NIKE Corporate social responsibility Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

NIKE Corporate social responsibility - Essay Example Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is widely discussed in boardrooms across the world. Of late there have been considerable changes in the corporate value system. This is largely due to both external and internal pressures from various actors and factors in the stakeholders such as government and regulators, consumers and customers, non-governmental organizations (NGO) and in some instances from within the organizations itself (Bhandarkar & Alvarez-Rivero, From supply chains to value chains: A spotlight on CSR, 2007). Today in the era of globalization, increasing number of companies are operating are going global. These Multinational corporations (MNCs) operate in multicultural, multi-ethnic and geographically distributed systems across the globe running supply chains that span from suppliers’ suppliers to distributors’ distributors. Quite a few of these actors and factors are already located in the developing world and more are being relocated. Many of these MNCsâ⠂¬â„¢ foreign affiliates and arm’s length suppliers thus are governed by different level of CSR procedures.Today, consumers and employees along with pressure from a varied group of stakeholders are holding businesses to perform more on higher and broader social environmental standards than in the past. Besides, in today’s information spread and media stage, companies are not just adjudged by the behaviors of those associated, including sourcing facilities, licenses, agents, partners, and host governments†... Quite a few of these actors and factors are already located in the developing world and more are being relocated. Many of these MNCs’ foreign affiliates and arm’s length suppliers thus are governed by different level of CSR procedures (Bhandarkar & Alvarez-Rivero, From supply chains to value chains: A spotlight on CSR, 2007). Context Today, consumers and employees along with pressure from a varied group of stakeholders are holding businesses to perform more on higher and broader social environmental standards than in the past. Besides, in today’s information spread and media stage, companies are not just adjudged by the behaviors of those associated, including sourcing facilities, licenses, agents, partners, and host governments† (Smith, Gare; Feldman, Dan; The World Bank Group, 2003, p. 1). In addition, business entities, in particular MNCs are not only â€Å"accountable under local law, but also to various norms and standards, promulgated by global agenc ies such as International Labor Organization (ILO), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and corporate best practices† (Smith, Gare; Feldman, Dan; The World Bank Group, 2003, p. 1). Failure to comply these norms and standards not only can damage reputation of firms’ corporate practices, â€Å"but also may face protests, boycotts, attacks on corporate property, divestment campaigns, hostile shareholders resolutions and the enactment of sanction laws† (Smith, Gare; Feldman, Dan; The World Bank Group, 2003, p. 1). The apparel industry has already faced some of this music in the 1990’s with â€Å"many apparel and footwear firms discovered when they first confronted serious legal and reputational challenges in the 1990s related to allegations of labor abuses in foreign sourcing