Transdisciplinary approach of understanding and analyzing CSR and its implication on social domain(CSR)

The transdisciplinary approach is the study of the CSR and sustainability which integrates multiple instruments and measures from different domain of societies and communities. Indeed, the fragmentation of CSR and sustainability has necessitated the corporation to undertake transdisciplinary approach (Thiel, 2016). It is a holistic study of the different dimension of CSR and sustainability. The use of transdisciplinary model helps the corporation to understand and analyze beyond just one-to-one relation between the corporation and community but will also help in understanding various hidden issues related to formal and informal society and their impact in the trust and CSR outcome.

The transdisciplinary approaches are heterogeneous which is helpful when the knowledge about the societal relevant filed is uncertain and nature of the problem is disputed. The CSR impact, outcome, and reciprocation among the corporation, community, government, and individuals are impacted by various explicit and implicit factors, here the analysis of financial and non-financial data helps to provide a clear view of the relationship between multiple factors which may have directly or indirectly influenced the CSR and sustainability of the corporations.

Let us see it with an example, the Trump administration recently revoked the “Paris Climate Accord” which was imperative to tackle global warming. It looks weird but was good for those who have billion dollars invested in the coal, gas and mining industries. But this one-to-one relation is also impacted and influenced by multi-factors; international communities and watchdog expressed their discontent over US decision, similarly the environmentalist showed their strong reservation, environment scientist also disparaged Trump administration for their inability to limit the carbon emission to combat greenhouse gas and these all leads to the mockery of Trump speech at United Nation General Assembly (UNGA 73) that happened in New York(18^th September 2018). The whole audience laughed when Mr. President detailed US achievement in past two years of his presidency. A serious and critical situation where international community has lost faith on US reducing environmental footprints. Had transdisciplinary approach studied this would not had happened.

Bibliography

Thiel, M. (2016). The Social Domain in CSR and Sustainability: A Critical Study of Social Responsibility among Governments, Local Communities and Corporations. New York: Routledge.

Five recommendations for the corporations while implementing CSR(CSR, Dr. Thiel)

The recommendations provided after the research are listed below:

Recommendation one: compare the outcome of multiple organizations

The objective, scope, and motives of all the companies into the CSR might not be the same, it must be studied well for potential risk outcomes and other sensitive indicators. Some companies focus on creating positivity within the company’s controlled domain (internally focused), like controlling suppliers and operations so that they can exercise CSR in their supply chain. Nike, revoked its supplier from Pakistan after finding the supplier was using children to manufacture its product (Baker, 2016).

Whereas some focuses on dissolving the existing social fragmentation, they try to engage with the local communities to understand the expectation of the community and individual from the organization which ultimately let the company design the CSR activities as per the need and expectation of the society. Philanthropy may not be the only sustainable approach of CSR, if the company is working in an elite society, well facilitated by the state and city government, the society expects reputation as a brand and personality enhancement from the company but another way around, philanthropy could be a blessing for the marginalized community. Companies like Campbell Soup and BP focused on corporate philanthropy, Procter & Gamble focuses on improving the life of consumer through quality products (Thiel, 2016).

Recommendation two: re-examine the impact of formal partnership for informal networks.

(Thiel, 2016) concludes in her thesis, the CSR and sustainability are critically impacted by how the informal society reacts to the CSR approaches undertaken by the corporation. The informal society could disharmonize the trust prevailing among the corporation, local community, and individual.  So, the government and companies should be proactive to access social issues. The corporation should analyze the formal and informal movement of customer inside its boundaries and try to understand their hidden agenda and try to maintain social cohesion. Focus on creating social cohesion by sharing, since the individual interacting at the micro level will influence the macro level.

Back in my country, the government is expanding the road which will is ultimately for the betterment of the community so that they can commute well but this has become a social issue as some of the structure has to be demolished for road expansion. Though the government is giving compensation as per the market price, the informal group are agitating and negatively impacting the trust between the government, local community, and individuals.

Recommendation three: formal and informal society for positive and negative impact to current CSR with financial and non-financial data.

Corporation should see and analyze the impact of individuals and local communities in constraining and shaping CSR activities and it should be done viewing financial and non-financial data. Without the interaction and reciprocation from the individuals, the corporation cannot achieve competitiveness. And equally the company should take care of the culture as it changes per location. The writer stresses, the corporation should analyze transdisciplinary research methods to improve social performance. The CSR outcome is impacted and influenced by numerous variables from informal and formal society, the model incorporating the financial and non-financial data helps in performing scenario analysis, integrated risk management which helps the corporation to understand and perceive hidden agendas. The use of data makes the research more representative and precise.

