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