Role of CSR in Today's World and does it Provide any Competitive Advantage to the Organization and Social Benefits to Society: Case of McDonald's (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: B, University of Canberra, language: English, abstract: Corporate social responsibility has become highly important debate among scholars as well as business as not only it provides social benefits to communities but also competitive advantage to business and increase their profitability in the era of globalization and intense competition among organizations in global marketplace. Currents study is based on case study of McDonalds. McDonalds is among the most admired companies for CSR initiatives. According to McDonalds' management point of view, corporate social responsibility is about living the values every day. It is about actions, results and maintenance of open line communication with customers and stakeholders. McDonald's is determined to consistently improve its social and environmental performance. All organizations seek competitive advantage as it is the force which keeps the organization above others and provide it the power to stay in the business for a long time. The competitive advantage includes recognition of brand and helps the organization to become the first choice of customers. McDonalds is a good example of having a competitive advantage by adopting CSR behavior.
In the current study, written sources and questionnaire were used in order to answer the research questions. Questionnaires are in an expensive way to gathering data from the large number of respondents. The multiple choice questionnaire was used in the research and the respondents of the questionnaires were consumers of McDonald. These two data collection methods are used in the study to understand the theory and to reach some trustworthy results.
The research has found that the world famous food chain is enjoying competitive advantage for its CSR initiatives and it is also beneficial for the society. Results of the research show that people are more concerned about CSR activities of the company and they prefer to buy from it for its CSR activities that are beneficial for the society.
It is found with the research that business is not a separate part from the rest of the parts of society. The ways organizations behave affect a lot of people, not only the shareholders. Therefore, an organization should be responsible for the operations it does in a society.