further classification of the primary data collection methods which are known as
qualitative data and quantitative data. The qualitative data is collected with the help of
interviews and quantitative data can be collected by surveys which may contain open
ended as well as close ended questions. The quantitative data can be represented with
the help of charts and graphs. In this study both the qualitative as well as quantitative
data is collected and evaluated.
Sampling technique
A sample needs to be selected for the purpose of collecting data from the people. There
are some defined techniques for the selection of sample and any of these techniques
can be selected as per the requirement of the research. As stated by Leary (2016, p.36)
there are two types of techniques known as probability and nonprobability sampling.
The probability sampling is done on a random basis and all the people have an equal
probability of being selected as the sample. In the non probability sampling, the sample
is selected on the basis of certain criterion which is predefined. In this study the sample
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is created by probability technique so that there is no discrimination while selecting
them.
Sample Size
For the commencement of this study, the questionnaire was distributed to 50 people out
of whom 35 were found to be complete and others were incomplete. Therefore, the
incomplete responses were ignored and the analysis was done on the 35 samples. For
the qualitative research, three managers of Ernst & Young will be interviewed.
Ethical consideration
A research deals with interacting with people and collecting their views and responses
on a certain topic. Therefore, it is essential to follow some ethics which are laid down for
this purpose (Hovorka, 2016, p.10). The data for this research were obtained by
following all these considerations and there was no use of unfair means. The people
were completely aware of the use and purpose of the information provided by them and
they were not given any money in exchange of the data. They were not forced to fill
these questionnaires; they did it on their own will. Also, the data is presented as it was
found and there are no manipulations done in the received data. The questions were
framed taking into consideration that they do not hurt the sentiments of any individual.
Part 3
Data analysis
After having fetched the data, it was analyzed and the representation was done with the
help of graphs. The analysis is as follows:
Quantitative:
Q1: Do you know that the company Ernst & Young is involved in CSR?
Option
s
Total Respondents No. of received respondents % respondents
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