Are Entrepreneurs Responsible for Taiwan’s Society? (Final paper)

Abstract

This paper explores the corporate social responsibility (CSR) for Taiwan’s society. Carroll and Buchholtz (2006) categorized CSR into economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities. The relationship between the entrepreneurs and the general public is associated with this four-level responsibility. Besides, the general public is divided into investors, employees, and consumers in order to examine the problems in the society completely. The function of consumer movement, consumer loyalty, and public reputation on the business is described as the benefits of CSR to the entrepreneurs. The examples of daily life are provided to prove the great influence of CSR and express why the entrepreneurs need to have CSR. Furthermore, the ideas of community involvement and social relation are mentioned to manifest the importance of CSR. In consequence, the financial returns and the charitable contributions are the requisite elements leading to the business success. After being successful on the business, the entrepreneur should think about giving back to the society. The progress of the society encourages the growth of the business.

        Keyword: corporate social responsibility

Are Entrepreneurs Responsible for Taiwan’s Society?

Taiwan’s society, in which the people work under the capitalism, is built by many entrepreneurs with their spirits of adventure and the efforts. The growth of the economy is propelled by the entrepreneurs, who create many chances of the works. They make the profit for themselves as well as give hope to the society. Under the system of the market-oriented economy, the entrepreneurs’ investments and strategic decisions influence the society a lot. Accordingly, the entrepreneurs have the responsibility for Taiwan’s society, which is called “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)”.

The following questions are served as the foundation of this paper:

1.      What is CSR?

2.      How does CSR influence the society?

3.      Why do the entrepreneurs have CSR for Taiwan’s society?

The economy of the world is connected by the entrepreneurs’ commercial behaviors. In the present society, the entrepreneurs’ work is not only thinking about how to make money, but also how to devote themselves to the society. Therefore, the general public is one of the important elements to the entrepreneurs’ business. The entrepreneurs cannot deny the truth that if they want to be successful on the business, they should be accepted by the general public previously.

        Nowadays, the entrepreneurs widely distribute the business over the world. The development of the economy globalizes, and so do the rules of the business. In the recent years, there is a voice promoting CSR around the world, which is gradually blended into the enterprise culture and the realistic operation. Being international is the most important thing for the citizens of the global village, which is the type of the present society. Therefore, the development of the enterprise cannot be restricted in the local area, and the entrepreneurs have to demand themselves to take a broad view on the future. Cultivating the talented people and improving the conditions of the society are the solutions to the problems, which are also the emphases in CSR.

Introduction to CSR

        According to Carroll and Buchholtz’s (2006) definition of CSR,

1.      Economic responsibilities: be profitable and provide safe products at fair prices

2.      Legal responsibilities: obey the law

3.      Ethical responsibilities: Obligation to do what is right, just, and fair

4.      Philanthropic responsibilities: be a good corporate citizen and contribute resources to the community.

Economic responsibilities

Carroll and Buchholtz’s (2006) study of business and society showed that business should be “an economic institution whose orientation is to produce goods and services that society wants and to sell them at fair prices” (p.35). People in the society can be divided into three kinds: investors, employees, and the general public, who are playing the important roles to the economic responsibilities of CSR.

First, investors are closely related to the business, and their major purpose is to gain profit from the successful companies. Therefore, the entrepreneurs’ responsibility to investors is maintaining the regular function of the companies, and making them keep getting the adequate returns on their investments. When investors are not benefited from the business, which they invested heavily in, financial problems will gradually appear in the society. The effect of economy is like dominoes, which associate one with others. That is, if the failure of business causes the collapse of economy, this condition would make the public afraid.

Secondly, employees are like screws, which are requisite in the operation of the companies. The entrepreneurs need employees to work for them, and employees’ living expenses depend on works. The entrepreneurs’ responsibility to employees is giving the steady salary which corresponds with their works. When employees are paid good salary, their lives would be stable. Consequently, they can pursue not only the material comfort but also the spiritual growth, which can make the business and the society progress. Furthermore, they would like to devote themselves to the work.

The last part is about the general public, who influences business activities a lot. The entrepreneurs’ responsibility to the general public is making the products safe and selling them at the fair prices. According to the recent news, there are some vicious businessmen selling counterfeits. For instance, the products are marked “Made in Taiwan,” but they are actually from China. The prices of goods should be equal to quality. Although the entrepreneurs want to make a profit, they cannot deceive the general public and even sacrifice the people’s health and lives.

