A case study of The body shop
Explain with examples what Is meant by Corporate Social Responsibility and discuss why It Is Important to modern business In today’s world, Corporate Social Responsibility (CARS) has been one of the topics that every company must be concerned with. It is usually viewed as a legal obligation for every company to create social benefits alongside with the profit gains.
CARS is a crucial factor for our society and environment. If there is no campaign to encourage us to save our planet, how can people be aware and know theirs obligation to save the world.
This paper will explain the meaning of corporate social responsibility, advantages and disadvantages of CARS through the example of The Body Shop. In addition, it will discuss why it is important to modern businesses. The meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility has changed since the early 20th century and It has never been a straightforward. The Importance of CARS arose with the role of leadership, how a leader can manage the company with an ethical approach to society and what can be done for the environment. Furthermore, the focus of CARS has changed the behavior of organizations, not the role of leadership anymore.
It created a debate about what companies should do for society. Subsequently, the structure of CARS places less stress on organizational behaviors and more on the responsibility.
However, the most well-known and accepted model of CARS is Carroll four-part model, which he defined as “CARS includes the economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic expectations placed on organization by society at a given point of time”.
So, the company has complied by law, which is product safety and health regulation. Thirdly, ethical responsibility, against animal testing policy is a main strategy of The Body Shop to differentiate their brands. The company has requested their suppliers to sign a declaration that there Is no animal testing. Lastly, philanthropic responsibility, the product packages are made from recycled materials in order to maximize waste and encourage the society In sustaining environment.
Corporate Social Responsibility Is generally perceived only from the positive side as it creates awareness and stimulates people to act for our society and environment.
However, tenure Is negative sloe as well. 0 Deign Walt advantages AT CARS, It noels to improve company reputation when the company sets up a new policy about CARS as a core value. It causes customers to become more loyal because the company is responsible for the environment and better customer relations because it is a trust between customers and the company. Once the trust is built, when the company does something wrong, customers might not assume that is an intentional mistake. Nevertheless, CARS has not all been beneficial. It also creates higher expenses as the company needs to buy new equipment that is environmentally friendly and heralded resistance because some investor requires the company to be in the spot light of CARS to obtain higher profits.
In the case of The Body Shop, it has helped The Body Shop to improve company reputation as it became a well-known company by differentiating their products from others while the disadvantage aspect is that the company has held high expectations for shareholders and customers. So there are several criticisms about the core value of company.
Many companies have implemented CARS in their company. One of the leading companies that adopted CARS as a pioneer of ethic is The Body Shop. The company has used CARS as a competitive strategy in order to succeed in business.
The shop owner knows what she does best. So, products are developed based on a specific group of customers in order to create a strong brand preferences and unique way with a perception of enormous customer groups, called sustainability ideals. The source of The Body Shop success is to utilize the benefits of CARS by selling products based on natural ingredients, paying a fair price and no testing on animal. According o porter, he claimed that sustainability of differentiation depends on two things: “it is continued perceived value to buyers and the lack of competitor ability to imitate it”.
It requires a transparency of work process with stakeholders. From this example, it explains why CARS is important to modern businesses like The Body Shop.
Furthermore, there are several reasons why CARS is critical to modern business such as attracting and retaining employees, attracting socially responsible companies and reducing business costs. To start with attracting and retaining employees, it stimulates workers to increase commitments and productivities. Employees would feel meaningful by working for ethical company. In the second place, it helps to attract socially responsible companies. When the company promotes new innovative products that are environmentally friendly, it gives customers a good reason to buy products from this company. It means companies can gain competitive advantage by differentiating from others.
Lastly, business costs is reduced when the company uses recycling material and conserving energy.
To summarize, Corporate Social Responsibility is an obligation for companies to save our planet while it also gains benefits from society. Nonetheless, CARS not only has advantages, but also disadvantages. The company should be aware that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks and understand why CARS is so important to modern business. The case of The Body Shop’s CARS is discussed as an example to understand more details. CARS is a critical issue that every company must be concerned about.
