Critical Analysis: Corporate Social Responsibility

Assignment 2 is a critical analysis assignment. For this assignment, we are assigning the company Starbucks and asking that you think of, research and consider a “Corporate Social Responsibility” (“CSR”) problem or opportunity facing Starbucks.

Exactly what corporate social responsibility is, is not 100% clear and is the subject of some controversy.
Some research on this topic at the outset might help. However, the most common definitions of CSR define CSR as a responsibility of businesses to behave ethically and contribute to economic development of the business while also improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the community and society as a whole. There are some “laissez faire” capitalists who will say that there’s no such thing as corporate social responsibility and that the responsibility of a business is to maximize profits for its shareholder. For our purposes, we’re assuming that there is at least some level of corporate social responsibility. The extent to which you think there ought to be such responsibility can (and probably will anyway) influence your analysis.

First, you will need a research basis for your essay. NPC is providing you with 2 sources to start you off:

1. Implementing Global Corporate Citizenship: An Integrated Business Framework Author: Crittenden, Crittenden, Pinney & Pitt
2. Starbucks Coffee Company in the 21st Century Author: Koehn, McNamara, Kahn, Legris
   Both resources can be accessed from the “slides and documents” page for this course on the NPC
   student website.