Research Of Corporate Social Responsibility Report

Research of Corporate Social Responsibility Report The recent fifteen years saw a dramatic increase of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) report. There were more than 3300 CSR reports in 2008 while the number of 2002 was less than 100. More and more companies especially some multinational corporations among the world are keen to proving the sustainability, in order to improve their corporate image and credibility (Adams, 2002). This essay will explain why there are an increasing number of companies are willing to make CSR report annually, and discuss whether reporting on social and environmental activities is equal to good social and environmental performance in reality. The system-oriented theory provides a way to consider the†¦show more content†¦For example, the increase of environmental disclosure in recent 20 years can be understood as an attempt to make profits by responding to environmental groups (Gray et al.). In fact, the regulations are changing all the time, so the companies are required to respond to the society continually. The legitimacy is a condition that an entity s value is agreeing with the value of the social system where the entity is an element (Lindblom, 1993). Legitimacy is so important that the entity s survival can rely on it (Dowling and Pfeffer, 1975). Furthermore, it is what the society knows about the company shapes its legitimacy rather than the real conduct done by the company. The information disclosed is significant to establish corporate legitimacy. An entity may deviate significantly from the social standards but still remain legitimacy because the difference is unobserved (Suchman, 1995). Social contract is the base of legitimacy theory, which exists between the organization and the society. It represents the combination of many underlying and obvious expectations which the society has about how the entity is supposed to operate. Under this concept, the company s profit maximization can be achieved by proving multiple measures of organizational legitimacy (Ramanathan, 1976). Gray et al. (1995) did a review of UK CSR reports during 1979 to 1991, which shows that the focus and orientation of these disclosures are corresponding with the legitimacy

Factors That Influence Consumer Decisions for Purchasing and Use of Lu Literature review

Essays on Factors That Influence Consumer Decisions for Purchasing and Use of Luxury Products Literature review The paper â€Å"Factors That Influence Consumer Decisions for Purchasing and Use of Luxury Products† is a  forceful example of a literature review on marketing. One of the research objectives is to explore how different literature has conceptualized luxury to establish a definition of luxury for the purpose of the research.Research question:What is luxury? How best can this research conceptualize luxury? Sulheri et al (2011) conceptualize the term luxury as having characteristics of status and premium and by which consumers make statements on their prestige. They are also characterized by aspects of high cost, uniqueness, limited editions and availability in the market, and an aspect of sensual gratification. The definition of luxury is enhanced by the inclusion of the perception of society and the individual, and thereby entrench the satisfaction of needs beyond the basics into psychological. As such, the article demonstrates how these perceptions and the overall consumer t rends are changing due to political situations in Pakistan. This is corroborated by Phau Prendergast (2000) which indicates the aspect of cost and necessity consideration.Chaudhuri (2006) conceptualizes luxury products as being synonymous with conspicuous consumption. This article is emphatic on the role of socioeconomic status and how individuals seek for prominent products. It presents a contemporary perspective of the luxury market in comparison to its evolution over time. Lebreton (2006) presents a dissertation on how best international luxury brands may be marketed in China. This literature presents luxury products as targeting the middle-high and high-end markets communicating to consumers and society an aspect of elegance and style.Personal reflection of the progress (any difficulties/points for consideration for next week’s independent learning)The beginning of this study required a fine understanding of terminologies. I have searched the library and online for the v arious meanings of the term luxury. There are numerous meanings various authors have put across. However, I feel that no one literature I have come across gives any differences. Maybe there is a global consensus on this. In addition, most of the literature does not entirely dedicate themselves to the conceptualization of this term. They are dealing with it as just a part of many others. As such, I feel the need to concentrate on key readings and may peruse through others. I will have many citations but will concentrate on readings that have a significant dedication to my research focus.Research topic:Consumer behavior and consumption decisions, globally and in China.Research objective:To establish the factors that influence consumer decisions for purchasing and use of luxury products.Research question:What are the factors that influence the consumption of luxury products? What are the trends in purchasing behaviors?Consumer behavior factors have been popular in marketing literature. There is a vast range of literature resources for this aspect. Specific to luxury product consumption, Steenkamp (2002) demonstrates how perceived brand globality is reflected in purchasing decisions. Its comparative data from the USA and Korea indicates luxury products have a global outlook and therefore carry a sense of prestige and perceived quality. Perceived quality is more than perceived prestige. Tavares (2003) proposes a multivariate model in view of understanding the motivations of purchasing.

