Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Iimpact of Corporate social Responsibility Investment

Question: Discuss about the Impact of Corporate social Responsibility Investment. Answer: Research Topic and Significance The research has been carried out on the topic of the impact of corporate social responsibility investment on the business performance in the telecom industry of Australia. Corporate Social Responsibility commonly abbreviated as CSR is a series of steps and initiatives that a company or an organization takes to maintain the sustainable development and social well being of the environment. It also includes the policies and directives that are taken internally in the organization along with external relationships and business reporting as well. Telecom industry of Australia is huge and there has been a lot of investment that has been done in the area of CSR which has had an impact on the business reporting and performance (Crowther and Aras, 2008). Literature Review Australia is home to a huge telecom industry with some of the key market players in the field as Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. In the current era of digital innovation and with the advancement in the technology, there has been a lot of investment that is done in the field of telecom to come up with the environment friendly solutions. All of these decisions and initiatives come under the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that has had a significant impact on the telecom industry of Australia. Telestra is a telecom company based out of Australia that has put massive investments in its CSR policies. The organization donated an amount of $1,561,280.27 for the Asian relief funds at the time of Indian Ocean Tsunami. The company holds a strong volunteer network of more than 4,000 individuals that spend close to 12,000 hours in the works of charity and well-being of the environment. There has also been active involvement in the areas of human health and workplace safety as well. Due to the business initiatives taken by the company along with its active CSR policies, Telstra holds the largest market shares in Australia in the telecom industry and the CSR reporting of the organization is managed by the business unit that is termed as the Community Relations Group of Corporate Relations. The organization has had a positive impact of the investments made in the area of CSR as it has been awarded with the National Award for the fantastic People Management. Also, there have been negli gible workplace injuries and incidents that have taken place in the organization. The employee satisfaction and engagement has also shown some marked improvement leading to the overall improvement of the organization (Telstra, 2014). Apart from Telestra, there are also a number of other Australian telecom companies that have also made some remarkable contributions and innovations in their CSR policies and decisions. Sustainability management and development through transformational solutions and operating responsibility has been prime focus of Vodafone. There are a lot many stakeholder groups that are involved with the organization and each of these groups has its specific set of CSR practices and policies that are defined. Health and safety, privacy and security along with human rights have been some of the prime focuses for Vodafone in its CSR policies that have had a high impact on the business success of the organization (Vodafone, 2015). Optus is another prime name in the world of Australian telecom industry that has also seen some marked investments in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility in the recent years. The organization invested $8.7 million towards community and managed to improve the literacy levels of close to 94% students. There are also 500+ volunteers that are associated with Optus that are contributing towards the initiatives of the organization. CSR and Sustainability Report: Financial Results of Optus (Optus, 2015) The statistics that have been shown above provide an indication of the positive impact that CSR and the investments done in the area have proved towards the business success. Research Questions The research questions that have been covered in this piece of work have been listed below. What is the meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and what is the significance of the same? What is the role of Corporate Social Responsibility in the telecom industry of Australia? What are the key players of the Australian telecom industry and what are the CSR initiatives taken by them in the past? What has been the impact of the CSR initiatives taken by the telecom companies of Australia in terms of business success and business performance? What are the further improvements that the companies can do in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? Research Methodology There are a number of research methodologies that have been presented and explained such as basic research, applied research; problem solving research, qualitative research, qualitative research and many others as well. The research methodology that has been used for carrying out this research is the quantitative method of research (Rajasekar, 2013). There have been sustainability and CSR reports of various organizations over the years such as Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and likewise that have been referred and used as a base to gather the statistics of the investments that have been made, contributions that have been made and the profit and revenues that has been earned. There are also polls and questionnaires of various telecom companies of Australia gathered to come up with the literature review and the research outcomes and answers to the research questions. The numerical data that is collected through the data collection process is also utilized to analyze the overall impact of the investment that is made in the field of CSR (Kothari, 2004). Along with the quantitative research, there is also certain element of the basic research that has been used in this work of research that includes the fundamental and theoretical analysis and research process. Project Plan WBS Task Name Duration Start Finish 1 Corporate Social Responsibility - Australian Telecom Industry 97 days Mon 12/19/16 Tue 5/2/17 1.1 Initiation Phase 7 days Mon 12/19/16 Tue 12/27/16 1.1.1 Identification of the topic 2 days Mon 12/19/16 Tue 12/20/16 1.1.2 Planning of the Research - Schedule and Procedure 4 days Wed 12/21/16 Mon 12/26/16 1.1.3 Submission of the Research Topic 1 day Tue 12/27/16 Tue 12/27/16 1.1.4 Milestone 1: Research Topic 0 days Tue 12/27/16 Tue 12/27/16 1.2 Preliminary Search and Data Collection 14 days Wed 12/28/16 Mon 1/16/17 1.2.1 Preliminary search for information 5 days Wed 12/28/16 Tue 1/3/17 1.2.2 Identification of data sources 3 days Wed 1/4/17 Fri 1/6/17 1.2.3 Data collection and Sampling 7 days Fri 1/6/17 Mon 1/16/17 1.2.4 