A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CSR STRATEGIES, IMPLEMENTATION AND OUTCOMES : A Qualitative Case Study of IKEA, Starbucks and H&M

Abstract: A business activity generates both negative and positive externality simultaneously for both the environment and the society. The basic idea is to minimize the negative externality and generate more positive externality.Expectations of the society towards businesses have grown tremendously during the past few decades, the stress is upon a socially, environmentally and legally responsible businesses. Organizations have responded to this expectation by indulging in a set of activities which are termed as Corporate Social Responsibility, but that has not been enough, businesses cannot resolve social and environmental problems of the society unless they know where to focus and what is the strategy to become better businesses and yet not be criticized. The need is to utilize a firm‘s resources in the most effective manner. Thus, strategic CSR comes in as a solution for better performance.Strategic CSR began the evolution of more responsible and favorable businesses in terms of societal pressures and expectations. In our research, we have tried to develop a framework which when incorporated with the CSR concept helps make more strategic sense to the firm, so that it benefits not only the society but also the firm itself. The research builds a strategic framework and analyses in light of it the CSR activities of three major retail companies namely, IKEA, Starbucks and H&M.The EFQM model which is a self assessment tool for organizations has been incorporated with CSR to make it a strategic assessment framework. This has been a new concept, and has proven quite effective in assessing the strategies and outcomes regarding CSR of the three companies being used as examples.