Recommendation four: analyzing the social relation through transdisciplinary methods

As mentioned above, CSR and sustainability are not so straightforward as we have thought of. The social domain of CSR is impacted by various internal as well as external variables creating risk and reward position. The interaction of various formal and informal societies and fluctuations of trust level among the micro, meso and macro variables makes it a compulsion to go beyond the formal and linear model of CSR. Transdisciplinary research can reveal hidden problems, these leads to innovation and brings competitive advantage. A problem could have happened due to various issues and due to the interaction of various actors.

Recommendation Five: individual driver investigation for reputation and social risks.

Individuals are the micro level participants who can have meso and macro level implications in CSR and sustainability outcome hence the corporation should evaluate how different local communities’ mindset and perception may constrain the formal border of social responsibility. The examination of the CSR is most from the individual level also since individual mindsets greatly impact the communities view. Corporations should evaluate the individual drivers in local communities coming out from the collective behavior to determine fragmentated reputation and social risk.

Bibliography

Baker, M. (2016, February 29). Nike and child labour – how it went from laggard to leader. Retrieved from www.mallenbaker.net: http://mallenbaker.net/article/clear-reflection/nike-and-child-labour-how-it-went-from-laggard-to-leader

Thiel, M. (2016). The Social Domain in CSR and Sustainability: A Critical Study of Social Responsibility among Governments, Local Communities and Corporations. New York: Routledge.

Is citizen's responsibility same as of government and corporations in CSR? (CSR)

Definitely its yes from my side, the citizen also has the same responsibility as government and corporation for social responsibility which fosters national competitiveness. Though often it is presumed, the burden of social responsiveness to be on the shoulder of corporation and government (Thiel, 2016), the situation should be beyond that and citizen should also reciprocate back. The passivity to act from the community dimensions will decrease the essence of feedback read system of social responsibility and competitiveness.

The research finding by (Thiel, 2016) concluded when local communities are held accountable for the social responsibility by corporations, there is the chance in the increase of local, regional and national competitiveness and in the similar way when the government hold the local communities accountable for social responsibility and competitiveness then local, national and regional competitive advantage is likely to increase.

The level of trust the individual has towards community, corporation, and government defines the pro-activeness of the citizen to be responsive. If the individual trusts the government and corporation they will participate otherwise they may maintain their passivity. So its most important for the corporation and government to maintain trust among the CSR participants.

Citizens are the smallest unit of the community which should be reciprocal in their CSR activities. They are shaped by the culture and environment they breed in. They are the vocal point to speak against the deeds of corporation and government and performs a corrective measure. Venezuela, the country is crippling in stiff financial crises, thousands of people have already left the country in search of food and shelter. The president Nicolas Maduro was on the trip back from China and had a steak at the luxurious hotel owned by famous chef Nusret Gokce at his Nusr-Et(Istanbul), the topic got the social outrage. The citizen throughout the globe criticized Maduro lavishness forgetting the pain of his citizen and appealed to boycott Mr. Gokce restaurants around the globe. The social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter were atrocious against Mr. Gokce hospitality for Maduro and the protest was also seen in his Miami restaurant. This scenario shows the way citizen protested Mr. Maduro (BBC, 2018). Similarly, United Airlines was also engulfed by social media aggression when it used inhuman approach to sack an existing passenger, the outrage makes company to its keens and has to apologize publicly.

In 1996 when Nike child labor issue outcropped, it was devasted by the social criticism. The international brand was mocked and boycotted for employing underage children’s. The social pressure from the community, made the company rethink is an operational strategy. It revised its code of conduct and the company escalated from “laggard to leader”.

            But equally, the attitude of the citizen towards the CSR responsiveness depends upon the culture of their community there are brought up. In case of the western countries, the consumers are more proactive and conscious about CSR and environmentalism but the same may not be the scenario in case of least developed countries and in some middle east countries engulfed by the war. In India, the civic movement and lobby group compelled the supreme court to legalized consensual gay sex whereas the two lesbians were canned publicly in Malaysia.

In above examples, the responsiveness of the citizen has created a pressure in the organization as well as the government, but equal consideration has to be given that it should be unbiased. The responsiveness of citizen makes the community competitive and it necessitates corporation to be competitive which ultimately makes the country competitive.

Bibliography

BBC. (2018, September 18). Nicolás Maduro: Fury over Venezuela leader's Salt Bae 'feast'. Retrieved from www.bbc.com: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45559504

Thiel, M. (2016). The Social Domain in CSR and Sustainability: A Critical Study of Social Responsibility among Governments, Local Communities and Corporations. New York: Routledge.

Understanding 5 constituents of social domain in CSR and fragmentation with an example(CSR)

The five constituents of the social domain in CSR and Fragmentation as stated by (Thiel, 2016) are: -

The social domain as socio-economics

The socio-economics comprises of consumer, labor and occupational health safety whereas researches have focused the sustainability to be guided by economic and environmental factors.

The social domain as social welfare and well-being

 It focuses on enhancing the living standard of its stakeholders, the burning issues include poverty reduction, competitive wage, and good working conditions.

