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Corporate Social Responsibility and The Brand Images

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND BRAND IMAGE

Deniz Su Kardaş
Koç University

This essay was prepared for Academic Writing 101, Section 25, taught by Gülay Işık
2 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND BRAND
IMAGE

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is defined as a set of self-regulatory actions that have
been adopted by international private businesses as an attempt to serve the best interest of
the goals of the society as well as the environment. These actions can be either in way of
appealing to certain events or supporting them voluntarily or ethically. CSR is believed to
be known as organizations' activities impacting society, the environment, and the economy.
In other words, CSR can also be defined as the action the company decides to take
voluntarily in order to achieve business efficiency while ensuring environmental, social and
economic sustainability. However, in today's globalizing world, corporate social
responsibility has become necessary instead of voluntary businesses. Corporate social
responsibility is based on the principles of giving everything that companies have received
to society back. To protect the community, to look after the benefit of society in their
operations has an essential place in the brand image, social and economic performance. To
achieve their economic goals, social activities such as employees, shareholders, and society
must look out for their stakeholders' interests. That is the point where the social concept of
responsibility comes out. In this context, the facts will be analyzing the place, and the
importance of corporate social responsibility in creating a brand image, the effects on social
and economic performance in any possible dimension. 

These days, CSR is considered as one of the most significant factors in the mind of any
brand marker’s creator. Studies suggest that CSR activities have become a necessity for the
business world, as the consumers have become more aware of the issues regarding their
values and concerns; thus they tend to consume the products or use the services of those
company mainly. The corporations should be intergrading with a brand that will show the
value and the personality in creating, developing, and differentiating the brand in the
market. Corporations that are willing to be differentiated from other organizations should
create a different and compelling brand image by following corporate social responsibility.
Over the last twenty years, as we can observe, CSR has a huge substantial growing interest,
especially from the companies that are generally multi-national and multi-divisional. The
positive effects of the corporate social responsibility project on companies can be observed
using sample year observations representing individuals firms that are more than 3000 in the
period between the years of 1998 and 2012 (Benlemlih & Bitar, 2018).

In order to understand the link between the economic performance of the companies and the
CSR, it is essential to examine the theories that investigate the relationship between these
two factors (Balabanis et al., 1998). Corporate social investments can help your company
create a reputation as a responsible business and increase its value by making these
investments. Companies usually support suppliers who have a reliable strategy. By acting in
a sustainable, responsible way, your company may find investors who can financially help
you. Moreover, your company may positively attract the media's attention. Your company
may create good relationships with local authorities, making business more comfortable and
faster. You can also identify a lot of new business opportunities to develop your new
products and services. In today's conditions, it is possible to suggest that it is impossible for
a company to stay away from society, and society cannot survive without businesses (Davis,
1985). Therefore, a strict link between business and organization exists, which means there
is an unbreakable relation between the economy and social responsibility. In the meantime,
there is still a continuing debate about “whether a firm should communicate socially-
oriented messages and support environmental causes to make profits to operate in the
market?” From the efficient point of a company, it should adopt CSR operations that can
help them sustain their profitability and income with the support of activities that can also
help the national or global society both environmentally and ethically. The company should
set itself CSR goals not only for its local operations but also for its international operations.
The companies that adopt social responsibility in their daily operations often use marketing
strategies that aim to attract the consumers who care about the environmental and ethical
issues and ready to take action with their capacity to create a positive impact.

CSR has many dimensions, but the social dimension has the most significant influence on
the public and is the most crucial part of the project (Curras et al., 2018 ). The social
relationships attire people to investigate and questioned this new concept of practice. Firms
worldwide are beginning to realize the importance of reliable sustainability and are likely to
interest in the employee's ethical and moral status than the name of the brand. Employers
interested in encouraging the environment may involve all employees in promoting green-
friendly operations, offering paid time off for workers to engage in green activities, or to
create recycling programs advertise completely and with customers. Companies may also
force employees to restate materials and resources to cut down on cost and waste.
Organizations are usually committed to environmental protection, and they are often
investing in green-friendly sources and business processes.

In conclusion, CSR can be described as any kind of “responsible” action, no matter what the
motive behind it, that can be taken by the company to establish a “sustainable competitive
advantage”. It has an essential place in developing the value of the proposal. However, we
must not forget that while we are taking the process has a very public impact, and it affects
many lives through their actions and behaviors. Therefore, the corporations must act
responsibly and guide the investments regarding the brand's image and the moral and ethical
values of the project. 
REFERENCES

Balabanis, G., Phillips, H.C. and Lyall, J., 1998. Corporate social responsibility and economic performance in
the top British companies: are they linked?. European business review.

Bradley G. (2020). Journal of International Affairs , Vol.73, No. 1, Climate Disruption ( Fall 2019 / Winter
2020 ), pp. 155-160

Currás‐Pérez, R., Dolz‐Dolz, C., Miquel‐Romero, M.J. and Sánchez‐García, I., 2018. How social,
environmental, and economic CSR affects consumer‐perceived value: Does perceived consumer
effectiveness make a difference?. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25(5),
pp.733-747.

Davis, F.D., 1985. A technology acceptance model for empirically testing new end-user information systems:
Theory and results (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Benlemlih, M. and Bitar, M., 2018. Corporate social responsibility and investment efficiency. Journal of
Business Ethics, 148(3), pp.647-671.

Joseph, A. (2014) . India International Centre Quarterly, Vol.41, No.1 (SUMMER 2014), pp.67-80

Unctad.org. 2020. UNCTAD Hosts First Global Corporate Social Responsibility Retreat | UNCTAD. [online]
Available at: <https://unctad.org/news/unctad-hosts-first-global-corporate-social-responsibility-retreat>
[Accessed
25 November
2020].