CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Corporate Social Responsibility of the Fashion Industry in USA



Corporate Social Responsibility of the Fashion Industry in USA

Introduction

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the concept that how companies can produce a positive impact for society while managing their business processes. CSR is based on the concept that business gets opportunities for growth while incorporating the social and environmental trends (Yperen, 2006). Over the past few years, an increasing number of companies have been convinced for the benefits of CSR for all their business stake holders; this is one of the major reasons why the companies at such a large scale have been involved in developing green business. With the increasing awareness of people about the green technologies, environment friendliness and sustainability, the number of companies engaged in green marketing and implementation of CSR policies has increased drastically. This is due to the reason that consumers and stake holders now pay more attention to environment friendly products (Gallicono 2011).

Fashion industry being a multibillion dollar industry, employees millions of people. Like the other industries, textile and fashion industries have been incorporating CSR activities into their business goals and objectives. However, the fashion companies did not consider the CSR benefits earlier as these companies often focus on short term management perspective. With the passing time, most of the companies are convinced that the application of social responsibility trends into the fashion industry would not only protect the environment but it would also support the fashion companies, by complying and satisfying their customer base. This paper describes the CSR of fashion industries in USA.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The companies use CSR principles to demonstrate their care toward society and the environment. Through this care for the people and planet, the business becomes able to achieve profits and competitive advantage in the market. CSR concept is based on the philosophy of People, Planet, Profit, as shown in figure 1 (Yperen, 2006).

Figure 1: Philosophy of CSR

The companies which include CSR in their core objectives are able to attract highly skilled employees as well as the large masses of customers. As the companies participate in the CSR activities, they witness the financial and social advantage and thus increase investing in those ethical activities even more. Thus, the companies continue to invest in promoting the CSR activities, which help in making the customers and stake holders, believe that the company care for them. For example, the employees of the company feel more proud to work in the company if it is socially responsible; if the spacious accommodation is provided to the couples along with the increased privacy, the productivity and efficiency of the employee increases (US institute of Contemporary Observation 2004). Figure 2 shows the stake holders which are affected by the CSR of any company.

Figure 2: Stake Holders of Business Affected by CSR

Fashion Companies Lacking in CSR

Majority of the fashion companies lack in their CSR activities because the nature of their business processes is reactive and short term ...