Legal responsibilities

Carroll and Buchholtz (2006) declared that “Legal responsibilities reflect society’s view of ‘condified ethics’ in the sense that they embody basic notions of fair practices as established by our lawmakers. It is business’s responsibility to society to comply with these laws” (p.35). When entrepreneurs engage in the business, it is necessary for them to maintain the order of the society by obeying the laws. The laws seem to be the regulations for entrepreneurs, but they are the protection for the general public.

For consumers, when they have disputes about products with businessmen, they can seek for the laws to prevent the damage. Recently, more and more people have been used to buy commodities on line, which leads to many problems in the process of deals. The common problem is that proprietors do not provide the system of returning imperfect products. According to the article 19 of Consumer Protection Law, “Consumers of a mail order or door-to-door sale, if unwilling to purchase the goods received by them, may return the goods or notify in writing the business operators to rescind the purchase contract within 7 days upon receipt such goods without stating reasons or paying any expenses or the purchase price” (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website). If sellers have a complete procedure for protecting consumers’ right, it could not only reduce consumers’ worry about commodities, but also appeal more people to increase the profits.

For employees, especially females, when they encounter the unequal treatment on works, they can ask employers to give proper work environment and adequate salaries with the legal procedure. On the basis of the article 10 of Act of Gender Equality in Employment, “Employers shall not discriminate against employees because of their gender or sexual orientation in the case of paying wages. Employees shall receive equal pay for equal work or equal value” (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website). If entrepreneurs value talented women’s ability without discrimination, the companies could gain more profits. Besides, another serious problem is basic wages. In the past, there is no law to avoid employers’ oppression on employees. Nowadays, employees’ right is not neglected anymore because they can rely on Labor Standards Act. In the light of the article 21 of this law, “A worker shall be paid such wages as determined through negotiations with the employer, provided, however, that such wages shall not fall below the basic wage (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website).”

Legal responsibilities are necessary for the society. If entrepreneurs do not have these responsibilities, which is like playing the game without rules, the conditions would not be controlled in the business and the society. It cannot make the world better that people escape the responsibility, such as the problem of evading taxes. Only the good quality of people’s lives does stimulate the business transactions.

Ethical responsibilities

Josephson’s (2010) study of ethical principles showed that the business executive success is related to these 12 principles: “honesty, integrity, promise-keeping, loyalty, fairness, concern for others, respect for others, law abiding, commitment to excellence, leadership, reputation and morale, and accountability.” However, in recent years, the businessmen have gradually lost the fairness and honesty. There are many tainted foods reported on TV news, which makes the general public nervous and scared. For instance, the products are marked natural chlorophyll, but in fact, they involve copper chlorophyllin extract.

Although the business ethics do not have precise regulations, they are considered as the stricter standard than the laws. Whether actions and practices of business correspond with ethics or not is judged by the public. A successful company is widespread with a better public reputation. Entrepreneurs can enhance reputation for their companies by having ethical responsibilities.

The entrepreneurs’ ethical responsibilities are having good intentions of business instead of lies. Entrepreneurs need to give employees or workers a good place to work and adequate salaries rather than exploit them. Besides, the behavior or decisions entrepreneurs do can be openly examined by the public. Carroll and Buchholtz (2006) argued that “because business has a reservoir of management talent, functional expertise, and capital, and because so many others have tried and failed to solve general social problems, business should be given a chance. These arguments have some merit, because there are some social problems that can be handled, in the final analysis, only by business” (p.43). The key point lies in whether entrepreneurs want to solve problems, such as the pollution issue.

According to the Global Human Development Report 2006, which was proclaimed by United Nations Development Programme, there are over one billion people in the world having no clean water, and 1.8 million children die of diarrhea every year. Because of the water pollution, Belu Water, which is a company selling bottled mineral water, was founded. They use recycled materials, which are carbon neutral and environment-friendly. Belu Water is also devoted to the plan about improvement of water resources.

        Although the businessmen would face the ethical dilemma, they should try to overcome it. The sustainable management of business includes “greater customer loyalty” and “a more satisfied and productive workforce.” If you want to have strong viability in the marketplace, you must have ethical responsibilities.

