Corporate Social Responsibility. Business & Marketing Essay
It is strictly forbidden to extract the original text of the material, you need to quote it in your own words
1. We assign three tasks based on two real-life cases.
2. For case analysis, it is important for the students to demonstrate how well they use information
rather than reiterate or summarize what you have learned and/or memorized. Please make sure
you must link the knowledge you learnt from lectures when completing each task to illustrate
your abilities to apply knowledge to explain business phenomenon. 3. You are strongly encouraged to search additional information from different sources (e.g.,
news, corporate reports, journal articles etc.), which is relevant to the each task, to support your
ideas. Extra efforts in information searching enable you to receive higher scores, but efforts
cannot be considered if information is irrelevant or inappropriate. If you decide to refer to
additional online information (or other information sources), you must list all the information
sources or references.
4. It is an individual work to reflect your own understanding of the knowledge, and thus peer
discussion is not allowed. The answers from all students will submit to “Turnitin” to check
academic integrity. Please notice that Turnitin does not only scan past papers and publications,
but it also compares the outcomes of all students of this particular exam. Please use double
quotation marks to indicate your direct citation. Moreover, “Turnitin” is one of tools used in
marking process to check language similarity to avoid “a copy of language”. However, we would
also consider the “independence” of your ideas/insights by checking whether there are very
similar ideas/insights proposed from students. It is hardly possible for any student to have
extremely similar perspectives/opinions on each question. Therefore, if we find the viewpoints
proposed by any students are extremely similar with each other, we will regard the answers
as “a copy of idea”, and it will lead to 0 score for your final coursework.
5. Format
Spacing The coursework must use 1.5 line spacing and
Times New Roman
Font size The coursework must have a font size of 12
points.
Word counts The answers of all tasks must be between
2500-3000 words.
Submission name The students should type their answers in the
unified Coursework Submission Cover
Sheets (will be provided) and submit the
answers on Learning Mall (in the section of Week 15).
The coversheet must have a file name in the
form of “ID number+name”.
Any submission does not meet two of the above requirements will lead to deduction in marks.
6. The submission deadline is by 21st December (Monday). XJTLU policy is -5% per day up to a
total of 25%. Work submitted more than five working days late will receive a grade of zero.
7. Coursework preparation guidance. We aim to test students’ higher-order thinking skills
(knowledge understanding, intellectual skills, and transferable skills). The table below shows
some examples how to evaluate skills.
Knowledge understanding：Appropriately identify tested knowledge learnt from the lecture
Intellectual skills：Appropriately justify why and how the identified knowledge is linked with the task
Transferable skills：Appropriately employ the identified knowledge to explain business phenomenon,
and accordingly propose potential solutions to the problems in business reality
Corporate Social Responsibility
Student’s Name
Course
Professor’s Name
Institution
Location of Institution
Date
Corporate Social Responsibility
International Business School Suzhou (IBSS)
IBSS came into the limelight in 2013 as a product of the unique partnership between Xi’an Jiaotong University and the University of Liverpool. The exclusive business school aims at offering their services with a unique blend of Western and Chinese academic practices. The school’s frequent exchanges, interactions, and collaborations with international and domestic businesses give them an edge when it comes to their learning and teaching environment. Further, students receive very fundamental knowledge that enables them to relate theoretical concepts in class to the actual environment. Using stakeholder theory, it is essential to determine the most important stakeholders in the organization and establish the role of corporate social responsibility in the future development of IBSS.
Even though it emerged in the 20th Century, the stakeholder concept has gained a greater footing in modern times considering the rise in corporate scandals with Tyco, WorldCom, and Enron being prime examples (Parmar et al. 2010). These developments were vital in cementing concrete foundations on the need for ethics in running institutions rather than an insistence on pure profits alone. The theory promotes an ethical, effective, efficient, and practical approach to managing institutions in a highly complex and turbulent environment. Organizations that treat their stakeholders exceptionally are bound to receive reciprocated efforts from them apparent in positive attitudes and behaviors. Stakeholders are “individuals, groups, and organizations that have an interest in the processes and outcomes of the firm and upon whom the firm depends for the achievement of its goals” (Harrison, Freeman, and Abreu 2015, p. 859).
On the other hand, stakeholder theory is often confused with corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory although that is never the case. The former is a management theory that is predicated upon the moral treatment of stakeholders and specifically, it is not a moral theory. The CSR theory is focused on promoting organizational behavior or policies that are closely linked to social goals such as taking care of the environment or corporate philanthropy. Stakeholder theory receives further criticism from supporters of shareholder value maximization although that is a discussion for another day. Nevertheless, the infiltration of the stakeholder theory in various disciplines makes it important for IBSS to determine its most important stakeholder who is associated with the institution’s daily operations.