Stakeholder as the social domain

Stakeholders are all those parties that are directly or indirectly impacted by the action of the organizations. Often CSR is driven by the stakeholders and their decision and participation are important in CSR and sustainability.

Unequal social responsibility in the social domain

Most of the time the CSR and sustainability are seen as the burned to the organization alone with no reciprocation from the community.

Social progress in the social domain

The social progress challenges and addresses the lack of social responsibility and social competitiveness in the society beyond legal compliance. The social domain plays a crucial role in CSR and it has to be sustainable equally. 

Google LLC is renowned globally for its CSR initiatives for its stakeholders. The company has integrated the CSR and sustainability philosophy into its corporate strategies.

The social domain as socio-economics:

The company has always prioritized its employees. It provides competitive remuneration and conducive work environment for its employees.

Earning profit is most, CSR comes with the cost in terms of money, time and energy. So, the basic philosophy to implement CSR is to earn the profit in a sustainable way and CSR supports this. Google incorporates the CSR in its corporate strategy, it has helped the IT behemoth to accumulate reputation and brand image. Profit, People, and Plant is a circularity. Yahoo bad management collapsed its profit and market image, the search engine company is way far behind Google since the company is not even to come across its basic philosophy earning profits.

The social domain as social welfare and well-being

The company focuses on enhancing the standard of the living of its overall stakeholders. Its corporate office located at California is run vide renewal energies and substantially protects the natural environment . Google is working in “Project Loon”, the company is testing and launching the internets through hot air balloons. The success of the project will make internet accessible to 4 billion peoples where traditional internet technologies like optical fiber is a far cry.

The product and services that the company is innovating, has created a positive impact in the society. The Google uses the renewal sources of energies like a solar panel. A business who uses Gmail can reduce the Green House Gas(GHG) emission of its email service by up to 98% compared running an email in the local server (Google, 2016). The company currently employees 85,050 and worldwide has created a platform through which millions have earned and survive.

Unequal social responsibility in the social domain

Its vivid the burden of CSR generally falls in the shoulder of the company, in the case of Google also same has happened. The government plays a regulatory role. After the issues of data mining from Facebook, the tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google had to testify in Congress which brought strong rules regarding data policy.

Google advocated net neutrality whereas government of USA was against it. Though net neutrality is good, it was seen as the responsibility of the company alone. The philosophy of CSR and sustainability is also influenced by the political and legal views of political parties. The individuals also have to be equally responsible towards the CSR, they have to speak up and reciprocate. The women empowerment; “Me Too” aroused and change the overall corporate environment due to women’s awareness and reciprocation.

Bibliography

Google. (2016). Google Environmental Report. California: Google.

Thiel, M. (2016). The Social Domain in CSR and Sustainability: A Critical Study of Social Responsibility among Governments, Local Communities and Corporations. New York: Routledge.

Is it ethical to share your customer data ? Data mining(Business Intelligence)

Information is the power as it gives ways to make decisions and conclude our ideas. As per (Morris & Lavandera, 2012), data is now $300 billion a year industry and employs 3 million people in the USA alone. Though still there is debate on the ethical use of the data and its privacy, I personally think it depends on how the data is being used and the purpose of doing so. If it is for the betterment of the civilization, for example, creation of new products, new medical findings through researches than data mining is worth it. But the process has to be transparent and customers should know what is being done with their data.

Companies are trying to know the market well so that they can recommend something better for us, that interest you. Indeed, data generates tremendous value to the business as well as for the people. Similarly, data sharing has a profound and positive impact also. Remember we are in the circular and sharing economy. For example, if you go to the Bank of America to apply for the loan, then they will go through series of our critical data, from social security number to credit score(FICO, Equifax) et cetera, this is to be done for pre-approval process. This sharing of information among the organization not only reduces the chances of fraud but also alleviates the happening of sub-prime housing recession that halted the global economy a decade ago. The sharing of the data helps to preserve the scares resource by using it in the most optimum way. As per  (Lewis & Mckone, 2016) to get the more value from the data, sell it since these data could be helpful for the other companies to come up with new products, i.e. a profitable line of business is created.

Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon would not have recommended the goods and services as per our previous visit if they had not tracked us. For example, if you search the songs of Adele in YouTube, the next time you sign in YouTube, you will get the recommended lists of songs sung by Adele. Indeed, this ultimately benefits the user as it saves times of the customers.

But ironically the user gets frustrated and annoyed when the company does so by without informing the clients. The most recent issue could be the case of data mining and harvesting done by UK based “Cambridge Analytica” where it went through the data of around 50 million Facebook users. A thin silver lining is still to be drawn between data privacy and organization ethics. The things that the company often does in data cloud as micro-targeting or micro-management could often me devastating manipulation. Health Insurance company Blue Cross and Blue Shield bought data on the spending habits of more than 3 million members of its employer group health plan (Hanks, 2018),  rhetorically if the member purchases a plus size apparel the insurance company sends them a weight loss scheme.