Philanthropic responsibilities

The philanthropic responsibilities are the public’s expectations of current business, so they become a kind of business strategies, which makes the corporations have competitive vantage. All entrepreneurs want the win-win situation, which makes them get both economic and social advantages. However, only engaging in corporate philanthropy do make you step forward to this situation.

        There is an idea about “community involvement” (p.268) in philanthropy, which is mentioned in Corporate Social Responsibility (Crane, Matten, & Spence, 2008). Entrepreneurs and the general public are members of the community, which means that they are influenced by each other. The relationship is like a jigsaw puzzle, which would be incomplete without only one piece. The process of achieving the business success involves many elements, in which promoting the quality of the society is the prerequisite. J. Michael Cook, retired leader of Deloitte & Touche, argued that “If we have good educational systems, good safety, and good activity programs for young people, we’re going to be much more effective in attracting and retaining quality people (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2006, p.472).”If entrepreneurs are voluntary to help the society make a progress, it would not only have positive impact on the society, but also benefit the companies.

According to The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy, “Charitable contributions by U.S. companies fell 14.5% in real dollars last year, and over the last 15 years, corporate giving as a percentage of profits has dropped by 50%” (Porter & Kramer, 2002, p.5). It is clear that entrepreneurs’ aspiration to provide charitable contributions for supporting community keeps decreasing. Most entrepreneurs think that charitable contribution is a wasteful action. However, the philanthropic responsibilities are the chances that entrepreneurs need to catch and the effective advertising ways to promote companies’ image, which can quickly penetrate the community. After all, “competing on price and corporate citizenship is smarter than competing on price alone” (Crane, Matten & Spence, 2008, p.271).

Conclusion

        Nowadays, the interaction between the entrepreneurs and the society should be valued with CSR. The business operation and the society movement are influenced by each other because they are in the same community. With CSR, everything about the business and the society has the order. Without CSR, no one can escape the harm which is caused by the entrepreneurs. If the entrepreneurs understand the necessity of CSR, they could create more profits for the companies. If the general public understands the importance of CSR, they could protect themselves from the business means. The general public can encourage the entrepreneurs to manage the business with CSR, which does not only have one aspect. Besides, entrepreneurs should think about the unlimited future instead of being shortsighted with the present profits. The healthy environment of the society is a decisive element of economic development. Therefore, the entrepreneurs should have the responsibility to maintain and protect the resource, which is from the society.

References

Buchholtz, A. K. & Carroll, A. B. (2006). In D. Shaut (Ed.), Business & Society: Ethics and

        Stakeholder Management, 6th edition. Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

Crane, A., Matten D. & Spence L. J. (Eds.). (2008). Understanding CSR: CSR in the

        community. Corporate Social Responsibility, 1^st edition (pp. 265-283). Abingdon, Oxon:       

        Routledge.

Drupal & NETivism (n.d.). Belu Water. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from Social Enterprise

         Insights Web site: http://www.seinsights.asia/info/8/1444

Josephson, M. (2010). Business ethics & leadership: 12 ethical principles for business

         executives. Retrieved October 30, 2013, from Free Management Library Web site:

         http://josephsoninstitute.org/business/blog/2010/12/12-ethical-principles-for-business

         executives/

Kramer, M. R. & Porter, M. E. (2002). The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy. 
Retrieved October 20, 2013 from  Expert2business.com:  
http://www.expert2business.com/itson/Porter%20HBR%20Corporate%20philantropy.pdf

The group of Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (n.d.). Consumer Protection Law. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China Web site: http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=J0170001

The group of Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (n.d.). Act of Gender

         Equality in Employment. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Laws & Regulations

         Database of The Republic of China Web site:

         http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=N0030014

The group of Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (n.d.). Labor Standards Act.                Retrieved December 25, 2013, from Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China       
        Web site: http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=N0030001

Transcript 3

Vivien: Good Afternoon everyone! Our topic today is Are Entrepreneurs responsible for Taiwan’s Society? And…I’m Vivien.

Lisa: I’m Lisa.

Vivien: And this is our outline, first we will introduce the concept of CSR, and then Lisa will tell us why she thinks CSR is necessary, and I will argue that why CSR is not good for Taiwan, and final is our conclusion.

