Corporate Social Responsibility and branding Essay Example for Free

Corporate Social certificate of indebtedness and gradeing Essay1. IntroductionIn this chapter the background of the thesis exit be presented and discussed. Moreover, a literature review, seek problem and query disbeliefs go away be introduced in order to get an sagaciousness of the probe purpose. This is followed by the limitations and disposition.1.1 BackgroundThe companies of straightaway ar very aware of what the common and other stakeholders demand from the companies way of handle their responsibilities (Burchell, 2008). In order to stratum a strategy for the protection of their place image and news report many companies find themselves engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility activities (Kotler and Lee 2005), from now on abbreviated CSR. The desire of insideng well and doing dandy in the society in which the caller-out is operating have got been of increasing interest world unsubtle during the last decade. As a result, corporate reporting on social cer tificate of indebtedness initiatives dope to a greater extent often be found in companies marketing strategies (Kotler and Lee, 2005). Even though CSR activities are increasing among todays organizations at that place is still lack of a general universally definition of this image (Crowther and Capaldi, 2008). just in a broad perspective CSR is understood and recognized as the way companies integrate social, scotch and surroundingsal matters into their internal organization (values, culture, decision making and strategy), which endures to spend a pennyment of better society, wealth and better practices at bottom the high society (Horrigan, 2010).Considering the breadth of CSR it quarter subsequently be described in many different name corporate right, corporate sustainability, corporate accountability, corporate citizenship, sustainable development etc (Benn and Bolton, 2011). In a shorter explanation, CSR can thence be explained as the relationship between a corporat ion and its stakeholder (Crowther and Capaldi, 2008). Already in 1972 the American prof in Business Administration, Dow Votaw, stated that the amount pages on social responsibility written in our sentence would fill up a small library. As it turns out, he was right. CSR is here to stay. The idea of taking responsibility beyond what the practice of law demands has incrementd since the millennial shift (Borglund, DeGeer and Sweet, 2012). Especially big organizations, both in the public and private sectors, are engaging in these kinds of activities (Burchell, 2008).The benefits of a phoners usage of CSR activities can lead to a better position in the market and a imperative return on investment. On top of that of course the benefits for society, such as improvement of life or a cleaner environment (Kotler and Lee, 2005). On the other hand, many view CSR mainly as a step towards a reputation as a responsible for(p) business and as good citizens (Burchell, 2008). Either how, risks by avoiding to use this concept can lead to lack of legitimacy for the organization. Meyer and Rowan (1977) also claim that when having a business it is Copernican to be accepted and to be legitimacy in the environment as well as having efficacious and structured internal processes to survive. agree to Grusch (2006) consumers actively scrutinize the local behavior of international companies.Their out-sourced ventures are also being observed, and instruction regarding possible bad behavior reaches the ears of the public much more(prenominal) quickly than it utilize to. Consequently, to the stakeholders awareness and other factors that can have an impact on a companys survival, it is therefore important for companies to establish competitive reinforcement. Differentiation is a way to secure competitive advantage. By using a preeminence strategy a companys key strengths and core competencies builds up, and this is where CSR has an important role for a companys brand as it gets differentiate by incorporating it in the corporate image. This kind of action can generate to better brand attitudes and in the long run this will result in brand loyalty (Grant, 2008).1.2 Literature review1.3 Problem discussionAs stated in the background, CSR is a zealous question among todays companies. Stakeholders are starting to put more pressure on companies responsibility in the society they are operating in, therefore, in order to get a competitive advantage CSR has become a major tool in their marketing strategy (Kotler and Lee, 2005).A mark law defined by Werther and Chandler (2005) shows that CSR will evoke attitudes towards the brand. Are these attitudes positive it will be lead to positive purchase decision and loyal customers, which give companies competitive advantage (Roper and Fill 2012). In Kotler and Lees book (2005) Corporate Social Responsibility Doing the most good for your company and your cause, they are describing examples of well-known organizations tha t have used CSR to increase their brand value. It has therefore been a shift pore in the CSR debate, nowadays it is more a debate of how CSR activities should be used and how effective it can be used as a branding tool, rather than if companies should use this concept or not (Smith, 2003). Based on the debate the question that arises is therefore in what way should CSR activities be used in order to be effective for a positive attitude towards the brand?Today there are many studies relating to the area of CSR. Research does aim there is a positive relationship between CSR and consumer attitudes towards brands and companies (Creyer and Ross 1997 Ellen, Mohr and Webb, 2000 Lacey and Kennet-Hensel, 2010). It is also shown in studies that CSR activities influence how the consumer behave when a certain brand appear in their mind (Becker-Olsen et al., 2006 Nhattacharya and Sen, 2004). However, most of these studies are focusing on pot and brand learning in developed countries.The lit eratures were more specialized of how the CSR influences image of the brand in the western world and how the western public persuaded the brand of the CSR activities. When doing literature question, the amount of research studies about CSR in exploitation countries were of a narrow amount. No psychoanalyse could be found about CSRs link to branding in a developings countries perspective, further, about how the locals (employers of the company and the consumer in the developing orbit) brand perception of CSR activities are.As the real life stories in Kotler and Lees book (2005) showed that CSR has an effective link to the brand. However, most of the organizations were conducting the CSR activities in the country they operated in and the society had a good knowledge of what CSR is. Likewise, a study showed that the brand would be effected and look different if the consumers were aware of CSR of the companies (Boulstridge and Carrigan 2000). So the question that can be asked and d iscussed is if it will appear an effective link to a companys brand in a country that is not developed?A research fling is therefore identified. If we place and conduct a study conducted in a western world in a developing countrys context, would the termination be the same? Would there be a similar link between CSR and branding there?1.4 PurposeThe purpose of this thesis is to get a latelyer understanding of the link between a companys CSR and its branding in a developing country. Based on the purpose the following research questions will be presented 1. What kind of CSR activities are being used to effectively increase positive attitudes towards the companys brand? 