Blind Date depends for its success upon the encouragement of gender, social and cultural stereotypes Essay Example For Students

Blind Date depends for its success upon the encouragement of gender, social and cultural stereotypes? Essay How far would you agree with the opinion that Blind Date as a formulaic programme format depends for its success upon the encouragement of gender, social and cultural stereotypes? Write a critical and analytical review of one episode of the programme. You may consider:  · Use of character types  · Language  · Arrangement of the programme  · Technical aspects Blind Date is a popular, intellectually undemanding, Saturday night show that attracts over eight million viewers every week. But why? Is it Cillas contagious laugh? Or is it the interesting, exotic places the couples visit? Or maybe it is the fact that you realise there are people more desperate than you are and they are declaring it on TV. Whatever it is, it works. But how much of it is real? The contestants seem to be definite characters rather than real people. They fit into the moulds of various stereotypes that have been set. The first stereotype we see is the ordinary bloke. This is Tony from Reading, he is a working class Royal Mail manager, He goes to the pub for a quick pint with his friends and he is known as the common Joe. He stresses that he is a lad because he wants to emphasise his heterosexuality and this is because a homosexual male is still not fully accepted in society and is the subject of ridicule among his male peers. The next stereotype we encounter is Jack the Lad; a working class male who likes a laugh, his beer and chasing birds. He is Mike the metal worker from Devon. He has quite a strong Devon accent, which can sometimes make him sound a bit stupid. His answers are obviously scripted because he uses alliteration, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦I like my birds and my boozeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ He is speaking in his natural voice, which is laidback but shows him to be loud and cocky. He is an extrovert and loves the reaction he gets from the infamous pork pie story. He links back to this in all his answers and the canned laughter is overplayed. During the show, the use of sexual innuendo is common and here is no exception, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and Im meaty on the insideà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The last male contestant is Pete from London who is a surgeon cue audience: Oooooh! He is middle class but is trying to cover this so he can be just one of the lads. He is wearing an eye-catching shirt, which is casually left untucked out of his fake leather trousers; he also displays some designer stubble. He puts on an Estuary English accent to sound more proletarian. This results in his saying such words as nipper and youll be larfing, but he cannot hide his background when he says words like portfolio and elegant. The lucky lady who has the chance to choose one of these three lads is Vicky from Coventry. She is quite confident and uses lots  of sexual innuendo. This is obviously scripted as she is describing her car and she says it is like Cilla, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and when she goes, she goesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ She also greets the boys with Hello Boys the trademark phrase of Wonderbra. This is titillation for the male audience. Another example of this is, I would be the Eiffel Tower. You can scale the heights with me for a bit of ooh la la and the views from the top are amazing. The couple from the previous weeks show return smiling and walking together so the question of whether Cilla should buy a new hat is still on the viewers minds. The two lovebirds on this particular show were Natalie and Chris. Chris is the good catholic Irish boy who looks very similar to the presenter Craig Doyle. He is the type of boy your mum would love you to bring home. He looks innocent as if he needs a girl to mother him. He has the all-important happy go lucky Irish charm. His accent is mostly perceived as funny, friendly and approachable. Nevertheless, as soon as he gets the chance, he starts to badmouth Natalie and reveals he had a very interesting time with a singing waitress. Animal Farm - Lord Of The Flies EssayNaomi is self-conscious, spoilt and of mixed race. She expected Richard to have a tanned surfers body, blonde hair and blue eyes. When he calls her a whale she is almost in tears as you can see that weight is an issue for her. He later explains that is not what he meant. She does not seem to accept this and is very angry. This couple go beyond the usual stereotypes, he is not a typical Australian and she is not a typical demure girl of mixed race. This may confuse the audience but  they accept it with out question because it does not occur to them to query the stereotypes that have been set. We were given an article written by an undercover reporter posing as a contestant on Blind Date who was able to confirm that our suspicions of pre-planned answers are correct. She also revealed that the make-up artists and researchers give the contestants advice and clues on whom to pick. They do this by underlining the intended winners number on the script. The contestants all have their lines to learn and if these are said wrongly, it is cut out. In the article, we read a woman explained the one of the male contestants kept on fluffing his lines so they had to keep reshooting that piece until it was correct. That does not sound like reality TV to me. Cilla always has to be shown as the funnier, clever one. If anyone disregards this, it will be edited and cut out. She is not a specific stereotype; she is a scouser who made it big. The answers or character information that is given are always easy targets for Cilla and our Graham, the commenter, to make jokes about. The holidays they win seem to be very expensive and the camera work accentuates this by filming the entrances of grand hotels and the beautiful landmarks. This makes the show look classy instead of brassy. The holiday video is careful not to give too much away and always leaves the audience wondering if this is the one in a million couple that fall in love. They also use background music to create a certain atmosphere and make the show seem modern and trendy, but to me this fails. The show is popular for various reasons. Some people watch it and realise their prejudices are correct; some watch it to have these prejudices confirmed. People are naturally inquisitive and like to know what other people do with their lives. Blind Date gives a painfully accurate view of youth culture today. People watch it and believe it is real when it is more similar to Coronation Street as opposed to Big Brother. In the world people are always going to be judged and then pigeon holed. Blind Date obviously encourages this but it just shows the mentality of the eight million British viewers who watch it every week. The people on the show are pretentious and fake but they are encouraged to be like this. Surely, this is wrong because when the programme is seen by its target audience they will believe that they too have to fit into a certain stereotype. Blind Date crushes your individuality and the only thing it is good for is to raise your self-esteem by reassuring yourself that you will never be that desperate.