Vivien: OK, first I want to ask all of you: Have you ever heard about CSR before? Raise your…no? Haha~

Vivien: CSR is the abbreviation of Corporate Social Responsibility, and it is a form of corporate self-regulate combined into a business model. And we will explain, further explain it later.

Lisa: Carroll is a social…social economist. According to his theory, CSR has four..four-level responsibility. Its former is like a pyramid. The basic one is economic responsibility, and the second one is legal responsibility, the third one is ethical responsibility, and the higher one is philanthropic responsibility. And we…we will combine these four responsibilities into our arguments. We will introduce these responsibilities first.

Lisa: Economic responsibility is that the companies should be profitable. Entrepreneurs should provide the true value of goods…goods and services, and provide business with profits. The legal responsibility is that entrepreneurs should obey the law. It is required of business by society. And it’s like rule of the game. Entrepreneurs should maintain the order of the society by obeying the rule.

Vivien: The concept of ethical responsibility is very simple-- it asks entrepreneurs to be ethical. And that is to say, to do what is right, just and fair. This responsibility is expected or prohibited by societal members. And because the law are essential but not adequate, so ethical responsibility then serve as, umm… embracing and reflecting newly emerging values and norms.

Vivien: Philanthropic responsibility is desired or expected of business by society. It asks entrepreneurs to give back, and engages in volunteerism, and…umm…in order to support the community to become a better place. The major distinction between ethical and philanthropic responsibility is that although communities desire or…umm…expect business to contribute its money, facilities, or umm… employee time to the community, they do not regard firms as unethical if they didn’t umm… provide these services.

Vivien: And next, Lisa is going to tell us why she thinks CSR is necessary.

Lisa: I’m the supporting side, so I’m going to talk about why CSR is necessary. There are three important parts related to CSR: the first is economic progress, the third one is people…the second one is people, and the third one is environmental protection. Let’s start with…Let’s start from people! I divide people into three kinds: investor, employee, and consumer.

Lisa: To investors, their main purpose is to gain profits from the companies. So, the entrepreneurs’ responsibility to them is maintaining the regular function of the companies, and making them get financial returns on their investments. The failure of business can cause the collapse of economy. This condition associates one with others, so entrepreneurs need to have economic responsibility: making companies be profitable.

Lisa: To Employees, they are the important group in the business, but they are usually exploited by entrepreneurs. If we say the company is like a machine, they would be screws. Screw…Although the screw is small, it is still necessary in the operation of the machine. The entrepreneurs’ responsibility to employees is giving them proper and stead salary. When they are satisfied with employers’ giving, they will…will work hard for companies. If the employees’ lives are stable, they could pursue not only material comfort, but also the spiritual growth. It make…It can make the society and the companies progress.

But, there are two big problems in the workplace. One is wages, and the other is inequality. Like the words on the picture, the boss says, “I’m looking for someone who can take on a great deal…great deal of responsibility and make executive decisions and be willing to start at the minimum wage.” We can know that employers always ask more than what they are willing to pay. So employees need laws to protect their right. To the part…To the part of wages, the law regulates employers to provide…to provide wages which cannot be lower than basic wage. To the part of inequality, especially for women, the regulation of law is no discrimination. If entrepreneurs can…If entrepreneurs have legal responsibility, they can…they can get more satisfied and productive workforce instead of legal problems. Such as the sweatshop, it is not a proper existence.

Lisa: To consumers, they are the group who influence business activities a lot. The entrepreneurs’ responsibility to them is provide safe products and selling…sell them at fair prices. Nowadays, we are shopping not only in the physical stores, but also the online stores. No matter in which store, consumers need the protection of the laws. If the products we buy are imperfect, we have the right to return merchandise. To people who don’t have the good process of returning merchandise, they will…they must have no good impression on that store. And the entrepreneurs will lost the consumer loyalty. It is not good for business.

And this is another one about consumer loyalty. I think you may have this experience. When you see something on the commercial, and go to buy it, but what you really get is not the same on the commercial. The feeling is not good, so no exaggerated commercials is one of the entrepreneurs’ responsibilities.

And the next picture, you see this woman. She wants to buy beef burger, but it may contain traces of horse. Nowadays, we also worry about this problem because there are more and more counterfeits and contaminated food reported on TV news.

