Demi Pelsor

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Mooney, Christine M.

Degree Name

B.A. (Bachelor of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Management

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an unregulated and unenforced aspect of businesses within the United States. Unlike many other countries that provide rules and guidelines to companies, the United States government leaves the choice up to each business. For this reason, some companies decide to participate in CSR while others do not. Why is that? What is the motivation for companies to engage to CSR? CSR programs are essential to making the world a better place. However, the motivations behind a company's choice to pursue social responsibility differ. This paper analyzes 5 companies including Starbucks, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, 3M, and Google were analyzed with regards to their motivations behind a CSR program including to gain financially, to gain positive consumer mindsets, or to get a leg up on competition as seen as a form of marketing. Using a multitude of sources; including Annual Financial Reports, Sustainability Reports, CSR Reports, scholarly articles, and data was also gathered from company websites, magazines, newspaper articles, and press releases. We found that some companies with regards to the triple bottom line, which is used to set sustainability goals for companies, are involved in all three areas, economic, environmental, and social, of social responsibility while others focus in only one or two areas.

Extent

23 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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