Corporate Social Responsibility Nike Inc and Dell Corporation

According to him, “the sole social responsibility of a business is to increase profits” (Friedman 1970). Friedman’s views, also shared by most classical economists, are that a business does not have any social responsibility. According to Friedman, it should only focus to serve the interests of its shareholders. CSR, on the other hand, advocates that this responsibility is extended to all stakeholders. As will be expounded, in spite of being subject to a host of extensive empirical inquiry, CSR is said to influence a corporation’s financial performance positively. Their interests should as such, be incorporated in all decisions. According to Barnet & Salomon (as cited in (Galant and Cadez 2017, p. 676), “the better a firm manages its relationship with its stakeholders, the more successful it will be over time.

” Some companies according to (Ebert, Griffin and Starke 2003, p. 65) have resulted in obstructionist stance where they do as little as possible to solve such social and environmental problems. This is evident in the company’s commitment to “Youth Learning and children’s cancer care programmes. ” In 2014, the company helped more than half a million children under that programme. In 2013, Dell also offered solar-powered equipment to communities where there was no electricity in Africa (Dudoviskiy 2015). The other CSR area that the company has focussed on is energy conservation especially on water consumption, recycling and carbon dioxide emissions. Under the Plant a Tree Program, the company has planted 678,000 trees. In that period also, it was exposed that workers working in another of its contracted companies in Vietnam were being exposed to toxic fumes up to 177 times.

In 1998, a speech from its chairman highlighted a plan to overhaul its previous practices. As of 2005, the company had already demonstrated significant progress by being the first company to publish its contract factories. It also put together a CSR statement that outlined pay scales as well as employee work conditions in its factories (Newell 2015). In Nike’s new plan, NGOs would also be incorporated in monitoring the company and publicise the results. It involves a business conducting its business in a way that is “ethical, society friendly and beneficial to the community. ” Unlike Friedman’s assertion, CSR has many positive impacts on a company. It for instances leads to better brand recognition, positive business reputation, retention of staff and talent, increased sales, customer loyalty, cost savings, etc.

In this case, Nike and Dell have proved that having a good CSR is good for business. Reference list Carson, T. net/dell-corporate-social-responsibility/. Accessed 04 November 2018. Ebert R. , Ricky G. and Frederick A. pdf Accessed 04 Nov 2018. Galant, A. and Simon C. "Corporate social responsibility and financial performance relationship: a review of measurement approaches. " Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja 30. Business essentials. Hunsacker E. 28 June 2018. Stockholder Theory Vs. Stakeholder. net/profile/Maimunah_Ismail/publication/40426284_CORPORATE_SOCIAL_RESPONSIBILITY_AND_ITS_ROLE_IN_COMMUNITY_DEVELOPMENT_AN_INTERNATIONAL_PERSPECTIVE/links/0046352033f776fba0000000/CORPORATE-SOCIAL-RESPONSIBILITY-AND-ITS-ROLE-IN-COMMUNITY-DEVELOPMENT-AN-INTERNATIONAL-PERSPECTIVE. pdf Newell A. 19 June 2015. How Nike Embraced CSR and Went From Villain to Hero. https://www. org/iosr-jbm/papers/met-3ncbs/Abhinay%20Nirmal%20&%20Nilesh%20Berad_Sustainability_through_Corporate_Social_Responsibility-_A_case_study_of_Dell.