The CSR Newsletters are a freely-available resource generated as a dynamic complement to the textbook, Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Sustainable Value Creation.

To sign-up to receive the CSR Newsletters regularly during the fall and spring academic semesters, e-mail author David Chandler at david.chandler@ucdenver.edu.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Strategic CSR - Stakeholders

 
This is the last CSR Newsletter of the Fall semester.
Happy Holidays and I will see you in the New Year!
 
 
The article in the url below presents a startling statistic:
 
"Just 100 companies have been the source of more than 70% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions since 1988, according to a new report."
 
The advantage of the report is that, rather than calculate emissions at a national level, it traces emissions to individual firms, with a focus (perhaps unsurprisingly) on fossil-fuel producers:
 
"The report found that more than half of global industrial emissions since 1988 – the year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established – can be traced to just 25 corporate and state-owned entities. The scale of historical emissions associated with these fossil fuel producers is large enough to have contributed significantly to climate change, according to the report."
 
Although this makes for a dramatic headline, it is important to remember that blame is shared between those of us who consume fossil fuel (and, therefore, actually generate emissions) as well as with those firms that sell the fuel to us. A significant problem with much of the CSR debate, in my opinion, is that it seeks to frame companies as the 'bad guys.' While being inaccurate from a practical perspective (firms do not act; it is their stakeholders, principally executives and employees, who act), it also shifts the blame away from actors who can potentially solve the problem (i.e., all of us, collectively) to an amorphous actor that is easy to demonize (i.e., large corporations). Of course, one consequence of this is it helps us feel better about ourselves. In reality, however, blaming companies does not move us any closer to solving the problem. It is only when we accept that it is the firm's stakeholders who are to blame (whether internal or external) that there is a chance of meaningful change. Companies are a social construction that we have created to help us solve resource allocation problems. As such, they will deliver what the collective set of stakeholders ask/want them to deliver. By blaming companies rather than stakeholders, therefore, we are easing our consciences, but making a solution more difficult to identify and achieve.
 
Take care
David
 
 
Instructor Teaching and Student Study Site: https://study.sagepub.com/chandler4e
Strategic CSR Simulation: http://www.strategiccsrsim.com/
The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: https://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/
 
 
Just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions, study says
By Tess Riley
July 10, 2017
The Guardian
 

Friday, December 1, 2017

Strategic CSR - Starbucks

The article in the url below is a powerful reminder of the potential for success for those companies that define their values clearly and then stick by them. The stimulus for the profile is Starbuck's commitment to investing in underserved communities, but it is also a review of the firm's underlying philosophy of business:
 
"This café in Missouri represents one of 15 that Starbucks has committed to opening in underserved communities nationwide by the end of 2018 as part of its larger social-impact agenda, which over the past three years has grown increasingly aggressive, targeted, and sometimes controversial. In 2013, the company pledged to hire 10,000 veterans and military family spouses within five years and, having met the goal a year and a half early, upped its 'hiring and honoring' commitment to 25,000 by 2025. In 2015, the Seattle giant launched another hiring initiative, this one to bring on board 10,000 'opportunity youth' (men and women between the ages of 16 and 24 who are not in school or working). The company has since hired 40,000, and this past spring pledged to reach 100,000 by 2020. In January, as an immediate rebuke to the restrictive travel and refugee-acceptance policies President Trump announced upon taking office, Starbucks launched yet another hiring effort: to partner with trusted agencies around the world and by 2022 hire 10,000 refugees in its stores across the world."
 
Starbucks has faced criticism for its various social causes (whether the #racetogether campaign or the commitment to hire refugees). The key, however, is Howard Schultz's belief that, while the firm makes mistakes, the commitment to follow-through on its values can only be a benefit:
 
"At the annual shareholders meeting [following the #boycottstarbucks campaign], Schultz reiterated to the crowd that 'we have never shown a harmful impact on our business due to our compassion.'"
 
The article is long, but well worth the read if you are looking for reaffirming evidence of the power of business to deliver optimal outcomes across the broad range of stakeholders.
 
Have a good weekend
David
 
 
Instructor Teaching and Student Study Site: https://study.sagepub.com/chandler4e
Strategic CSR Simulation: http://www.strategiccsrsim.com/
The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: https://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/
 
 
Starbucks Digs In
By Karen Valby
September, 2017
Fast Company Magazine
78-85