Northeast State University

Introduction North State University is comprised of Decision Science Department whose faculty of Business Administration is chaired by Dr. Woodrow Bay. The University has been experiencing difficulties that revolve around administrative support, with the latest predicament involving protests from professors on poor administrative support offered to them.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Northeast State University specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The decision Science Department in which Dr. Bay has been chairing is composed of four sectors that include; operations management, statistics, information systems and quantitative. Due to its international and national reputation, the faculty has experienced high student enrollment levels that have resulted to increase in the number of full time professors. In relation to the increase in the number of professors, there was an increase in strain on the administrative staf f. The administrative assistants were at the heart of daily operations of the professors and at the same time, they were expected by the faculty to key-in information. Out of the numerous tasks delegated to the administrative assistants, a few of them were not attended to resulting to calls of hiring more assistants. These calls were next to impossibility as the as the University was operating on budget cuts. Dr. Bay hence decided to conduct a case study so as to get to the root of the problem. Use of the data by Dr. Bay The data attained by Dr. Bay is useful on determining the right course of action to be taken to resolve the existing predicament. The data indicates the activities that require more concentration as opposed to the activities that require less concentration. In addition to this, Dr. Bay may use the data in the next faculty meeting to explain to the faculty professors about the actual situation on the ground. Using the data, Dr. Bay may contrast the perception by the faculty that administrative assistants spend approximately the same time to both working and attending to other minor duties like filling. In addition to this, the data attained by Dr. Bay may also be used as a reference point in terms of scheduling the administrative assistants’ future schedule. Changes to be incorporated in the administrative assistant jobs Planning Poor planning has been described as one of the main problem of time management. If not put in check, poor planning may result to break down of activities in the workplace. As the chairperson of the Decision Science department, Dr. Bay is supposed to initiate appropriate strategies of dealing with the work plan of the administrative assistants. Using the data attained in the case study, a plan may be initiated, as future important benchmark of activities may be identified (Nigro, 2008, p. 129). According to Wignall lack of planning can still get the job done but at a very high cost or at very slow pace. Accordi ng to the claims leveled against the administrative assistance, it was claimed that they had too much in their hands that hindered them from completing their jobs.Advertising Looking for report on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In regards to this Wignall suggest that with good planning work can be completed in both the shortest time and economical way. Defects of poor planning like poor attitude towards work and issuance of contradicting instructions should be avoided to avoid slow progression of work (Wignall, 1999, p. 289). Unnecessary interruptions Unnecessary interruptions should be avoided and time at the work place strictly confined to matters pertaining to work. According to the data acquired, talking to others was identified to be the second activity that consumed most of the administrative assistants’ time. In relation to this, time used in talking to others can be reduced by restricting the talk about business issues affecting the faculty. Faculty’s changes to work habits The faculty has a major role to play in assisting the burden