My Topic is Nike in Inida Corporate responsibilities
Introduction and Background information a.Contextual information
Key facts about the company (history, parent country, founder, mission statement)
2. Rationale and significance a.Rationale (why this topic: Nike Corporate Social Responsibilities in India ?) b.Significance (why should we care about this topic)
E.g. Organizational vision to be a fair and equal opportunity employer or lessons learnt from business failures of past investment
E.g. Management’s plan for future expansion to other Asian countries
3. Key questions/issues to be answered/addressed (mix of what, how and why)
Question #1 “What are key lessons learned from past episodes of CSR failures in India?You could focus on environmental issues if this is important aspect of the current CSR discussion
Question #2 is typically around how should one approach the issue identified.In this case, consider changing to “How could Nike repositions or influence its CSR image in India?This will give you sufficient scope to discuss aspects of CSR actions based on lesson learned from past events etc
For question #3, this is a good and relevant question “What measures are in place to ensure that outsourced factories are in compliance with Nike’s CSR policy and standards?”
For each of the question, explain briefly the key aspects of the issues to be discussed.For example, for question #2, you could focus specifically on say human rights (in terms of working environment and fair wages) and/or on Nike’s CST outreach to the community (in terms of building schools and hospitals or sponsorship of community events etc)
4. Key theories/concepts and evidence required a.Key theories and concepts to be used (at least 2 theories)
Review the lecture notes from IBS22201 on CSR and from IBS3342 on Ethics in International Business (Chapter 5. For example, CSR actions include the following
Provide quality products or services
Engage in ethical accounting and principled business practices
Be responsible for fair treatment of employees
Meet the firm’s obligations to all stakeholders
Customers, suppliers, creditors, lenders, and investors
Care for and protect the environment
For your case, the relevant theories and concepts should include Corporate responsibility in the areas of human rights protection, environment protection, corruptions, social responsibility to the community etc.
On environmental issues, the concept of common tragedy may be relevant. It occurs when a resource held in common by all, but owned by no one, is overused by individuals resulting in its degradation
Also relevant for your case could be the issue of ethics versus legal actions. For example, whether to enforce host country (India) standards for child labor versus upholding corporate policy to meet minimum wage in host country (India)
4b. Information/evidence to be collected.
Need to be specific about the data to be collected and the reasons for these data to be collected and analyzed.For your case, you may need host country specific information such as labor laws on minimum wages, employee benefits, and perhaps environmental standards requirements.Therefore, certain common economic indicators such as GDP and PPP information may not be relevant.
May be useful to consider collecting Corporate Social Responsibilities performance of competitors and also their CSR practices etc
5. Implications and Recommendations
Need to provide some sense of key factors to be considered and perhaps initial recommendations which will be developed further as needed.
For example, for question #2, what are the initial ideas that Nike should consider for influencing its CSR image in India?Establishing independent inspectors to its factories?Rewarding positive practices or discontinuing business with recalcitrant factories (repeat offenders?) or perhaps sponsorship of key community events or educational scholarship program etc.
6. Conclusion a.Summary of key findings and recommendationsReferences Comments on references
a. Ensure that you cite at least 2 journal articles.Note that Wikipedia is not a recognized academic source
b. Comply with APA formatting requirements (6th edition)
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