2. In what way is a companys CSR linked to its brand in the Philippines? 3. And how do these attitudes create value for the brand?2. MethodologyIn this chapter the research systemology applied in this thesis will be discussed. A definition regarding the system convention of the study will be explained in the follo wing order research design, data aggregation, validity and reliability and data analysis.2.1 Research saluteThere are three type of studies identified by Yin (2003) exploratory, explanatory and descriptive. An exploratory research design tries to define the research question and form the hypothesis. A descriptive research in the other hand, tries to describe a different characteristic of a phenomena that arises. When doing a descriptive aspect study the data arrangement is being guided by theories. When conducting the explanatory research design it is about how it explains course of events and relate how things happened (Yin, 2003).According to Yin (2003) this thesis can be seen as a descriptive research as it will focus on describing what impact CSR has on branding. When using a descriptive research the problem is structured and understood, which core that existing literature about the topic of CSR and branding (Ghauri and Gronhaug 2010). And this kind of research is mainly do ne when a researcher wants to gain an even better knowledge of a specific topic (Gill and Johnson, 2010). Due to the research purpose, which is to investigate how CSR influences on a companys brand in the Philippines this research method fits the crush among the three other ways.3.2 Research designI chose case studies method, because it enhances the understanding of what is going on in a particular case and it can involve a detailed investigation (Yin, 2009). This information that is gained from case studies are therefore relevant to answer some of my problem and research questions as I want to investigate companies CSR activities and observe these activities in order to understand its impact on the brand which is the data collection in my first section of the study. By a case study approach observations of a companies activities can be captured, which is in a way impossible to capture through questionnaires and interviews (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2010).3.3.1 The case studyIn the beg inning of March I will travel to the Philippines to carry on an eight weeks field study which will give me the opportunity to study some Swedish/International companies CSR activities and how these activities affect their brand perception by interviewing the consumers and workers in country. The case study will therefore obtain information to fulfill my purpose. The extract of companies The information obtained will be from companies that use CSR activities in the Philippines. In order to fill the research gap I will be aiming for to study companies with well-known CSR activities.2.3 Data collectionA qualitative method will be used in order to collect the information for this thesis. Regarding to Trost (2005) a qualitative method is described as a method where the interviewer gathers the information on the interviewees feelings, thoughts and experiences. Hence, to the search of a deeper understanding of how CSR affects the brand perception, this qualitative approach fit the purpose of the thesis because it can give me a deep information regarding the employees and consumers opinions and feelings towards CSR in the Philippines and the brand which is the aim of this study.2.3.1 Qualitative interview designSemi-structures face-to-face-interview.4.4 Validity in qualitative researchDescriptive validity refers to the degree to which the actual description holds true (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2010 p. 210). Bias When interviewing the respondents a lifting description of the brand can appear, because they have been chosen to do this certain interview about the companies actions. Language is the fundamental tool of interviewing, and may especially be important in qualitative interviewing (Kvale, 1989). The interviews will be conducted by me in English and since communication is a very important in order to get the information it can appear some small misunderstanding as English is not my mother language. only if by conducting a face to face interview, the body language a nd face expression will increase the validity of the interviews.REFERENCESKotler, P., Wong, V., Saunders, J. and Armstrong, G. (2004). Principles of Marketing, quaternary European edition. New Jersey FT- Prentice Hall.Burchell, J. 2008. The Corporate Social Responsibility Reader. capital of the United Kingdom and New York Routledge.Kotler, P. and Lee, N. (2005) Corporate Social Responsibility Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause, Hoboken, New Jersey.Crowther, D. and Capaldi, N. (2008). The ashgate research companion to Corporate Social Responsibility. MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, CornwallSuchman, M. C. (1995) Managing Legitimacy Strategic and Institutional Approaches. Academy of Management Review, Vol 203, p 571-610.Benn, S. and Bolton, D. (2011). Key Concepts in Corporate SocialResponsibility. SAGE Publications Ltd LondonWerther, W.B. And Chandler, D. (2005) Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility as Global Brand Insurance, Business Horizons 48317-24.Boulstridge, E and Carrigan, M.Do consumers really dispense about corporate responsbility? Highlighting the attitude behavior gap. Journal of communication management, (2000) 359-360Gill, J and Johnson, P, 2010, Research Methods for Managers 4th Edition. SAGE Publications LtdGhauri, P and Gronhaug, K, 2010, Research Methods in Business Studies 4th edition. Pearson Education Limited.Trost, J, 2005, Kvalitativa intervjuer. Studentlitteratur, Lund.Halvorsen, K. (1989). Samhllsvetenskaplig Metod. Oslo Studentlitteratur ABYin, R.K, 2009, cutting Study Research Design and Method. London SAGEEllen, P.S., Webb, D.J. Mohr, L.A. (2006). Building corporate associations consumer attributions for corporate socially responsible programs. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 34 (2), 147-57. doi 10.1177/0092070305284976Creyer, E. H., Ross, W. T., Jr. (1997). The influence of firm behavior on purchase intention Do consumers really care about business ethics? Journal of Consumer Marketing, 14(6), 42132. do i 10.1108/07363769710185999