With reference to your own research and the item above, do you think that the ability of a business to act successfully in a socially responsible manner is mainly determined by the products it produces?

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.

The level of corporate social responsibility that a firm upholds is determined, to an extent, by the nature of the businesses products. This is demonstrated by BP, despite the company actively engaging in some CSR policies, goods such as oil are inherently harmful for …show more content…

In this case the main determinant of the companies CSR may be due to pressure from stakeholders to engage in CSR, for example if areas of CSR are important to shareholders then it is important for the business to act successfully in a socially responsible manner, as this will directly impact the demand for companies shares which will influence the price of the shares and value of the business. Pressure from shareholders may also influence the CSR of the business if the business wants to grow and generate more revenue. For a company to grow it requires investment from shareholders and some shareholders will only invest if the business is acting in a successfully socially responsible manner.

Another example that supports this argument is Velvet tissues which are a part of the SCA group. Many brands of toilet roles and other commodities sourced from trees are considered to be socially irresponsible as business’s engage in harmful activities such as deforestation. However Velvet source their tissues from sustainable sources, they use recycled materials to reduce tree consumption, plant 3 trees for every tree they use, so far they have planted more than 4 million trees. In this case the main determinant of the companies CSR is not the product but the creation of a USP, which is used as a tool in marketing campaigns, which targets customers concerned with the environment. This allows the business to attract new customers and stimulate demand which