The economy has changed into the surveillance economy and there is a rise of new trends of capitalism called “Data Capitalism”. Companies likes Google, Amazon, Uber are making billions of dollars from our activities. They have crystalized data as a capital and has commodify and monetized them. Facebook had most recently performed “mood tests” on its users, the data scientists were tracking their behavior. But capturing the data from the people without their consent and compensation is a crime.

A tradeoff may always remain across the continuum on the ethical use of the data. As mentioned above the general community(consumer) are not getting the fair share of compensation. On the one hand, the companies working on data mining and harvesting are making billions of dollars whereas peoples are compromising their privacy. But I think if the data are being shared for the positive work for humankind it has to be allowed but in contrast, if it is for bad, it has to be abrogated.

References

Hanks, G. (2018). E-Business Ethical Issues on Selling Personal Information. Retrieved from www.smallbusiness.chron.com: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/ebusiness-ethical-issues-selling-personal-information-65718.html

Lewis , A., & Mckone, D. (2016, October 21). To Get More Value from Your Data, Sell It. Retrieved from www.hbr.org: https://hbr.org/2016/10/to-get-more-value-from-your-data-sell-it

Morris , J., & Lavandera, E. (2012, August Thursday). Why big companies buy, sell your data. Retrieved from www.cnn.com: https://www.cnn.com/2012/08/23/tech/web/big-data-acxiom/index.html

Securing data from hackers,continuous monitoring to secure information system , cyber war , ethics, e-policies(Business Intelligence)

A paradigm shift is being observed, companies are into the war competing for the data. I vividly remember, opinioned by Jack Ma in World Economic Forum, (2018), “Data is the human nature”. But to make situation worse, the competition is not only limited with the country but it is being contagious and contaminated globally. On the one hand, the risk of nuclear war could not be declined very soon and sadly to aggravate the situation, we are already into the data war, “the cyberwar”.

North Korean is blamed for performing a hack to steal cryptocurrencies of South Korea (Kharpal, 2018), similarly, Russia intervention in US presidential election 2016 could not be forgotten till. So, protecting data in the organization as well as in a country level is of paramount importance. But tradeoff exists in between the data protection and ethics. The question hammers how far should the manager go to check and balance data secureness. The risk can generate from internal sources like employees and management or also from external sources like hackers and cybercriminals or so-called cyber mafia. The protection mechanism concentrates in two continuums, i.e. the people and the technology.

Firstly, the questions pop, how are our employees performing, are they manipulating or tampering the data? Since employees are the one who has easy access to the pool of data, their unethical approach and misconduct will be detrimental. So, as stated by (Baltzan, 2014), the company should have well defined “Epolicies” which clearly states the company code of conduct. It specifies and states the ethical computer use policies, information privacy policies, acceptable use policies, email privacy policies, social media policies, and workplace monitoring policies.

As per the article entitled “Insider Threats as the Main Security Threat in 2017”, Alphabet, Google’s parent company has sued its former engineer Anthony Levandowski, currently working for the Uber. The company has accused him of copying more than 14000 internal files to the new company. The danger of insider threats goes dipper as they can go undetected for years, employees can easily cover their actions and often sometimes it is hard to prove them guilty. So, fighting against such information breach could be through background checks, watching employee behaviors, controlling user access and educating employees. Companies can use internet monitoring technologies like keyloggers; that records every keystroke and mouse click, cookie; a small file that resides in the hardware with the data of various site visits, hardware keyloggers; adware, spyware, weblog et cetera.

Whereas as mentioned above educating employee is also unequivocally important, they have to be taught well. Often, they are miss led by hackers through spamming, spoofing, skimming, denial of service activities. If they mistakenly click into some undisclosed links sent in their email, it could erode overall data mechanism of the organization.

Secondly, the technology will help the company to protect from the unauthorized use and access from an insider and the hackers. The issues of identity theft, phishing, spyware, adware, and pharming are in raise, the authentication, and authorization mechanism will help to confirm the issuers before giving them access to the company's data pool. It could be done through specific ID and passwords, tokens, smart cards, biometrics verification. Further through encryption, the company can hide its message which makes the hacker impossible to read the messages. It is done through private and public key.

As per (Baltzan, 2014) content filtering prevent the suspicious emails containing virus and spam from spreading. Similarly, most of the company uses the firewall to protect the security breach. It can be hardware or software that works as a gatekeeper for the company. It stays in-between the company’s server and external web network and analyzes the information leaving and entering the company’s network.

Data protection is a critical issue as it provides competitive advantage to the company, and could be done through the appropriate implementation of epolicies and effective use of technologies.

References

Baltzan, P. (2014). Business Driven Information System, 4th Edition. McGrawHill.

