Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Plan
Literature Review
The following sections represent excerpts of the literature review used to inform the CSR strategic plan.
The Effect of Media and CSR Rankings
Over the past 20 years, business media have increasingly recognized the growing CSR movement, assigning reporters and columnists to cover it. From this increase in coverage emerged many national and global CSR rankings. As a result of the rankings and increased publicity, Porter says, “CSR has emerged as an inescapable priority for business leaders in every country” (Porter & Kramer, 2006).
Although “there seems to be a new one every week,” the top rankings include Forbes Magazine’s Companies with the Best CSR Reputations, Fortune Magazine’s World’s Most Admired Companies, and Dow Jones’ Sustainability Index (Adams, 2011). There is even a Corporate Responsibility Magazine with its own 100 Best Corporate Citizens.
Grayson and Nelson (2013) attest that there has been “growth in more specialist electronic media platforms dedicated to covering corporate responsibility and sustainability such as GreenBiz, EurActiv, Ethical Corporation, and Business Fights Poverty” as well as CSR blogs (p. 104). Even media companies have “developed coalitions to explore responsible business issues relevant to their own sector” (Grayson & Nelson, 2013, p. 104).
Adams, S. (2011). The Most Responsible Companies: Another Ranking. Forbes. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2011/09/16/the-most-responsible-companies-another-ranking/
Grayson, D., & Nelson, J. (2013). Corporate Social Responsibility: The Past, Present, and Future of Alliances for Sustainable Capitalism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Porter, M., & Kramer, M. (2006). Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2006/12/strategy-and-society-the-link-between-competitive-advantage-and-corporate-social-responsibility
The Importance of Leadership Involvement
Much research supports executives leading the charge on CSR. The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship found in the Profile of the Practice study in 2013 that “almost 60% of companies have an executive leading corporate citizenship” (Advancing, 2013, p. 3).
Furthermore, “There is a 30% increase in the number of companies that have an executive-level corporate citizenship council” (p. 9).
Grayson and Nelson (2013) attest that CEOs and senior executives need to “act as vocal champions and advocates” for CSR, “not only within their own companies and industry sectors, but also more broadly” (p. 139).
A vivid example of this is the 1998 speech “by former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, calling on business to support universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, and the environment (which led to the creation of the UN Global Compact)” (Grayson & Nelson, 2013, p. 139).
For any CSR program to be successful and to grow, the CEO must be on board and an advocate for the program.
Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. (2013). Advancing from the core. Profile of the Practice. Boston, MA: Author.
Grayson, D., & Nelson, J. (2013). Corporate Social Responsibility: The Past, Present, and Future of Alliances for Sustainable Capitalism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Measuring, Reporting, and Communicating
According to the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, “More than 70% of companies collect ESG [environmental, social, and corporate governance] data to manage corporate citizenship performance” (Advancing, 2013, p. 23). Many companies hire a third party to track, measure, and manage this information.
In order to report on impact, companies need to set CSR objectives and track the benefit of their efforts on the community and their employees. “More than half of companies publish corporate citizenship reports. The most common titles applied to these report are sustainability and corporate social responsibility” (Advancing, 2013, p. 23).
Additionally, for external purposes, “more than 90% of companies include information from their corporate citizenship reports on their website” (Advancing, 2013, p. 25). Part of the researcher's toolkit includes recommendations on ways to update a company's website to reflect new CSR program and initiatives.
Social media is also used as a way to communicate company CSR initiatives to the public, whereas the intranet is most commonly used to communicate about corporate citizenship internally among employees (p. 25).
Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. (2013). Advancing from the core. Profile of the Practice. Boston, MA: Author.