CSR originates from the need of internal marketing. When companies compete on global basis, they depend on interdepartmental harmony and strong sense of ethics to produce synergies across different cultural markets where CSR is the common value. It calls for legal, ethical, and socially responsible behaviors. For example, notion such as “we do good things” and “we serve people’s interests” are appealing worldwide and are usually written into company code of conduct or mission statement signed by directors to increase legitimacy and effectiveness. It not only differentiates the company from its competitors, but also reserve a public goodwill to defend possible criticism. Nonetheless, these are mostly transactional or operational CSR. Truly successful companies are those who adopt strategic CSR by including stakeholder’s perspective into investment decision, such as corporate venture capital (e.g., the case of Virgin Group) dedicated to solutions to societal problems. To illustrate different levels of CSR, I use Wowprime Corp., a Taiwanese company founded in 1993, operating 408 restaurants in Taiwan and mainland China as an example[1].
Transactional CSR – in exchange for order and reputation
- legal compliance (e.g., waste management; occupational health and safety)
- food safety certification (e.g., ISO22000; HACCP)
- ethical behavior (e.g., disinfection every 60 minutes during COVID outbreak)
- philanthropy: cause selling of lunch box which the company donated its revenue to NPOs
Operational CSR – saves the company money
- established inhouse food safety research institute since 2014
- green supply chain since 2014, featuring local produce and less environmental impact
- increasing energy efficiency (as measured by energy intensity[2])
- requires managers to wear pedometer and encourages walking to ensure employee wellness
- offers prize for employee who achieves hiking, biking, and swimming challenges
Strategic CSR – create value for stakeholders
- Startup pitch competition focus on restaurant business for the third consecutive year
- New venture VeggTable featuring dishes made from ugly produce[3] opens 2 locations since 2019
These are just a sample of how company leverages CSR. Finally, it is worth noted that most of these actions were not communicated to the general public effectively. Although they are disclosed on the corporate webpage, I would never be aware of them if I was not writing for this question. The company may review its effort and weighting the gain and loss of CSR communication.
[1] Information retrieved from corporate webpage https://www.wowprime.com/csr_1.html
[2] https://www.wowprime.com/csr_4.html
[3] Similar venture in Italy was documented by a film https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5331878/