I think…I believe that everyone’s ultimate destination is having…having a better life. It is important that entrepreneurs have these responsibilities. Entrepreneurs cannot sacrifice people’s life in order to make money. Besides, they also…they should also care about the environmental issue…issues. Because a good environment…having a good environment, we can have a good life.

Lisa: my last part is about philanthropic part…philanthropic responsibility. After the business is successful, entrepreneurs should think about giving back to society. They can provide money to improve education…education system or medical equipment. If the equality of the society is promoted higher, it can bring more profits to the companies. Like Bill Gates and Wang Yung-ching, they are two successful entrepreneurs. Both of them not only devote themselves into the business, but also have charitable contributions. If entrepreneurs can compete on business and charitable contribution, they are..they would be more advantaged than others.

Lisa: Then Vivien will talk about why CSR is not good for Taiwan.

Vivien: Thank you, Lisa. In the following section, I’m going to analyze it in two ways: first is through Carroll’s pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility, and another is I will talk about the advantages and disadvantages for entrepreneurs and the people.

Vivien: We introduced Carroll’s pyramid a few minutes ago. And in the economic level, we ask entrepreneurs to sell their products at fair price and provide investors with adequate and attractive returns on their investments.

Vivien: But are the prices in Taiwan really fair enough?

Vivien: Let’s look at this picture first. The blue line is Consumer Price Index, also called CPI, it can reflect the price changes of the product or services, and the red line is the average wage in Taiwan. We can see that from 1999 to 2007, the sa, salary is higher, the red line is higher than the blue line, but after 2007, the situation become opposite. And the gap between the two lines become wider each year.

Vivien: And this picture is also about Taiwan’s CPI, it gets higher every year.

Vivien: And the last picture talks about Taiwan’s salary from 1998 to 2012. The red line is notional average salary, which means average salary. And the blue line is the real wage, which... The difference between them is that the average wage…the average salary only looks about how much we earned, but the real wage also consider about the inflation(通貨膨脹). So by looking at the real wage, we can know the purchasing power(購買力) of the consumers. From this chart we can see that, yes, our salary added, has added six thousands and eighty dollors for the past 14 years, but the price of the products raise more than that. So is the price in Taiwan fair enough? NO!!!!!

Vivien: Next is legal responsibility. And, it is very simple, whenever we talks about law, it asks us to follow the rules.

Vivien: But in Taiwan, the problem is that the law, which are made by the lawmakers, may reflect the personal interests and political motivations of legislator rather than appropriate ethical justifications. The government and the entrepreneurs stand on the same side and carve up all the interests, and leave the people on the other side with nothing or and even harmful things.

Vivien: And the third level is ethical responsibility, its expectation is to ask us, to ask us to do what is right, fair, and just. I think there is nothing wrong with this concept. But it seems very hard for our, for Taiwan’s entrepreneurs to do this.

Vivien: Last year, Taiwan had an astonishing food scandal AGAIN!! And this time is about the oil we eat every day. 長基, also known as 大統、and富味香、味全, these are all well-known brands, but they did not sell their products in a proper way. The Extra virgin olive oil in the bottle is not 100% olive oil but they also contain other kinds of, other cheaper kinds of oil in it, but they sell the oil in the price of high level oil, and that is very unethical!!

Vivien: The last level is philanthropic responsibility, it asks businessmen to give back and volunteer to help.

Vivien: For example, the famous fast food restaurant McDonald, they have dedicated in helping children that has, who are seriously ill, and they build the McDonald House Charities to take care of them, and hold the McHappyDay to raise the fund of charity. But… needless, needless to say that McDonald has fulfill their phi, philanthropic responsibility, but in the meantime, the foods they sold have a lot of problems in it. Umm…Apart from the high calorie, the oil they use have, the oil they use is not very good, the acid value is over…this, the acid value is twenty times over the umm… standard. And last year, a man shockingly shows a hamburger he bought 14 years ago!!! It shows that McDonald’s food put tooooo much preservative in it. And, 14 days is very horrible, and 14 years?! Do you dare to eat that hamburger? Umm, the concept I want to show is that the moment when they show their charitable, charitable moves to us, their firms still do things that will harm our society, and they don’t really pay responsibility for their, umm for their harm, but donating money to the, those issues that are more appealing and more noticeable, and…which will gain public notice more effectively. And thus blur the point that they are the original of these problems and let us think that they are good companies.

