What is a company\'s responsibility to society? Proponents of the modern view of

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What is a company's responsibility to society? Proponents of the modern view of stakeholder theory argue that companies have a social obligation to operate in ethically, socially, and environmentally responsible ways. This active approach is referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR) orcorporate citizenship. The idea of corporate citizenship is that a firm should conduct its business in a manner that meets its economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic expectations.

The economic responsibilities have the highest priority. A firm must be efficient and survive over the long term in order to be useful to society. It must also execute its business activities in a legal and ethical way. These responsibilities are over and above the ones codified in laws and are in line with societal norms and customs. They are expected by society even though they may be ill-defined. This could include things such as environmental ethics. Philanthropy is the least important priority. The corporate citizenship concept focuses more on engagement with stakeholders to achieve mutual goals.

Some corporations have responded to this trend by including CSR-oriented statements in their corporate goals. These statements recognize that CSR has value in a code of conduct or ethics, a commitment to local communities, an interest in employee health and education, an environmental consciousness, and recognition of social issues (diversity, social fairness, etc.). In October 2006, The Conference Board surveyed large U.S. firms on corporate citizenship issues and 198 firms responded. Figure 1.11 shows the results of the survey when firms were asked about the top three CSR topics receiving attention at the company.

What is the motivation for these companies to fund CSR programs? When asked, 92 percent stated that enhancing corporate reputation was very important. Other popular responses were for recruiting and retention (78 percent) and reducing risk (65 percent).

Requirement: answer question 1,2,3

Explanation / Answer

a. Wake up Walmart.com summarizes its many complaints on its website with the following paragraph:

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