Kharpal, A. (2018, January 17). North Korea government-backed hackers are trying to steal cryptocurrency from South Korean users. Retrieved from www.cnbc.com: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/17/north-korea-hackers-linked-to-cryptocurrency-cyberattack-on-south-korea.html

Concept and Discussion on Value Drive Business , Information Technology, Management Information System(Business Intelligence)

In contemporary business environment, competition has become inevitable. Any business, rather be it in manufacturing or service sector has to face cutthroat competition within and across the firms in an industry. If they lack behind to deliver value and come across the expectation of existing and prospective customers, the company will lag. Any organization rather it is related with the IT or non-IT sector, it must be fast and proactive to make precise decision as it helps to build consumer as well as producer surplus. These could be brought by the effective use of the MIS system.

A perfect apotheosis to share would be Amazon.com, the company which initiated to sell the books online became the richest of the globe vide its ability to create value-driven business model. In the simple layman view, the value could be created in the business through proper utilization and composition of robust business philosophy and agile information technologies, these amalgamation supports the decision maker with more evidenced-based, objective and scientific data.

Once the MIS is installed into the business, it starts with the very basis of data accumulation and storages through transaction processing system. Its example could be cash teller where customers make the payment for their purchases. These are structured and are looked after by operational level managers. These move upwards in the hierarchy where the managers are to perform analytical intelligence and decisions are semi-structured. They perform what-if, sensitivity, optimization, and goal setting analysis, these are also called Decision Support System(DSS). And these output goes to higher strategic management level as an input. These Executive Information System(EIS) along with information from external sources gives executive level enough report to make strategic decisions and action plans.

Data integration process automatically connects information from various department enabling the end user with the holistic view. It creates easy collaboration among the department, increases employee efficiency, and delivers accurate information in the real time. Dutton, (2003) in his article entitled “Enterprise architecture: how to drive business value from IT” has emphasized the importance of IT in creating the value of the business. It has stated three tires of infrastructures, i.e. access infrastructure, process infrastructure, and service infrastructure to drive the business. The MIS helps to effective use and utilization of the raw data by creating meaningful and useful information. For the purpose, effective planning and controlling mechanism, the identification of critical success factor(CSF) and key performance indicator(KPI) help to make business strategies for the competitive and comparative advantages (Baltzan, 2014).

The models and framework helps to get the business mapping and provides the birdseye view of overall business process. These could be As-Is process model; which depicts the current business scenario and then after could be To-Be process scenario; which sketches the business process after the amalgamation of IT, analytical and business intelligence. These helps the manager to use automation (Operational level), streamlining (Business level) and Business process reengineering(strategic level).

Bibliography

Baltzan, P. (2014). Business Driven Information System, 4th Edition. McGrawHill.

Dutton, N. (2003, October ). Enterprise architecture: how to drive business value from IT. Retrieved from www.computerweekly.com: http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Enterprise-architecture-how-to-drive-business-value-from-IT

Understanding Business Driven MIS and its Difference from Information Technology(Business Intelligence)

The Information Technology(IT) is the collection of hardware and software including the network and internet interactions. These systems help in the creation of the information.  The right choice of IT helps to achieve success and innovation in the business. Whereas, Management Information System(MIS) is the set of data, computing devices, and decision-making models that support the various hierarchy of organization to make operational, business and strategic decisions. It is the study of people, technology, organization. These two disciplines are complementary. The state of information technology used by the institution helps it to make the MIS, indeed I believe these are positively correlated.

Jack Ma, CEO, and founder of Alibaba.com is the fourth richest person in China, once told that “Data is the human nature”; the paramount to make a rational judgment. For the purpose, his company has already invested $15 billion in Research and Development (R &D). The investment made by companies like Amazon, Alibaba.com. Google, Microsoft are creating a breakthrough in latest IT through Artificial Intelligence(AI) along with human computing, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality which is the very basis for heightening the level of MIS.

MIS helps in the collection, storage, analysis and retrieval of information to the end user so that they can make informed and rational decisions (Baltzan, 2014). It includes software, data in the form of the database, hardware system, decision support system et cetera. Amazon Customer Relationship Management(CRM) software could be a classic example of effective use of MIS giving it a value driven business model. Through the effective use of software and hardware technologies, the MIS generate Transaction processing report(TPS), Decision support report(DSS) and Executive information system(EIS)

The MIS fundamentally holds and concentrates in the system theory, throughout the organizations, and across the departments. There is a sharp demarcation of Input-Process-Output, these generated results facilitate decision making and problem solving. The amalgamation of information technology into the business helps to drive the performance of the business through the creation of required information for decision makings (Markgraf, 2018). E-commerce and E-business helps in restructuring and re-engineering of the business process leading to streamline overall process, it not only reduces the operational expenses of the organization but also provide competitive and comparative advantages.

Bibliography

Baltzan, P. (2014). Business Driven Information System, 4th Edition. McGrawHill.

