Balance Between CSR and Competition

Question: Discuss about theBalance Between CSR and Competition. Answer: Corporate Social Responsibility and Competition in the market both are two major factors in todays business. In order to maintain a balance between them, most of the organizations are using CSR as a tool of competitive advantage. Business organizations are viewing CSR much more than a cost, a constriction or benevolent deed. CSR is now used a source of opportunity, innovative and competitive advantage. Corporate social responsibility is allowing the business organizations to gain competitive advantage and to win completion in the industry through differentiation or cost leadership (Saeidi et al. 2015). Not only has that, through CSR companied winning competition for hiring best employees. When a business organization stands for more than profits and works to provide help to social communities, then employees and potential candidates will believe in the vision of the company. On the other hand, now days, consumers expect that business corporations will help the communities financially to make the world a better place. In this situation if a business company implements several CSR activities, then it will definitely attract customers which will allow the company to have a competitive advantage over its rivals (Servaes and Tamayo 2013). In this way, most of the companies are maintaining a balance between corporate social responsibility and market competition. However, it is not an easy task to do. There are several challenges while balancing these two aspects such as incompetence of government, changes in employee activities and demands for bigger revelation. However, the question is how these factors are affecting CSR activities and how these factors can be eliminated in the future. References Saeidi, S.P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S.P. and Saaeidi, S.A., 2015. How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction.Journal of Business Research,68(2), pp.341-350. Servaes, H. and Tamayo, A., 2013. The impact of corporate social responsibility on firm value: The role of customer awareness.Management Science,59(5), pp.1045-1061.