Students are earmarked as a very unique category of stakeholders because the credibility of the entire organization rests upon them. IBSS is an international organization and thus, it has to ensure that the students are in the best environment that guarantees their success. Learners’ success improves the university’s credibility to the international market as more students would be open to receiving their services. Also, this possibility is predicated upon enhancing students’ sense of belonging to the institution beyond the assessment and performances. To this end, the creation of student government associations allows voicing their complaints, suggestions, opinions, and ideas (Avci, Ring, and Mitchelli 2015). This development is a major driving force towards the success of the overall student population and more importantly if they influence decision-makers or bear the authority of making decisions. The school needs to consider culture as an important aspect of their operations because of their learners’ differing national and geographical inclinations.
Parents are other stakeholders whose role will be phenomenal to the learner’s and institution’s success. Parental involvement remains important as it has been since their kids’ birth. When at this stage, the parent accommodates the student’s perspectives that arise from being in this new environment. They emphasize the importance of education and other essential issues. Parents support children with the needed resources to ensure that their academic life is a smooth-sailing process. From another angle, the parent is expected to follow-up on their child’s progress in school while participating in activities where their contribution is necessary. Although these events are far from the primary goal, which is to impart skills and foundational knowledge to the students, parents’ roles are crucial to the learners’ healthy psychological state. Parents could act as a wild card when it comes to giving the institution another angle upon which they can approach different standards in the learning environment. The academic structure is one of those areas where their contributions can come in handy. The impact and influence critical outcomes of the students and the entire school.
IBSS’s operations are highly dependent upon international partnerships, which in some way is a major approach in enhancing its publicity. This position implies that the international partners are vital particularly in advancing people’s conviction on the institution’s capability to meet expectations. However, this possibility arrives through the implementation of specific clear strategical approaches. Excellent examples would be their contributions to program development and articulation on how various operations will be conducted within the institution. The Western partners would help the firm acclimate to the market demands that are imminent in the European and American business environments so that graduates are on level or above their colleagues whom they meet in the job arena.
Finally, it would be difficult to dismiss the community from the important stakeholder's list. An institution of this magnitude is bound to have an impact on their surrounding community even if this perspective if one observes the arising economic implications. Besides, there have been a couple of historical experiences when learning institutions of this stature have neglected community relations and the consequences have been severe and long-lasting (Avci et al. 2015). To this end, there is a need for the institutions to place considerable attention on the surrounding community and create a good rapport with them. The organization can focus on the community’s expectations with relevance to social, environmental, and economic aspects. Related actions, which are reminiscent of good deeds are crucial to creating successful public relations.
In essence, CSR acts as a vital link between the institution and society. CSR is not only a convenient manner of creating awareness about the learning institution, but also relaying the essence of social responsibility (Gulavani, Nayak, N., and Nayak, M. 2016). Universities possess the immense capacity to affect students, communities, and society implying that the desire to promote social development ought to be at the heart of the institution. Ramos-Monge, Llinàs-Audet, and Barrena-Martinez (2017) have proposed processes through which institutions such as IBSS can use to achieve related social missions. First, there is the ethical and environmental management of the premises. Second, the institution can participate socially, in activities that promote a more humane and sustainable development model. Third, they can produce and disseminate socially relevant knowledge. Finally, they can endear to create responsible and supportive citizens.
Value-Creating Strategies of E-Commerce Firms in the Chinese Market
Alibaba
Alibaba is among the world’s renowned e-commerce companies. Its heightened dominance in the 21st Century arises from the fact that it has eloped the United States’ retailer, Walmart, in global sales. Moreover, the company raised “the world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) in September 2014” and has expanded its operations globally (Meng 2018, p. 89). The company is in the exclusive group of the 10 most valuable global companies when it comes to market capitalization. The value proposition for such a company must be very high if they are to attain these metrics.
Alibaba’s value as a business comes from its well-oiled innovative ecosystem they have created. This ecosystem is one that consists of a community of organisms, which would refer to the many types of consumers and businesses that are holding interactions among themselves within this environment. The environment encapsulates both the company’s online platform land the greater physical elements. The company’s primal purpose was to provide all those resources they thought were central to the success of an online business platform. Initially, they interlinked buyers and sellers of commodities. Today, the ecosystem has expanded to allow to include other business functions such as affiliate marketing, logistics, marketing, and advertising.
Further, Alibaba has delved into the finance sector where it has established Ant Microloans. The company launched this product in 2012 in the quest to ensure that more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can afford loans to service their operations. Using their exceptional data-driven network, Alibaba noticed that most users of the platform were SMEs and at the same time, they are the ones that ...