The Relationship Between Business And Societies through Corporate Social Responsibility

Business Organization and Corporate Social Responsibility
Institution
Date
Introduction
Businesses thrive in an environment that provides a conducive atmosphere for its interests. The relationship between successful businesses and the society can be defined as altruistic. Businesses contribute to the growth of the society through wealth creation, self-sufficient livelihood and practice of philanthropy. The relationship between business and societies is made better through corporate social responsibility. Companies who voluntary choose to improve social and environmental standards of the society in order to reduce their negative effects on the environment and better the social order can be said to be practicing corporate social responsibility. This paper argues that businesses that have clear defined social responsible roles for themselves benefits hugely through enhanced brand reputation and brand identity. This gives them competitive advantages above others and helps maximize profits and sustainability.
Corporate social responsibility can be defined as concept where business take responsibility of the impact of their action on the stakeholders like customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders and the society at large. Businesses with clear and well defined corporate responsibility roles differentiate themselves from competitors through brand identity and good reputation (Ali, et al, 2010). They also cut cost and enjoy free advertising spaces. Corporate social responsibility is a strategy therefore used by firms to gain competitive advantage over rivals. Companies that engage in corporate social responsibility have good will with stakeholders and gains both tangible and intangible benefits (Nurn and Tang (2010). Some of the benefits that accrue to business due to well defined corporate responsibility strategy are increase in operation cost for rival businesses, good corporate reputation and reduced business risk. Others include good customer goodwill and high revenue base. Internally, it contributes to learning and development, attraction of better employees and good working attitude among employees (John, Richard, 2015).
The benefits of practicing good corporate responsibility are advantageous to organizations both overtly and covertly. Customer's purchase intentions and decisions are usually influenced by organization's involvement in some kind of corporate social responsibility. Engagement in corporate social responsib...