Analyzing Microsoft's CSR Performance and Impact on Consumer Behavior

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Assignment 2

Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
Microsoft CSR Ranking (Global CR RepTrak 100).............................................................4
Contributions by Microsoft in CSR........................................................................................4
CSR Focus areas of Microsoft Corporation..........................................................................5
Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumer Purchasing Decision................................6
Relevancy of Corporate Social Responsibility.......................................................................7
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................8
References.................................................................................................................................9

Introduction
Corporate Social Responsibility could be defined as a self-imposed regulation by the private
organisations where they work for the betterment of the society without any specific
guidelines by the government or any other authority. It is considered as a volunteer effort by
an organisation where it tries to address the social problems beyond its own profit or growth
targets. However, some organisations have adopted Corporate Social Responsibility in their
internal processes and work to achieve the self-defined goals; it is mostly considered an
approach which is relevant to the large corporations.
Microsoft is an organisation which is a technology pioneer and contributed largely in the
technological inventions that has brought drastic changes in the Information Technology
Sector. Microsoft was founded in 1975 and the company headquarter is in Redmond,
Washington, USA. The greatest achievement of Microsoft Corporations is considered to be
the Microsoft Windows Operating System (Aupperle, Carroll and Hatfield, 2017). It is one of
a kind OS that provides excellent Graphical User Interface (GUI) which has replaced many
command based Operating Systems designed before. The company was ranked 30th in the
Forbes Ranking in year 2018 that itself explains the vast business operations and revenue of
the company. Microsoft is an international organisation and it operates in approximately 190
countries. The company has a large presence in UK and the company has been doing some
real good work in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility. A huge workforce of 143,934
employees, operations in 190 countries and revenue exceeding USD 112.45 billion are some
of the main reasons behind choosing the company for this paper. Its excellent work in CSR
activities has made it one of the best CSR program providers in the international community.

Microsoft CSR Ranking (Global CR RepTrak 100)
One of the esteemed Corporate Social Responsibility ranking providers is Reputation
Institute that uses a very complex and descriptive approach to rank the organisations for their
CSR activities. According to the 2018 Reputation Institute Ranking, Microsoft is ranked 6th
with a score of 68.1 in CR RepTrak (Reputation Institute, 2019). The CR RepTrak score of
an organisation is calculated on the basis of the 4 different parameters – Social, Fiscal,
Employer and Environmental. Reputation Institute evaluates the performance of the
organisation in these four different areas and uses its standard algorithm to assess the
contribution of an organisation towards the Corporate Social Responsibility.
Contributions by Microsoft in CSR
Microsoft is an organisation that has been involved in many different segments related to the
Corporate Social Responsibility instead of working in just a specific field. The company
focuses on the different segments such as Providing Software Services to Voluntary
Organisations free of cost, Providing Education related services for the people in the
community who cannot afford higher education, working for the benefits of the disabled and
poor and working for the betterment of environment (Carroll, 2018)
.
According to the Microsoft 2018 CSR report, the company has donated USD 1.2 billion in
the form of free software licenses for its products to various non-profit organisations. These
non-profit organisations use free software such as MS Windows OS and MS Office for their
operations management and also teach the use of software to people who could not afford
academic qualifications and certifications.
Microsoft has started its TEALS program that involves providing the Computer Science
Education to 13,000 students in 342 high schools in USA. Company provides a full setup of
computers and relevant software to these schools where extra classes are organised for high
school students free of cost (Dahlsrud, 2018).
Microsoft has also spent USD 3 billion in helping the disabled across the world and in
helping the women in setting up their own businesses. Another big achievement of Microsoft
is that it has been able to achieve the target of 100% Carbon Neutrality in its operations
across the world. None of the facility of the company emits Carbon in the environment which
is greater than the set norms by the World Health Organisation.

CSR Focus areas of Microsoft Corporation
There are three main areas on which Microsoft Corporation focuses when it comes to
implementing the Corporate Social Responsibility programs. These are – Empowerment of
the People, Strengthening the Communities across the world and Working for the betterment
of the Environment.
Privacy and security of data has become a great concern these days. There are frequent news
in the media that tells about the leaking of personal information of the people from secure
platforms. Microsoft understands these concerns and the company has been trying to build
secure features in its products. Facial recognitions and finger print authentication is being
implemented by the organisation through various 4th generation techniques (Campbell, 2018).
Microsoft has also implemented the policy of not using the personal data of the customers
and mediums such as emails, chats and file for personal advertisement targeting. Highly
secure encryption technology is being used by Microsoft to keep the customer data secure.
Microsoft is also working towards accessibility of its software by the disabled people. The
company has been working on many breakthrough inventions that would help it in enabling
the disabled to use the software programs of the company.
Another big feature of the Microsoft CSR program is its efforts to provide access to
technology to the people who cannot afford it. Digital skills have become essential skills that
have to be in the resume of the students if they want to secure a good professional career.
Microsoft is providing free computer education to 13,000 students and the company is also
supporting non-profit organisations where young people could experience and learn the latest
technologies.
Responsible sourcing is another aspect of the Microsoft CSR programs. Company is not only
working in this regard along but also promoting its suppliers to adopt the same policies. The
company has created a Supplier Code of Conduct which asks the suppliers of the company to
provide support to the employees protect their human rights and work for the betterment of
the environment (Jones, 2017). Microsoft has developed a new parental leave policy that has
to be accepted and implemented by all the suppliers of the company. According to the new
policy, every supplier of Microsoft has to provide a minimum 12 week parental leaves to
their employees for the birth of their child or for the adoption of a child.
Another responsible step taken by Microsoft Corporation is its efforts to abolish the child
labour across the world. The first initiative by the company is its agreement with an

