Corporate Social Responsibility
The main question of the coursework is: How did the 2008 financial crisis affect the corporate responsibility activities and strategy of Standard Chartered? Detailed description: The 2008-2009 global recession created more financial losses in the stock market than in any other period since the economic depression of the 1930s. Investor nervousness infected all aspects of the economy, as businesses downsized or shut down, putting people out of jobs. Consumers reduced spending, resulting in high inventories and significant corporate financial losses. In the aftermath of the global recession, corporations faced the very real question of whether they had to withdraw, maintain or even expand their socially responsible activities. Prepare and essay answering the question: How did the 2008 financial crisis affect the corporate responsibility activities and strategy of Standard Chartered? Using frameworks and theories reviewed during the lectures, analyse and compare the CSR activities and strategy of the chosen company before AND after the crisis. The essay should consist of a reflective critical assessment of the firms CSR strategy by strategy relying on secondary data and theoretical models (frameworks and models from the lectures could be useful). For this question, you are expected to collect secondary sources of data. Collect data to contrast CSR strategy before and after the economic crisis of 2008. Compare 2005-2007 and 2008-2010 (nothing later than 2011) CSR reports/ communications/ relevant data from annual reports. Integrate data beyond the corporate website and justify your arguments by relying on various sources of information (activists websites, newspapers, research articles) in order to assess objectively the CSR practices. Please avoid from copy-pasting from the CSR reports or corporate websites; interpret and summarize this material. I have attached two core readings and lecture 4 relevant to the topic which have to be used in the essay: Mitchells paper about stakeholder theory (&prioritization), Burke and Longsdons paper about strategy. Other academic papers have to be introduced alongside with the companys CSR and Annual Reports. Some other recommendations made by the lecturer are: ? Dont spend too much time explaining what the theories are, explain the five dimensions and then go straight to how the stakeholders were prioritized in 2007 or 2009/2010 (same applies to other theories as well). ? In terms of theories, describe what companies are doing and how we can characterize those activities (narrow down to specifics, based on frameworks/how stakeholder prioritization changed/changes in terms of community relations, supply chain, environmental practices) ? You should not spend more than 500 words on describing the financial crisis: We have to provide some background and describe how it affected the industry and Standard Chartered. Then we have to dig deeper into details (SWIFT). If not much changed (they keep their commitments). Did it maintain a standard of excellence in CSR along the years? Was the company not affected by the crisis (the demand or market)? ? Highlight the role of the corporation as a Corporate Citizenship social component education The main focus of the paper should be on comparing the CSR strategy (and what changed) before and after the crisis using CSR academic theories and frameworks, as well as company reports and other communications (articles). ? Word Limit: 3500 words and counts as 85% of final mark