Vivien: Well, there are advantages and disadvantages for the entrepreneurs and the people.

Vivien: For entrepreneurs, they can promote corporate image through engage in volunteerism, businessmen can make people more willing to buy their products because people will think that they care about our society. Apart from this, umm businessmen can have deduct, tax, tax deduction by fulfilling social responsibility.

Vivien: For example, in Taiwan, if entrepreneurs give disaster relief to the government, they can have the umm deduction rate up to 100%! That means they don’t have to pay any income tax at all!

Vivien: But in the meantime, entrepreneurs have to take the risk of wasting money. Because umm… doing, fulfilling responsibility is not equal to more profits right?

Vivien: For the people, although it is true that they, those enterprises give out the money to help people, but at the same time, the pollution is still there, the original problems are still there, too. Why do we want entrepreneurs to take responsibility? Because we think they earn money but leave all the problems to the society. And, to take responsibility means to make up for what you have done. But why did our socie, why did our society keep asking entrepreneurs to do charity without solving the original problems they have done?

Vivien: Does our society turn out to promote hypocrisy?

Vivien: As for the advantages for the people.Well, we can’t erase the good deeds that those entrepreneurs have done. All the foundations and their contributions indeed help the community to become a better place, but that doesn’t mean entrepreneurs can cover up all the bad things they have done.

Vivien: And here comes our conclusion.

Lisa: The relationship between entrepreneurs and the society is like jigsaw puzzle or gear. It is so close that they influence each other. Therefore, the entrepreneurs cannot escape the responsibility to harm the society. Instead, if they want their business widespread and have the strong…have the strong viability in the marketplace, they must have corporation…corporate social responsibility. The sustainable management is based on what you do.

Vivien: And as for my conclusion, I think Taiwan has not ready for CSR for the following reasons: first, umm, entrepreneurs don’t have the heart to do what is required or expected by society, all they can see is money. And second, the government can’t help but stand with the entrepreneurs, they only think about themselves and have no minds on people’s welfare. And fi, last, the people in Taiwan are too coward to against powerful people. If we can, can’t depend on the powerful people, we have to unit and form the power ourselves, not just endure and, and complain it on the internet.

Vivien: And that is our, our presentation, thank you for listening.

Q&A time:

Q1:

Cabecita: Do you think the public’s expectation is the power to push the entrepreneurs have responsibility?

Lisa: Umm…umm because the society…I think the entrepreneurs and the public is in the same community. So, if the entrepreneurs want the public to accept them, they should try to fulfill the public’s expectation. I think the public’s expectation is the push…can push the entrepreneurs to do the responsibility.

Q2:

Vicky: Hi~Vivien! You have talked about the collusion between the…government and the business. So can you give us some about the collusion between the government and the business?

Vivien: Umm…there’s an example last year, the Council of Agriculture in Executive Yuan, in Chinese we call it行政院農委會, umm… loosen the restriction of reservoir’s watershed (水庫集水區). And in the meantime, the Environmental Protection Administration in Executive Yuan, in Chinese we call it 行政院環保署, also wants to revise, umm, environmental impact assessment(就是環評). So what is this all about? That means that those enterprises now can build houses in the watershed, legally, and don’t have to care about the environmental impact assessment, too! Well, I think this is very ridiculous!! And it will harm the environment very badly. And I think this is an example that can show the collusion between government and the entrepreneurs.

Comment:

Tim: I want to say, say some opinions to Vivien. Yeah, ah…I think you good ah, a good ratitude good critique of the CSR. Ah, I think your PowerPoint is somehow hard to understand because you talk about ah, CSR is a, is a façade, is a veil, veil upon the real problem. Umm…so, ah, you, you still, you, you explain it well, you think very various examples, so I think you give a, give a quite good critique of it. Thanks.

Vivien: Thank you.

Reflection 2

According to the previous experience, we know that our issue is too serious and difficult to understand. When we had the presentation, we didn’t get any response from the audience. The disadvantage of the last presentation is that we do not talk in a straightforward way. Therefore, we decide to improve this drawback by simplifying the content. We will talk about the main principles and make them become simple ideas so that everyone can understand what the corporate social responsibility is.

