27-06-2013, 04:54 PM
Corporate Social Responsibility in India: The need of the hour
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Introduction:
In the last twenty years, there has been a sea change in the nature of the triangular relationship between companies, the state and the society. No longer can firms continue to act as independent entities regardless of the interest of the general public. The evolution of the relationship between companies and society has been one of slow transformation from a philanthropic coexistence to one where the mutual interest of all the stakeholders is gaining paramount importance. Companies are beginning to realize the fact that in order to gain strategic initiative and to ensure continued existence, business practices may have to be moulded from the normal practice of solely focusing on profits to factor in public goodwill and responsible business etiquettes. An examination of some of the factors which have led to the development of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) would be ideal starting ground for the conceptual development of suitable corporate business practices for emerging markets.
Corporate social responsibility is defined as “the ethical behavior of a company towards the society”, manifest itself in the form of such noble programs initiated by for-profit organizations.CSR has become increasingly prominent in the Indian Corporate Scenario because organizations have realized that besides growing their business it is also vital to build trustworthy and sustainable relationship with the community at large. This is one of the key drivers of CSR programs.
Research Methodology:-
The researcher proposes to use qualitative research tools to empirically support the argument of this paper that successful companies in India do value social responsibility and ethics in marketing. The researcher basically would adopt the doctrinal method in order to study the development of CSR in Indian context and would further adopt empirical research to find out whether Successful Companies in India value social responsibility and ethic standards in marketing.
Significance of the research
The present research paper helps corporate houses to know the perspective of public and their inclination towards particular companies. Further it also helps these corporate houses in realizing the fact that in order to gain strategic initiative and to ensure continued existence, business practices may have to be moulded from the normal practice of solely focusing on profits to factor in public goodwill and responsible business etiquettes. This paper focuses on what are the practices of companies which need to be moulded as per the public demands.
Corporate social responsibility in India- Its scope:
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), can be described as, the continuous commitment by corporations towards the economic and social development of communities in which they operate. The concept of corporate social responsibility of large industrial groups has occupied a prominent place in the greater national discourse on economic issues since the pre-independence era in India. Gandhi described large business as ‘trusts’ of the ‘wealth of the people’ and thus emphasized on the larger social purpose that industrial wealth should serve in independent India. In the early days of the post- independence period, the Indian state under the heavy influence of Nehruvian socialism encouraged private industries to play an active role in the economic and social development of the backward sections of the society, while at the same time setup a mammoth public sector for serving larger societal interests. As Nehru’s gentle socialism gave way to the more radical policies of nationalization and extensive state regulation of the Indira Gandhi era, industrial groups desperate to avoid the draconian state policies and regulations in economic affairs resorted to large scale corporate welfare programs to demonstrate that private wealth also played a important role in poverty alleviation and the socio-economic development of the nation and was not anti-people.
Corporate social responsibility-A need
While the interests of shareholders and the actions of managers of any business enterprise have to be governed by the laws of economics, requiring an adequate financial return on investments made, in reality the operations of an enterprise need to be driven by a much larger set of objectives that are today being defined under the term CSR. The broad rationale for a new set of ethics for corporate decision making, which clearly constructs and upholds a organization's social responsibility, arises from the fact that a business enterprise derives several benefits from society, which must, therefore, require the enterprise to provide returns to society as well. A business cannot succeed in a society which fails. This, therefore, clearly establishes the stake of a business organization in the good health and well being of a society of which it is a part. More importantly, in this age of widespread communication and growing emphasis on transparency, customers of any product or service are unlikely to feel satisfied in buying from an organization that is seen to violate the expectations of what is deemed to be ethically and socially responsible behaviour. It is becoming increasingly evident that organizations that pay genuine attention to the principles of socially responsible behaviour are also finding favour with
the public and are the preferred choice for their goods and services.