Markgraf, B. (2018, March 9). The Role of Management Information Systems in Decision-Making. Retrieved from www.smallbusiness.chron.com: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-management-information-systems-decisionmaking-63454.html

Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability: “A Review of Google LLC CSR Initiatives, Barriers and Steps Taken for Accomplishment”(Volume II)

Introduction

The Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) is the organizational plans and policies which are context-specific that considers the stakeholder's expectation and the triple bottom domains (economic, environmental and social) (Feng, Wang, & Kreuze, 2017). In layman terms, it is the process of giving back to the society by the organization. Though diverse school of thoughts for and against the CSR prevails, in the recent corporate environment most of the business entities are amalgamating CSR into their methodologies. This paper is objectified to analyze the CSR initiative of Google LLC, the methodologies incorporated to make it sustainable, the action undertaken to make it happen and barriers that came across their implementations.

Discussion

Initiated 20 years back by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google LLC is stationed corporately at Mountain View, California. As echoed by Jack Ma, a founder of Alibaba Group at World Economic Forum, 2018 “Data is the power”, Google has also concretized its overall operations on those global data that it gets, so called the “Big Data”. But Yannis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece has argued, Google is building its data repository(capital) in the social inputs that we add, each time we use the Google globally (Dennis, 2017). Hence, it would not be wrong to except global CSR initiatives from the company.

            It could not be denied, Google has always been awesome when it comes about CSR and its sustainability approaches. A paradigm shift can be observed, (McPherson, 2017) states companies are undertaking newer initiative on CSR, basically the global behemoths are breaking down the organizational wall and advocating for global solutions around the issues like poverty, illiteracy, climate change, human rights et cetera. Rhetorically, hyper-competition has not only made the product and services outdated, unequivocally, CSR initiatives are also being obsolescent. CSR is not only about philanthropy, but these school of thought is also replaced. Each time, the companies must think beyond the box, invoking and initiating newer approaches to CSR and its sustainability.

Timeline retrospection of Google CSR activities

            Google LLC is well positioned in the global arena when it comes to handling its employee, the perks and benefits packages, the energy efficient operational activities and the profitability, these alignments of company aligns with Milton Friedman concept of CSR for profitability (Thiel, 2016). Now, Google is moving beyond the silver lining where the companies used to be euphoric for stock price and earning per share. Google is analyzing, practicing, learning, collaborating and cooperating numerous CSR initiatives which juxtapose the essence of “Trippel Bottom Theory” and “The Stakeholder Theory”.

A global vocalist of circular economy and contractor of green energy.

An equally important domain of CSR and sustainability is environment, Google has been carbon neutral since 2007. The Reputation Institute, pioneering in Reputational Intelligence(RI) grades the global companies on the basis of workplace, citizenship, and governance. Google ranked the first position with the score of 75.4 (Miceli, 2015). Google has committed more than $ 1billion for renewable energies and it claims, its data center only uses 50% of the energy in comparison to other data centers. These not only promotes environment but also reduces the operational expenses of the company.

Google is shifting from linear to the circular economy (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2015), its initiative to focus on reuse, recycle, remanufacturing and refurbishing is acknowledgeable. In 2017, the company diverted 91% of waste from the global data center operations away from landfills (Google, 2018). Similarly, as per the report, the Google is world largest purchaser of renewable energies, totaling of 3 GW, it has incentivized local communities and government to invest in renewal energies ultimately leading to develop ancillary industries and helping create hundreds and thousands of jobs. These activities of Google emphasizes the environmental domain of “Trippel Bottom Line” theory.

Google on the social progress:

The company through its “Google.org”, a charitable sister concern of Google is working with Pratham Books since 2013 in India. Total funding made till date is $3.85 million. The Project entitled “Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver” is an open source technology where openly licensed stories are translated into the native language making it easier for the students, guardian, and teacher to read. India is culturally diversified; the books are not published in all the local language and also people can’t afford to purchase the books. The project aims of having more than 500,000 active users(Google.org), these will help to cope with higher illiteracy rate prevailed in margined area of populated India.

Another overwhelming project is “Learning Equality”, which helps in taking the digital content offline for the students without the internet. The “Kolibri Platform” organizes the content in the cloud-based library, which can be downloaded and used offline. The project began in 2016, till date the company has supported $7.3 million. The project covers India, Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa. These endeavor of Google stresses in social wellbeing, socio-economic dimension of CSR and Sustainability. 

Google on inclusiveness and equality

Data is the human nature, it’s a power for decision making throughout the continuum. Google supports organization that uses data science and innovative new approach to understand inclusion and justice for all. In America, 1 in 3 black American can expect to be imprisoned in their lifetime (Knafo, 2013) which is also stated in the Google’s website. Center for Policing Equity(CPE) projects empower the law enforcement agencies with data and tools to improve relation with communities they serve and track the national statistics on police behavior against the public. The project began in 2016 and has invested $5000,000 till date, these project intensified Google’s principle of enhancing and supporting social responsiveness and transparency.