international non-profit organisation PACT that works in the same field. Through the
combined efforts with PACT, Microsoft is working to help the children in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. It is a known fact that 32% labour in mining industry in Democratic
Republic of Congo is child labour. Many reform camps are established by Microsoft and
PACT to address this concern (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2018).
Environmental Sustainability is another important aspect of the CSR program of Microsoft
Corporation. The company has been trying to curb the carbon emission and adopted the
approach of Carbon Neutrality. A target of reducing the carbon emission by 75% in the next
3 years is set by Microsoft Corporation. In another effort, the company has spent USD 50
million in providing the tools like Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing to the
organisations that are working towards environment sustainability (McGuire, Sundgren and
Schneeweis, 2015). Microsoft is also focusing on waste management as company has
announced to reduce the weight of the packaging by 20% of all the new products that
company would deliver in the year 2019.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumer Purchasing Decision
Consumer buying decision is a very critical process that consists of lots of variables.
However, most of the times the main variables are the individual requirement, price of the
product, quality of the product, brand of the product, availability of the substitutes in the
market etc. but Corporate Social Responsibility programs of an organisation are also
considered by some individual (McWilliams and Siegel, 2016). When an individual goes to
buy a product and comes to know that a part of the profit company makes from the sale of the
product would go to an NGO that works to help the disabled or army veterans, a sense of
responsibility arises that affects the decision making of the consumer.
As mentioned before, Corporate Social Responsibility is mainly implemented by the large
organisations like Microsoft that have their presence in many nations and consists of a
product portfolio which is being used by a huge number of customers (Porter and Kramer,
2014). These are the organisations that have established a brand name in the market. It helps
these organisations in defeating the availability of the substitutes in the market and when it is
combined with the positive effect of Corporate Social Responsibility, product by the
company becomes the first choice of the consumer.
There is a factor of social consciousness which plays an important role in the purchasing
decisions of the consumer. People are becoming more aware these days about the impacts an

organisation make via its corporate social responsibility towards the society. There are
problems like poverty, child labour, drug abuse, discrimination and environment related
concerns that affect every individual’s thoughts and organisations like Microsoft provides a
sense of calmness to the people through its Corporate Social Responsibility program.
Relevancy of Corporate Social Responsibility
According to the market experts, large organisations do not think Corporate Social
Responsibility as a burden on them but integrate the CSR into their business strategy.
Corporate Social Responsibility programs are sometimes used as a marketing platform by the
organisations where they aim to attract more customers and investors for their business
(Roberts, 2018). But there are still organisations like Microsoft and Google that have
incorporated their Corporate Social Responsibility in their business methods and try
genuinely to help the community.
According to the recent researches, people do not only see the impact of CSR program on the
poor or disabled but also on the employees of the organisation. The way an organisation
treats its employees has become the most important aspect of the Corporate Social
Responsibility. Microsoft is working towards this aspect of CSR and providing many benefits
to its employees. The company has also asked its partners and suppliers to treat their
employees fairly. An example of this is shown by the organisation when it has asked its
suppliers to give 12 weeks parental leave to the employees.
Ethical responsibility by the organisations and the way an organisation treats its customers is
another big impact of the Corporate Social Responsibility. Many people think that
organisations that are ranked higher in CSR rating do not indulge in unfair business practices
that create a sense of trust for these organisations (Sen and Bhattacharya, 2017). Because of
this, customers still believes in the Corporate Social Responsibility and the practice is still
relevant in the business world.
There is a new generation of millennial customers who believes a lot in the social justice and
for these people their contribution in strengthening the community is very important. These
people are also environment sensitive and if an organisation is working towards saving the
environment, they would support the organisation.

Conclusion
Reputation Institute publishes its Corporate Social Responsibility ratings every year which is
considered a credible source for the CSR information about different organisation. Social,
Environmental, Governance, Economic and Technological efforts of the organisations for
creating a better society are analysed and included while assigning the rankings. Microsoft is
ranked 6th in 2018 listing which is a great achievement for the company. The current report
has analysed the CSR program of Microsoft on domestic and global scale and all the different
areas in which the company is working via its CSR are also included in the paper. The impact
of CSR on the consumer decision making is also analysed in this paper. The CSR programs
still have lots of impact in the marketing and strategic approach of organisations which makes
it very relevant in today’s environment.

References
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