Strategic Management: Samsung CSR and Sustainability Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Samsung's corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability practices. It examines the company's commitment to ethical behavior, environmental responsibility, and social contributions, highlighting the role of CSR in managing its brand image. The report explores the triple bottom line framework (economic, environmental, and social aspects) and its application to Samsung's operations. It discusses Samsung's CSR initiatives, including its Global Code of Conduct and the work of its CSE Committee, while also addressing the challenges faced due to the Galaxy Note crisis. The report analyzes Samsung's financial performance, comparing it to competitors, and concludes that CSR, sustainability, and corporate governance are crucial for long-term success. The report uses figures to show Samsung's financial performance and provides references to support the analysis.

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Executive Summary
The report has thrown light on analyzing the different kinds of corporate social responsibility
along with sustainability practices which play a major role in managing the overall brand image
of the company in a positive manner. There are different kinds of issues which have been faced
by Samsung, however with the utilization of the different CSR reports and activities; the
company has been able to gain back their competitive advantage in the market appropriately.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 4
Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility...................................................4
Triple Bottom Line........................................................................................................................ 5
CSR and Sustainability of Samsung............................................................................................5
Financial Aspects and Future Implications of Expectations.........................................................7
Conclusion................................................................................................................................... 9
References................................................................................................................................ 10
Appendix.................................................................................................................................... 12

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Introduction
In the present scenario, the corporate social responsibility along with the sustainability
plays major role in the different organizations as it is considered as the commitment by the
different organizations to integrate ethical behavior along with responsible behavior which will
be helpful in contributing towards the society development along with improves the quality of the
workplace. The Corporate Social Responsibility is one of the huge requirements in the current
complex business environment for the different firms to create along with provide the corporate
social responsibility status in annual report and analysis of different techniques applied by them
to improve the scenario (Wang et al., 2016). The main aim and purpose of the report is to
analyze the corporate social responsibility and sustainability practices of Samsung Company
along with the different financial information.

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Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility
The corporate governance and CSR are the two sides of the same coin wherein the
corporate governance is concerned with proper holding the perfect balance between social and
economic goals along with communal and individual goals. The main framework of the
corporate governance is to efficiently use the different resources which will be requiring
accountability for the stewardship of the respective resources (Schrempf-Stirling, Palazzo &
Phillips, 2016).
The sustainability along with Corporate Social Responsibility are utilized in order to
signify the similar approaches, however in the conceptual manner, there is difference as the
corporate social responsibility focuses on triple bottom line approaches which is inclusive of
economic, environmental responsibility along with social aspects, on the contrary, the
sustainability mainly focuses on environmental and societal development (Chernev & Blair,
2015). The major purpose of the establishment of the CSR related activities in the core
strategies of business is to bring proper stability in the business for long run along with meeting
the different needs of the society at the minimal influence on the environment.
Lastly, the social responsibility is essential for the development of opportunities of the
business. The main aim of the social responsibility is that the different businesses and the
individuals in the economy have the duty to act in the perfect interests of the environmental
protection along with society as a whole. The main four kinds of corporate social responsibility
includes environmental related sustainability, ethical practices related to business, economic
responsibility along with direct philanthropic approach.
From the above analysis, it can be identified that the corporate social responsibility,
corporate governance and sustainability are essential and they are interlinked with one another
as it will be appropriate for the overall success of the company along with generating welfare for
the overall environmental aspects and it will be appropriate for gaining long term business
success in the market as well.

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Triple Bottom Line
As commented by Chernev and Blair (2015), the Triple Bottom Line is the accounting
related framework which consists of three major parts such as environmental, social and
financial aspects. There are different organizations which have incorporated the framework of
triple bottom line as it helps in evaluating the performance in the broader perspective which will
be beneficial in creating major value for the business. In the current scenario of the business
environment, the different organizational leaders have started to think in a sustainable manner
and the three aspects which include Profit, People and Planet.
In case of People, they are the employees or the labor involved in the work related to
corporation and the community wherein the corporation performs their business. The companies
following TBL makes an incredible effort to give back to employees and community which will be
beneficial for improving the business activities (Flammer, 2015).
In case of Planet, it is the business environment in which the different companies
perform their business. There are different companies which have invested a huge amount in
sustainability related program and these kind of actions have nudged technological giants such
as Google and Facebook towards the usage of the more renewable kind of energy to power
such facilities (Grayson & Hodges, 2017).
In case of Profit, the companies pursue the financial kind of stability and the TBL
businesses see the same as the part of the business. The Swedish furniture company IKEA
reported the proper sales of $37.6 billion in 2016 and in the similar year, the company has
turned the profit through recycling the waste in some of the best selling products in an efficient
manner (Crowther & Seifi, 2018).

