CSR-P08

CSR-P08
PGDM 2008-10: Term-VI

Corporate Social Responsibility, strategy and marketing (2 credit)

Instructor: Prof. Subhasis Ray (sray@ximb.ac.in)

Course Introduction:

Corporations are increasingly being challenged to act in ways that serve the best interests of society. Many companies are aggressively seeking strategies that can allow them to “do well by doing good,” leaving a positive “footprint” on the world and avoiding actions that could harm consumers, employees, investors, competitors, suppliers, and the general public. In this course, we will examine how corporations can become more effective at managing their social impact, improving the relationships they have with all of their stakeholders in the process. The course will try to answer questions like

ü How to achieve transparency without revealing proprietary information?
ü How to look good on perfromance when pursuing social initiatives?
ü How to differentiate a company/brand in the marketplace using CSR
ü How to persuade consumers to engage in socially-beneficial (e.g., healthier, environmentally-friendly) behaviors?
ü How to avoid misinforming consumers about product benefits and shortcomings?
ü How to serve less-advantaged populations at the “bottom of the pyramid” profitably?
ü How to improve operational efficiency through careful environmental management?

Overall, the course tries to link CSR with strategy and marketing.

Students should obtain (1) improved knowledge about the issues and debates covered in the course and (2) improved ability to apply relevant theories and frameworks for choosing among strategies for creating more desirable social impact.

Schedule:

Session	Topic	Assignments, Readings, and Links
1	Fundamental Issues and Frameworks	Case: Ben & Jerry’s: Preserving Mission & Brand within Unilever (Analysis Due)
		Readings: Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, “Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility,” Harvard Business Review, December 2006, pp. 78-92. Joshua D. Margolis and James P. Walsh, “Misery Loves Company: Rethinking Social Initiatives by Business,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 2003, pp. 265-305.
2	CSR and customer satisfaction	Readings: Dennis A. Rondinelli, “Globalization of Sustainable Development? Principles and Practices in Transnational Corporations,” Working Paper, 2006, Duke University’s Sanford Institute of Public Policy. Xueming Luo and C.B. Bhattacharya, “Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Satisfaction, and Market Value,” Journal of Marketing, October 2006, pp. 1-18.
3	Differentiation through Social Involvement	Case: Girls on the Run International
		Readings: Paul N. Bloom, Steve Hoeffler, Kevin Lane Keller, and Carlos E. Basurto Meza, “How Social-Cause Marketing Affects Consumer Perceptions,” MIT Sloan Management Review, Winter 2006, pp. 49-55. Jill M. Ginsberg and Paul N. Bloom, “Choosing the Right Environmental Marketing Strategy,” MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2004, pp. 79-84.
4	Encouraging Socially Beneficial Consumer Behavior	Readings: Paul N. Bloom, Pattie Yu Hussein, and Lisa R. Szykman, “Benefiting Society and the Bottom Line,” Marketing Management, Winter 1995, pp. 8-18. R. Craig Lefebvre, “Theories and Models in Social Marketing,” in P.N. Bloom and G.T. Gundlach, Handbook of Marketing and Society, Sage Publ., 2004.
5	Misjudging Concerns about Safety or about Exploiting Asymmetric Information	Case: Monsanto’s Genetically-Modified Organisms
		Readings: Melissa Grills Robinson, Paul N. Bloom, and Nicholas H. Lurie, “Combating Obesity in the Courts: Will Lawsuits against McDonald's Work?” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Fall 2005, pp. 307-310. Robert J. MacCoun, “Toward a Psychology of Harm Reduction,” American Psychologist, November 1998, pp. 1199-1208.
6	Corporate Responses to Safety and Information Disclosure Problems
		Readings: Paul N. Bloom, "A Decision Model for Prioritizing and Addressing Consumer Information Problems," Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 1989, pp. 161-180. Daniel Laufer and W. Timothy Coombs “How Should a Company Respond to a Product Harm Crisis? The Role of Corporate Reputation and Consumer-based Cues,” Business Horizons, September-October 2006, pp.379-385.
7	Serving the Bottom of the Pyramid and Developing Markets	Case: Unilever in Brazil
		Readings: C.K. Prahalad and Stuart L. Hart, “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” Strategy+Business, 2002, pp. 54-67. Aneel Karnani, “Mirage at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” Working Paper, 2006, University of Michigan. C.K. Prahalad, “Response to Karnani,” Working Paper, 2006, University of Michigan.
8	Profiting from Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship	Readings: Stuart L. Hart and Mark B. Milstein, “Creating Sustainable Value,” Academy of Management Executive, 2003, pp. 56-67. Renata J. Orsato, “Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to be Green? California Management Review, Winter 2006, pp. 127-143.
9	Taking Care of Employee and Community Welfare	Case: Heineken NV: Workplace HIV/AIDS Programs in Africa (Analysis Due)
		Readings: Ann Harrison and Jason Scorse, “Improving the Conditions of Workers? Minimum Wage Legislation and Anti-Sweatshop Activism,” California Management Review, Winter 2006, pp. 144-160. Anil Hira and Jared Ferrie, “Fair Trade: Three Key Challenges for Reaching the Mainstream,” Journal of Business Ethics, 2006, pp. 107-118.
10	Avoiding Collusion, Monopoly, and Exclusion Charges	Case: Forever: DeBeers and U.S. Antitrust Law
		Readings: Darren Bush and Betsy D. Gelb, “When Marketing Practices Raise Antitrust Concerns, MIT Sloan Management Review, Summer 2005, pp. 73-81. Renee J. Fontenot and Michael R. Hyman, “The Antitrust Implications of Relationship Marketing,” Journal of Business Research, 2004, pp. 1211-1221.
11	Reporting, measuring and standardizing CSR	Discussion on GRI, IS 26000 and CSR indices. Readings; To be announced
12	CSR Models	Presentation on industry based projects Readings: Management Models in CSR: Springer, 2006
13		Course Wrap-up

Course Requirements:

Five individually-written three-page case analyses must be submitted before the cases are discussed in class. . Questions to guide the analyses will be provided later. (25 points @ 5 points each)

Four two-page individually-written commentaries must be submitted. (40 points @ 10 points each)

Final Exam Assignment (20 points):

Class Participation (15 points)

Created By: Debasis Mohanty on 10/29/2009 at 05:05 PM
Category: PGDM-II Doctype: Document

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