In the final presentation, we will begin with a question to know how many people have heard corporate social responsibility (CSR). After briefly introducing corporate social responsibility, we will talk about four-level responsibility on the basis of Carroll’s theory. It can help the classmates remember the issue and the international students understand the issue as soon as possible. Then, we are going to combine these responsibilities into our arguments. In the Power Point, we use the animation to assist us in catching the audience’s attention. Our mutual goal is using pictures and few words to illustrate the arguments and convey the ideas. Therefore, I pick some interesting comics and pictures to make the points obvious.

In the part of employees, I choose a picture, on which a boss’ words represent the inequality. It clearly indicates that employers always ask more than what they are willing to pay. It is the reason why employees need laws to protect their right in the workplace. In the part of consumers, I put two pictures to talk about the serious problems for consumers, such as exaggerated commercials and contaminated food. Nowadays, there are more and more dishonest businessmen selling products which make people’s lives in danger. Although it seems that exaggerated commercial is not a big problem, consumers’ right is potentially harmed by businessmen. I want to use the examples in the daily life to make everyone discover that corporate social responsibility is close to us. In the conclusion, I want to describe the relationship between entrepreneurs and the general public with the images of two things. One is jigsaw puzzle, and the other is gear. Both of them are not complete without any piece, which is like the social relations.

As for the performance in front of the classmates, I will improve my oral presentation by keeping practicing. From the comments of the previous presentation, the classmates said that my tone was too flat and the volume was low. Therefore, I will notice these problems in the final presentation. Also, I will try to have body language or gestures to make audience easily get the points. Now, the big problem for us is that the international student cannot come to class. In this period, we have tried to ask many people, including classmates, friends and so on, as possible as we can. Unfortunately, there is no good news. We are still trying to find the international student. Inviting the international student to listen our presentation is a good challenge for us and makes us know that we should expand the circle of friends. Besides, we should have “Plan B” for everything!

Legal Responsibilities of CSR (Revised Annotation 4)

       Carroll and Buchholtz (2006) declared that “Legal responsibilities reflect society’s view of ‘condified ethics’ in the sense that they embody basic notions of fair practices as established by our lawmakers. It is business’s responsibility to society to comply with these laws (P. 35).” The laws are the rules of the game. When entrepreneurs engage in the business, it is necessary for them to maintain the order of the society by obeying the laws. The laws seem to be the regulations for entrepreneurs, but they are the protection for the general public.

For consumers, when they have disputes about products with businessmen, they can seek for the laws to prevent the damage. Recently, more and more people have been used to buy commodities on line, which leads to many problems in the process of deals. The common problem is that proprietors do not provide the system of returning imperfect products. According to the article 19 of Consumer Protection Law, “Consumers of a mail order or door-to-door sale, if unwilling to purchase the goods received by them, may return the goods or notify in writing the business operators to rescind the purchase contract within 7 days upon receipt such goods without stating reasons or paying any expenses or the purchase price (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website).” If sellers have a complete procedure for protecting consumers’ right, it could not only reduce consumers’ worry about commodities, but also appeal more people to increase the profits.

For employees, especially females, when they encounter the unequal treatment on works, they can ask employers to give proper work environment and adequate salaries with the legal procedure. On the basis of the article 10 of Act of Gender Equality in Employment, “Employers shall not discriminate against employees because of their gender or sexual orientation in the case of paying wages. Employees shall receive equal pay for equal work or equal value (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website).” If entrepreneurs believe and value talented women’s ability without discrimination, they could also help the companies gain profits. Besides, another serious problem is basic wages. In the past, there is no law to avoid employers’ oppression on employees. Nowadays, employees’ right is not neglected anymore because they can rely on Labor Standards Act. In the light of the article 21 of this law, “A worker shall be paid such wages as determined through negotiations with the employer, provided, however, that such wages shall not fall below the basic wage (Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China website).”

       Legal responsibilities are necessary for the society. If entrepreneurs do not have these responsibilities, which is like playing the game without rules, the conditions would not be controlled in the business and the society. It cannot make the world better that people escape the responsibility (see Figure 1), such as the problem of evading taxes. Only the good quality of people’s lives does stimulate the business transactions.