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CSR and Sustainability of Samsung
Samsung is one of the South Korean multinational conglomerate organizations which is
headquartered at Samsung Town, Seoul. The company was incorporated in the year 1938 and
the areas served by Samsung are worldwide. Furthermore, the revenue which has been earned
by the company in the last few years is US$210.9 billion till the year 2017 and the number of
employees working at Samsung is 320671 till the year 2018. The corporate social responsibility
related practices along with initiatives are facilitated through sustainability management council
wherein it has fourteen related departments that helps in handling the different issues from ten
various areas which includes environment along with society (Samsung.com, 2019).
The Global Code of Conduct of Samsung is based on the different principles which
include the following:
 Maintenance of the organizational structure which is clean
 Caring for the health and safety of individuals along with safety of environment
 Becoming the most corporate socially responsible citizen
 Compliance with the different ethical standards as well as laws
Furthermore, it can be identified that the aspect of Corporate Social Responsibility of
business is managed by the CSE Committee of Samsung. The company releases the report of
Supplier Responsibility Progress annually in which the different details are being provided which
is helpful in understand the CSR initiatives which have been taken by Samsung. The Samsung
Electronics Company addresses the different issues of the company with the help of CSR
aspects in four directions such as health and safety, green management, sharing growth along
with social contributions. Samsung tries to empower and educate the different workers wherein
Samsung career consulting center is utilized by more than 5300 individuals (Samsung.com,
2019).
However, the largest Smartphone producer Samsung has suffered the steep decline in
the perception of the public relating to the Corporate Social Responsibility efforts. The major
reason for decline in the profitability and the brand image of the company was due to the Galaxy
Note crisis in the year 2016. The overheating of the batteries caused harm to the different
customers and it ultimately led to receiving negative influence on the company Samsung. On
the other hand, after the occurrence of such incident, it can be identified that building of health
and safety programs is the matter of priority for Samsung for both customers and employees.

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Samsung attempts to operate their workplaces in the safest of conditions which is possible to
improve the scenario and gain competitive advantage (Samsung.com, 2019).
In addition, Samsung has been helpful in supporting the health and safety of the different
employees through construction of the ergonomic applications in the environment of the
company along with prohibiting the business trips in the different regions with the high risks for
the different diseases which are infectious such as Ebola. Within the overall scope for the Ec0-
Management 2020, the greenhouse emissions were reduced by Samsung to more than 70%.
Moreover, Samsung has been able to achieve cumulative 156 million tons greenhouse gases
reduction at the usage of product stage during 2009 and 2015 (Saeidi et al., 2015).

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Financial Aspects and Future Implications of Expectations
Figure 1: Gross Margin of Samsung
(Source: Petrenko et al., 2016)
From the above chart, it can be identified that the performance of the company Samsung
is better in the previous year’s 2012 before the crisis that occurred. There was huge gross
profitability margin that helped the company in improving their business operations and they
focused mainly on gaining profitability.

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Figure 2: Decline in profitability and Price of Samsung Company in 2016
(Source: Samsung.com, 2019)
From the figure, it can be identified that after the Samsung Note Crisis in the year 2016,
there were different kinds of difficulties which were faced by Samsung as the customers were
not able to trust the different CSR related activities which affected the brand image of the
company for a short span of time.

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Figure 3: Financial Performance of Samsung in Comparison to Competitors
(Source: Ioannou & Serafeim, 2015)
From the above chart, it can be analyzed that Samsung has topped the chart in the
financial year 2014-2015 and due to the different CSR related activities; the company has been
able to improve their brand image. However, due to the mishap which took place, in 2016 there
was decline in profitability and it affected the overall revenue generation of the company
negatively (Liang & Renneboog, 2017).

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Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability and
the Corporate Governance are the three major aspects which should be followed by the
companies in order to gain more competitive brand image and it will be beneficial for the overall
success of the company appropriately. In case of Samsung, it has been noticed that Samsung
has not been able to gain profitability in the year 2016 due to the mishap of Samsung Note
Crisis, however in the next few years, the company has been able to gain competitive
advantage by fulfilling the different social responsibility related practices appropriately.

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References
Chernev, A., & Blair, S. (2015). Doing well by doing good: The benevolent halo of corporate
social responsibility. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(6), 1412-1425.
Crowther, D., & Seifi, S. (Eds.). (2018). Redefining Corporate Social Responsibility. Emerald
Group Publishing.
Flammer, C. (2015). Does corporate social responsibility lead to superior financial performance?
A regression discontinuity approach. Management Science, 61(11), 2549-2568.
Grayson, D., & Hodges, A. (2017). Corporate social opportunity!: Seven steps to make
corporate social responsibility work for your business. Routledge.
Ioannou, I., & Serafeim, G. (2015). The impact of corporate social responsibility on investment
recommendations: Analysts' perceptions and shifting institutional logics. Strategic
Management Journal, 36(7), 1053-1081.
Liang, H., & Renneboog, L. (2017). On the foundations of corporate social responsibility. The
Journal of Finance, 72(2), 853-910.
Petrenko, O. V., Aime, F., Ridge, J., & Hill, A. (2016). Corporate social responsibility or CEO
narcissism? CSR motivations and organizational performance. Strategic Management
Journal, 37(2), 262-279.
Saeidi, S. P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S. P., & Saaeidi, S. A. (2015). How does corporate
social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of
competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of business
research, 68(2), 341-350.
Samsung.com (2019) Report & Policy | Sustainability | Samsung US (online) Retrieved from
https://www.samsung.com › About Samsung › / Sustainability [Accessed on 19th May
2019]
Schrempf-Stirling, J., Palazzo, G., & Phillips, R. A. (2016). Historic corporate social
responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 41(4), 700-719.

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Schrempf-Stirling, J., Palazzo, G., & Phillips, R. A. (2016). Historic corporate social
responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 41(4), 700-719.
Wang, H., Tong, L., Takeuchi, R., & George, G. (2016). Corporate social responsibility: An
overview and new research directions: Thematic issue on corporate social responsibility.

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Appendix
Figure 4: Profit and Loss Account of Samsung
(Source: Samsung.com, 2019)

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Figure 5: CSR Activities of Samsung
(Source: Samsung.com, 2019)
Figure 6: Revenues of Samsung
(Source: Samsung.com, 2019)