Responding in crises

The application like Google Person Finder has helped to track and find people in the time of disasters. As per the Google.org, in an average, a refugee spends 17 years in exile. Since 2015, the company has invested more than $20 million in grants supporting innovative solutions to support refugees.  It includes giving refugee access to connectivity and devices, building mobile platform to provide refugee with reliable information, deploying portable media kits with educational contents for refugee students.

“Project Loon” is Googles internet connectivity through the balloon project. Its success will make the internet available to the most remote and difficult terrains where the traditional optical fibers would not reach. Numerically, still, 4 billion peoples are away from the internet from internet accessibility. 

Progressing to make workforce more diversified

            Though sexism and racism never had happened in Google, it has been hard for the internet behemoth to reduce the gender gap. Still, majority of the higher positions of the organization charts are occupied by males. “Thomas Returns” a Canadian Mass media company created the diversity and inclusion(D&I) Index, the company stated diverse companies are more innovative and productive and has better financial returns but ironically, the Google was not able to be within the top 25 of the index (Mc Girt, 2017). But still, the company is constantly working to make the workforce more diversified, as per Google diversity report 2018, 30.9% of the workforce is female and 69.1% male similarly, 74.5% of leadership representation is occupied by male and 25.5% by female.

Google on environmentalism

The company has signed 2.5 gigawatts of wind and solar energy worldwide and its investing $2.5 billion in renewal energy (Wang, 2016). Working in an integrative manner is the essence of Google working methodology. The company most of the time coordinates and collaborates with other firms and industries to produce innovative and social uplifting products and services. “Prediction” reduces the carbon emission, it is an application developed by Google which will help automobiles determine where we are driving. Google satellite services provide the information to the indigenous tribes about deforestation so that they can tackle the issue.

                                      Sustainability of Google CSR initiatives

Deloitte, multinational consulting firm states sustainably is the responsibility for the impact the firm exerts on surrounding, environment, business, and social terms. Similarly, as per Burtland Commission Report sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs (Delai & Takahashi, 2011). We can infer that sustainability is consuming the resources in the responsible manner so that it will positively impact the upcoming progeny or generations.

Googles’ sustainability is based on the smart use of the scarce earth’s resources. Rather its CSR initiatives are related to environments, social or economic dimensions, they are functioning in an optimistic manner. Since 2007, Google has spent more than Euro 3.2 billion to build and operate four data centers in Europe. As Google grows, its communities also grow, it comes with added jobs to the community which enhances the standard of living. Since 2017, its global operations are operated by 100 percent renewal energies (Google, 2018). The circularity through reuse, recycle, refurbished and remanufacturing has supported the Google to prolong the life and use of the products. As per Google sustainability report, 2016, 22% of components Google used were refurbished, 36% were remanufactured and as per Google Sustainability report, 2018 18% of the servers were remanufactured, 2.1 million components were sold in the secondary market.

The used of heighten level of technologies like artificial intelligence(AI), Block Chain along with the pool of big data has helped Google to go beyond its internet business. The company is collaborating, cooperating and coordinating with any local, regional, NGO’s, INGO’s and government to come across positive social impacts. Google Maps provided 1 billion km of transit results per day help liming the carbon emission by helping drivers get the most optimum route. The report further states, the Google data center in Europe has supported economic activity worth Euro 490 million per year in their GDP.

The incorporation of the circular economic model has intensified the use and reuse of technical and biological resources, the same way socio-economic progress in the rural communities of underprivileged through Google supports can be seen. The above-mentioned projects like “Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver”, “Learning Equality” and “Center for Policing Equity(CPE)” has brought social welfare. In overall, all CSR initiatives have brought social, economic and environmental augmentation in a sustainable manner.

Immediate action required to implement initiatives

CSR requires action so that the formulated plans can be implemented well.  CSR budgeting is an evidence-based planning, it helps the organization to have prior plans, procedures, and strategies to implement CSR initiatives. The company should not attempt to solve all the issues in diversified sector all at a once. It has to be systemic and progressive and should be feedback read loop.

As per Google environmental report (2018) it has envisioned its priorities and incorporated environmental accountability into its corporate philosophies, the company is designing energy efficient data centers, providing sustainable workplaces, empowering users with technology, managing water stewardship, embedding circular economy and engaging the supply chain on human rights and safety and environment concerns.

 Defining the message, properly setting the target area, assessing the resources and expertise accounts for the success of CSR initiatives (Bamford, 2017). After reviewing numerous literature review and article published in McKinsely Quartely(2009), below are some of the actions required to carry CSR in well-planned manner.