on administrative assistants. Looking at the data acquired from the case study, talking with the faculty was the third activity that consumed majority of the administrative assistants’ time. In relation to this, the faculty should ensure less time is used in talking and more time directed to working. In doing so, the faculty will be ensuring more work is covered by the administrative assistants. The faculty can also play a vital role in ensuring that time spent away from the office is minimized, mainly because the activity was recorded as the second ranked activity that consumed administrative assistants time. The faculty can minimize this time by ensuring that unnecessary activities are done away with and eliminated from the office. In addition, there is need to model the Administrative Assistants to be people with great interperso nal skills, through trainings on fields such as public relations and customer service, thus helping save time spent well speaking on phone, with faculty and other people Alternatives on reduction of administration assistant’s strain Revision priorities list Priorities should set according to their urgency; if the work at hand is simple, it should be worked upon as quickly as possible to avoid congestion. By prioritizing activities, the administrative assistants will be able to do away with unnecessary activities and the extra time realized directed to the more important activities (Roberts, 1998, p. 6). Training of the administrative assistants and embracing new technology In the business world, training has evolved to be an effective tool in time and activities management. Training has not only managed to incorporate conflicting pressures, but also incorporated new technology. In management of time, efficient techniques and practices are emphasized so that suitable work patterns can be achieved efficiently.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Northeast State University specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In the data acquired by Dr. Bay, most of the time used by the administrative assistant is working on the computer. Therefore, embracing this new technology will not only enhance coverage of more work, but also increase efficiency within the faculty (Roberts, p. 4). Motivating the administrative assistants According to Bruce and Pepitone, motivation is one of the tools that can be used to extract a greater wok performance from the employees. Motivation being an intrinsic that originates within us is supposed to be used to create an efficient work environment. The faculty can influence the administrative assistants on their motivational intrinsic. By helping the administrative assistants in indentifying their welfare within the organization, there will be an increase in the urge to wor k hard by the administrative assistants. According to Bruce and Pepitone, motivation entails drives that direct us on what to do. These drives emanate from desire to produce. These drives should be identified and used to motivate the administrative assistants in making them believe their working in their best interest (Bruce and Pepitone, 1999, p. 1 2). Moreover, through improved interpersonal skills, the institution will become more efficient and productive, and the Administrative Assistants will be socially empowered through better personal relationships with the faculty and community. References Bruce, A. and Pepitone, J. S., (1999). Motivating employees. NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Web. Nigro, N., (2008). The Everything Coaching Mentoring Book: Increase Productivity, Foster, Talent, and encourage success. MA: F=W Publications, Inc. Web. Roberts, J., (1998). Time management. London: Trotman and Company. Web.Advertising Looking for report on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Wignall, A., (1999). Roadwork: theory and practice. MA: Elsevier Science. Web. This report on Northeast State University was written and submitted by user Makhi Smith to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.