Milestone 2: Data for Research 0 days Mon 1/16/17 Mon 1/16/17 1.3 Research Execution 28 days Mon 1/16/17 Wed 2/22/17 1.3.1 Analysis of the data collected 7 days Mon 1/16/17 Tue 1/24/17 1.3.2 Preparation of Notes 7 days Wed 1/25/17 Thu 2/2/17 1.3.3 Literature Review 7 days Fri 2/3/17 Mon 2/13/17 1.3.4 Research Draft 7 days Tue 2/14/17 Wed 2/22/17 1.3.5 Milestone 3: Literature Review 0 days Wed 2/22/17 Wed 2/22/17 1.4 Control Phase 28 days Thu 2/23/17 Mon 4/3/17 1.4.1 Review of the research carried out 12 days Thu 2/23/17 Fri 3/10/17 1.4.2 Amendments as per comments 16 days Mon 3/13/17 Mon 4/3/17 1.4.3 Milestone 4: Review Report and Comments 0 days Mon 4/3/17 Mon 4/3/17 1.5 Presentation and Closure 22 days Mon 4/3/17 Tue 5/2/17 1.5.1 Presentation of the Thesis 7 days Mon 4/3/17 Tue 4/11/17 1.5.2 Final Business Research Thesis 14 days Wed 4/12/17 Mon 5/1/17 1.5.3 Submission of the Research Thesis 1 day Tue 5/2/17 Tue 5/2/17 1.5.4 Milestone 5: Final Business Research Thesis 0 days Tue 5/2/17 Tue 5/2/17 Gantt chart Research Process Research will be carried out in five major steps with their sub-steps as described below. Initiation Phase This step would include the selection and finalization of the research topic after analyzing the significance of the topic and the feasibility of the research as well. The initial planning regarding the research would also be done in this step covering the plan that would be used to carry out the research along with the schedule that will be followed. The plan would also include the finalization of the research methodology and technique that will be used. Preliminary Search and Data Collection The basic search would be carried out in this step along with the identification of data sources that will be used for collection of the data. Data sampling will also be done on the data that is collected from various sources. Research Execution The actual research will be carried out in this step which would include the analysis of the data that is collected and notes will be prepared according to the same. Literature review and the draft version will also be prepared in this step. Control Phase The step would include the review of the research by the guide and the changes and amendments will be done as per the feedback that is received. Presentation and Closure The final business research thesis will be prepared in this step of the research process which will be presented and submitted. Data Collection and Analysis Methods The research methodology that used in the research is quantitative research and the data that is collected for carrying out the research includes the data sources such as organization reports, news articles, polls, interviews and questionnaires. Business reports and documents are also used for collecting the data regarding the CSR initiatives that are taken by the telecom companies along with the year end and financial reports to understand the investment that has been made and the overall impact that is resulted out of the same (Gog and Paas, 2007). The data is analyzed using the quantitative method of research in which the data that is collected is studied and the patterns and relevant points and notes are made out from the same. The analysis on the data is carried out in a series of steps as inspection, transformation and modeling of the data. Inspection would include the study of the data that is collected which is then transformed in well defined structures to come up with data models to retrieve meaningful information out of the same (Chaleunvong, 2009). Expected Research Outcomes The research outcomes that are expected from the research include the answers to all the research questions that are listed along with the valid set of references for all the responses that are provided. The outcomes shall also include the literature review on the research topic of analysis of the impact of corporate social responsibility investment on the business performance in the telecom industry of Australia. Also, it would be attempted for the research thesis to be accepted with the minimal number of amendments and changes in the first version itself. The primary mentor and supervisor would be the research guide and the guide will provide the review and comments on the research thesis that is prepared. Conclusion Corporate Social Responsibility is a series of steps and initiatives that a company or an organization takes to maintain the sustainable development and social well being of the environment. It also includes the policies and directives that are taken internally in the organization along with external relationships and business reporting as well. Telecom industry of Australia is huge and there has been a lot of investment that has been done in the area of CSR which has had an impact on the business reporting and performance. The three major giants in the telecom industry of Australia include Telstra, Optus and Vodafone that have done some major work in the area of CSR and have positively impacted from the same. These organizations along with many others have also heavily invested to achieve the fruitful returns as well. The research methodology that used in the research is quantitative research and the data that is collected for carrying out the research includes the data sources such as organization reports, news articles, polls, interviews and questionnaires. The entire research is completed in a series of five major steps that make up for the research process. References Chaleunvong, K. (2009). Data Collection Techniques. [online] Available at: https://www.gfmer.ch/Activites_internationales_Fr/Laos/PDF/Data_collection_tecniques_Chaleunvong_Laos_2009.pdf [Accessed 21 Dec. 2016]. Crowther, D. and Aras, G. (2008). Corporate Social Responsibility. [online] Available at: https://mdos.si/Files/defining-corporate-social-responsibility.pdf [Accessed 21 Dec. 2016]. Gog, T. and Paas, F. (2007). Data Collection and Analysis. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203880869.ch55 [Accessed 21 Dec. 2016]. Kothari, C. (2004). Research Methodology. [online] Available at: https://www.modares.ac.ir/uploads/Agr.Oth.Lib.17.pdf [Accessed 21 Dec. 2016]. Optus, (2015). Bright Ideas for a Bright Future. [online] Available at: https://www.optus.com.au/content/dam/optus/documents/about-us/sustainability/Sustainability-Report-2015.pdf [Accessed 21 Dec. 2016]. Rajasekar, S. (2013). Research Methodology. [online] Available at: https://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0601009.pdf [Accessed 21 Dec. 2016]. Telstra, (2014). Corporate Social Responsibility. [online] Available at: https://www.telstra.com.au/content/dam/tcom/about-us/investors/pdf%20C/ar-other-information.pdf [Accessed 21 Dec. 2016]. Vodafone, (2015). Sustainability Report. [online] Available at: https://www.vodafone.com/content/dam/sustainability/2015/pdf/vodafone-full-report-2015.pdf [Accessed 21 Dec. 2016].

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