Figure 1: Most people escape the responsibilities.

References:

1.   Buchholtz, A. K. & Carroll, A. B. (2006). Business, society, and stakeholders: Corporate citizenship: social responsibility, responsiveness, and performance. In D. Shaut (Ed.), Business & Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management, 6th edition (pp. 29-60). Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

2. The group of Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (n.d.). Consumer Protection Law. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China Web site: http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=J0170001

3. The group of Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (n.d.). Act of Gender Equality in Employment. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China Web site: http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=N0030014

4. The group of Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (n.d.). Labor Standards Act.            Retrieved December 25, 2013, from Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China Web site:     http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=N0030001

Reference of Figure 1: 

    Retrieved December 11, 2013, from Google Web site: http://biblioteka.adamdebowski.pl/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/12063288-large.jpg

Philanthropic Responsibilities of CSR (Revised Annotation 3)

In 2006, Carroll and Buchholtz’s study of corporate social responsibilities defined that philanthropic responsibilities are “being a good corporate citizen (P.38).” That is, entrepreneurs should make contributions to the community. The philanthropic responsibilities are the public’s expectations of current business. Therefore, they become a kind of business strategies, which makes the corporations have competitive vantage. All entrepreneurs want the win-win situation, which makes them get both economic and social advantages. However, only engaging in corporate philanthropy do make you step forward to this situation.

        There is an idea about “community involvement (P.268)” in philanthropy, which is mentioned in Corporate Social Responsibility (Crane, Matten & Spence, 2008). Entrepreneurs and the general public are members of the community, which means that they are influenced by each other. The relationship is like jigsaw puzzle, which would be incomplete without only one piece. If entrepreneurs are voluntary to help the society make a progress (see Figure 1), it would not only have positive impact on the society, but also benefit the companies.

Figure 1: The idea of Community Involvement

The process of achieving the business success involves many elements, and promoting the quality of the society is the prerequisite. J. Michael Cook, retired leader of Deloitte & Touche, argued that “If we have good educational systems, good safety, and good activity programs for young people, we’re going to be much more effective in attracting and retaining quality people (P.472, Carroll & Buchholtz).” Entrepreneurs need to serve the general public with charity for financial and social goals because the healthier society brings more profits to companies. As the UK retailer Marks and Spencer commented, “We have long believed that healthy high streets need healthy back streets (P.267, Crane, Matten & Spence).”

Some people are disadvantaged minority in the society, so the competent people should try their best to make up the others’ weakness. For example, Children Are Us Foundation is an organization, which helps people with disabilities find their value and confidence, thus they can live by themselves. Corporate social responsibilities are chances that entrepreneurs need to catch because most people appreciate and accept the companies with good fame in the community. Therefore, entrepreneurs should think about the unlimited future instead of being shortsighted with the present profits.

       According to The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy, “Charitable contributions by U.S. companies fell 14.5% in real dollars last year, and over the last 15 years, corporate giving as a percentage of profits has dropped by 50% (Porter & Kramer, 2002).” It is clear that entrepreneurs’ aspiration to provide charitable contributions for supporting community keeps decreasing. Most entrepreneurs think that charitable contribution is a wasteful action. However, if they can understand how to do it well, it would become the effective advertising way to promote companies’ image and quickly penetrate the community. After all, “competing on price and corporate citizenship is smarter than competing on price alone (P.271, Crane, Matten & Spence).”

References:

1.      Buchholtz, A. K. & Carroll, A. B. (2006). Business, society, and stakeholders: Corporate citizenship: social responsibility, responsiveness, and performance; External stakeholder issues: Business and community stakeholders. In D. Shaut (Ed.), Business & Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management, 6th edition (pp. 29-60; 471-500). Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

2.      Crane, A., Matten D. & Spence L. J. (Eds.). (2008). Understanding CSR: CSR in the community. Corporate Social Responsibility, 1^st edition (pp. 265-283). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

3.      Kramer, M. R. & Porter, M. E. (2002). The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from Expert2business.com: http://www.expert2business.com/itson/Porter%20HBR%20Corporate%20philantropy.pdf

Reference of Figure 1:

Retrieved December 25, 2013, from Google Web site: http://www.ca.com/us/about-us/sustainability-report/~/media/Images/about-us/community-involvement-banner.jpg