Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

CHAPTER 17 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS
reduced the emphasis on the environment and sustainability for managers in some compa-
nies ( Murray, 2014 ). 
An Arthur D. Little report entitled ‘The Innovation High Ground’ suggests that while it 
is important for social and environmental concerns to receive explicit attention when set-
ting strategy and designing products, relatively few companies display this as a capability 
( Arthur D. Little, 2005 ). The report suggests that the main barriers to CSR initiatives are: 
a lack of understanding among strategists of the significance of social and environmental 
trends; internal and external scepticism, often combined with a perception that these activi-
ties involve high risk and uncertainty; an absence of appropriate business models, particu-
larly for emerging markets; a tendency to use available capital for ‘more of the same’, rather 
than new business models; and an unwillingness to finance new projects, particularly at 
the bottom of the business cycle. Interestingly, this research was conducted among major 
international companies, including Sony, Dupont, HP and Vodafone. 
Executives proposing strategic marketing programmes that rely on CSR-based posi-
tioning should be aware of the likely resistance and barriers from those who distrust CSR 
and do not understand it as a legitimate strategic tool. Moreover, the risks of damage to 
corporate reputation from unintended consequences and perceptions of insincerity should 
also be considered.
17.5 
Defensive corporate social responsibility initiatives 
Returning to the question of defensive versus strategic responses to CSR, if a firm is essen-
tially defensive or accommodative in its stance to social responsiveness, then its primary 
concerns with CSR will be the protection of relationships – for example, with consumers, 
business-to-business customers, influential lobby or pressure groups, suppliers, employ-
ees and managers – and its relative position against competitors. This array of pressures 
towards defensive CSR is summarised in Figure 17.3 . Currently, the evidence is that most 
firms concentrate their communications regarding CSR with their consumers, employ-
ees and shareholders, showing some neglect of their competitors and alliance partners 
( Snider et al ., 2003 ).
For example, clothing company H&M (along with other Scandinavian retailers) sus-
pended sales of items containing Angora wool in response to video footage distributed 
by animal rights activists showing the harvesting practices. The video was produced 
by the powerful People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) lobby group and