Define your messaging and map CSR initiatives

Google CSR initiatives focus on the sustainability. It has clearly given a message to its stakeholder about its CSR actions. It helps to define the target scope and anticipate outcome. Google focuses on environmentalism, inclusiveness, sustainability, and equality.

Set the target area

              Setting the target helps to capitalize the resources in the same track. From the very beginning, Google targets in minimization of the energy consumption, substituting fossil fuels by renewal energies, refusing and recycling the materials and emphasizes the use of data and technology for prompt decision making.

Produce CSR reports

Google publishes various CSR report entitled sustainability, inclusiveness, circular economy et cetera. These report helps to create transparency and fairness in its CSR initiatives.

Coordinating with governmental and local agencies

Google advancement in Taiwan for renewal energy created new frontier depicting their commitment to alternate energies and decreasing footprints. The Taiwanese government amended its Electricity Act to allow the direct purchase of renewable energies from the producer

Nevertheless, human bias often happens, it can be within and out of the company, it hampers the CSR initiatives. Google conducts Unconscious Bias workshops to all “” Noogler (new Googler) to inform them the negative impact of biases. 84% of the Google’s people manager has taken unconscious bias training (Google, 2018). It has also carried series of interactive lab to discuss about racial biases and impact of stereotypes. The company made the parental benefits gender-neutral so that the new parents, regardless of gender, receives up to 12 weeks of paid leave. Google is prompting more women inclusion in technical positions, Google project, “Made with Code” promotes, invests and funds to reduce the gender gap which it has been blamed for.

Except the above mentioned, Google could take following actions to implement its CSR initiatives in multi-stake dimension.

·       Regardless of any political change, the organization should remain committed to the CSR and its sustainability.

·       Behemoth like Google, Amazon, Facebook should step up across any social issues and act to solve those problems

·       Corporation should shift from corporate social responsibility to social impact

·       Focus on the transition of the company from the linear to circular economy.

·       Lastly, coordinating with INGO’s like the United Nations to achieve Sustainable Development Goal(SDG) as these companies are blessed with the diversity in financial and technical resources that other lacks. 

Barriers to CSR initiatives

(Laudal, 2011) stated the barriers to the CSR vary with regards to the stages in the transformation of the company from small to medium or multinational enterprise. The factors like the cost to benefit ratio, sensitivity to local stakeholders and public perceptions, geographical spread, and government regulation could be influencing factors. Similarly, the lack of resources and complexity in implementing CSR initiatives are also the barriers (Arevalo & Aravind,2011)

Cultural along with government regulation and policy of the host country plays the pivotal role in implementing CSR (Vimala & Kalyani, 2017), Google is not available in China, the strength scrutiny of the government in media has abandoned Google to ripe the benefit from the most populous country in the world. Not only the macro culture and political ideologies heralds as a barrier but also the sub-culture of the local community obstructs often. The conservative political culture of North Korea has made not only Google but any other companies to work and serve there.

Though CSR comes with cost in terms of money, time, energy and expertise, these internal factors have never been a problem since the company is investing billions of dollars each year in CSR and its sustainability. But humans are consciously or unconsciously biased (Thiel, 2016), these could be barriers in implementing CSR. A video where Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder expressing his discontent on Trump's victory after 2016 juxtapose his biases towards Republicans (Wakabayashi, 2018) could often polarize the organization for and against the CSR in the areas encroached by Republicans.

Adopting the CSR sometimes could not be a linear and continuous process (Pistoni, Songini, & Perrone, 2016), they are often retaliated by the impacted sector. The “Paris Climate Agreement” was an ever-taken greatest CSR initiation for claiming down greenhouse gas but it was vehemently opposed by Trump administration. Moreover, Google is the strong advocate of “Net Neutrality”, the Trump administration pushed to roll back “Net Neutrality”, which in reality is benefiting the small and medium size business to maintain their online presence.

For the company like Google, the cost has never been an issue since CSR is the circular flow of give and take which benefits all the involved stakeholders. The more the company is into the CSR, the more it innovates itself. The philosophy of sustainability, environmentalism, circularity and minimum resource utilization has helped it to innovate newer technologies like Artificial Intelligence(AI), self-driving vehicles, Augmentation and virtual realities which has enhanced the brand image and equity of the company.

Conclusion and Recommendation

The methodologies of CSR and sustainability should change with time, as per the changing economic, environmental and social preferences and privileges. Google’s approach to CSR reconciles with the “Trippel Bottom Theory” and “Stakeholder Theory”. It is more progressive, and each time company is creating new CSR to impact the social life of peoples rather be it through new technological breakthrough or philanthropy or social innovation. For the purpose, it has strategized accordingly, manage resources, fit in expertise and also collaborated with various governmental and non-governmental national and international entities. Lastly, barrier arises while formulating and implementing CSR and it could be endogenous as well as exogenous. In the case of Google, the human biases were more of internal type whereas political ideologies, cross-cultural difference fell into the external domain

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