Introduction

Comparative Study on Corporate Social Responsibility

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Executive summary

This analysis is based on the theory of social performance and analyses the CSR performances of two ASX listed companies in Australia, namely, Woolworths and Coles. The two supermarket chain companies Woolworths and Coles are listed in ASX200. This discussion would focus on the comparative study of these two companies in terms of Corporate Responsibility as well as corporate governance. The above discussion is based on the theory of CSP with the help of the CSR activities of two companies, namely, Woolworths and Coles. The two supermarket chain companies Woolworths and Coles are listed in ASX200.

This discussion would focus on the comparative study of these two companies in terms of Corporate Responsibility as well as corporate governance. Measuring the social impact of a company is beneficial for the company for attracting investment in the long run. These programmes of Coles include feeding the needy, grants for the community as well as benefits and generous pay for the members of the team who work in the store. Moreover, this company works for the environment, for example, they are adopting a strategy in packaging that is there will be 100 per cent compostable, reusable as well as recyclable packaging by 2025.

Table of Contents

Introduction. 4

CSR performance of Woolworths and Coles group of companies. 4

Comparison. 6

Corporate social performance theory. 8

Conclusion. 8

References. 9

Introduction

ASX is an index of the stock market and represents the market capitalization float-adjusted as well as a weighted index of the stock market in Australia. The latest ASX index list was published in April 2021. The two supermarket chain companies Woolworths (ASX code WOW) and Coles (ASX code COL) are listed in ASX200. This discussion would focus on the comparative study of these two companies in terms of Corporate Responsibility as well as corporate governance.

CSR performance of Woolworths and Coles group of companies

According to (Fukuda & Ouchida, 2020), the companies that are profit-making have to spend a percentage of their profits to build the community. The two supermarket giants in Australia Woolworths and Coles have several activities of corporate responsibility for the development of the community. These two companies are ASX 200 listed companies and they are big rival companies in the segment of the supermarket, groceries as well as retail. The five most important social responsibility programmes of Woolies involve building as well as empowering sustainable communities by means of providing access to food and education that would accelerate nutrition as well as improve the result in the schools. Moreover, Woolworth’s group encourages their employees to volunteer in their respective communities. On the other hand, Xiong, Nelson & Bodle, (2018), have stated that the greatest rival of Woolworths in the supermarket, groceries as well as retail business Coles group has also several social responsibility programmes that would develop the community.

Figure 1: Graph regarding the climate change governance of Woolworths

Source: (Fukuda & Ouchida, 2020)

The framework of corporate governance of Woolworths is based on several important issues as well as many key policies. One of the key issues is considered to be the climate change on which this company gives prime focus (Fukuda & Ouchida, 2020). The board of directors of the company has the responsibility to supervise as well as to uphold effective corporate governance. On the other hand, the management as well as the board of directors of Coles group is also responsible for managing the policies of corporate governance. The main guiding principles of corporate governance of this company are the guiding principles of the company to direct its operations as a whole. These operations include the impact of climate change, reporting unfair practices, treatment of employees, risk management as well as giving compensation. The CSR score of the Woolworths group is 41 whereas the CSR score of the Coles group is 32. Moreover, this company works for the environment which helps to adopt a strategy in packaging that is there will be 100 per cent compostable, reusable as well as recyclable packaging by 2025.

Comparison

Corporate social performance theory

According to Singh & Misra, (2021), the performance of an organisation can be judged by the CSR performance which has introduced by the company. One such theory of CSR is the theory of corporate social performance (CSP). This theory helps to find whether a company acts responsibly to legal as well as economic stakeholders or not. Measuring the social impact of a company is beneficial for the company for attracting investment in the long run. Nowadays, social media is quite important for promoting a business as well as for other business activities. There are some scholarly works in this regard related to the CSR activities of several companies (Chu, Chen & Gan, 2020). According to some research, CSR is the most widely accepted social phenomenon nowadays (Xia et al., 2018). Moreover, it can be said that social responsibility practices and their measurement and reporting attract more investment in the long run. The CRP theory can be best explained with the help of the above theory. This theory works systematically in a step by step manner to achieve sustainability in CSR as well as in the performance of the company in the long run.

Conclusion

The above discussion is based on the theory of CSP with the help of the CSR activities of two companies, namely, Woolworths and Coles. The two supermarket chain companies Woolworths (ASX code WOW) and Coles (ASX code COL) are listed in ASX200. This discussion would focus on the comparative study of these two companies in terms of Corporate Responsibility as well as corporate governance. Measuring the social impact of a company is beneficial for the company for attracting investment in the long run.

References

0Chu, S. C., Chen, H. T., & Gan, C. (202). Consumers’ engagement with corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication in social media: Evidence from China and the United States. Journal of Business Research, 110, 260-271. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.01.036

Fukuda, K., &Ouchida, Y. (2020). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the environment: Does CSR increase emissions?. Energy Economics, 92, 104933. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2020.104933

Singh, K., &Misra, M. (2021). Linking corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational performance: The moderating effect of corporate reputation. European Research on Management and Business Economics, 27(1), 100139. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iedeen.2020.100139

Xia, B., Olanipekun, A., Chen, Q., Xie, L., & Liu, Y. (2018). Conceptualising the state of the art of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the construction industry and its nexus to sustainable development. Journal of cleaner production, 195, 340-353. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.05.157

Xiong, F., Nelson, J., & Bodle, K. (2018). The adoption of new technology by listed companies: the case of Twitter. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 30(7), 852-865. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2017.1385759