Apple Corporate Social Responsibility: A Detailed Insight

Question

Task: Provide a detailed report on the apple corporate social responsibility.

Answer

Introduction
Implying the management theory within a corporate business by considering the context of ecological and public issues is stated as corporate social responsibility (CSR). The parameters related to the company like its brand value, rate of production, quality of the product, rate of sales and related revenue, etc. could be further intensified by the proper implication of the concepts concerning corporate social responsibility. The significance of corporate social responsibility has increased tremendously in the near future since many organizations have initiated their operation in the nonprofit region, and the same context is being discussed in this apple corporate social responsibility. It is the efficiency in implying the corporate social responsibility theories that majorly decide a company's goodwill and reputation. It has been witnessed that the companies would retain a higher level of stakeholder support if the reputation is garnered through the proper implementation of corporate social responsibility theories. The implication of the CSR theories is more significant when perceived from employees' outlook since it would play a significant role in sustaining the positive environment and culture within an organization. A higher level of coordination among the employees would surely cause an improvement in the organization's productivity and revenue. Multinational companies like Apple and Google are well reputed for implying the advanced corporate social responsibility concepts. The projects like the Global Volunteer Program of the Apple company targets to provide support to the local communities. Such programs have increased the involvement of the company employees in the local communities. The company also focuses on environment conservation activities, which earned it the award of the Clean Energy Index of 100% (Hong et al., 2010). A similar instance could be observed in the company of Google, which sustains a very positive and constructive relationship with its employees. About 53% of the global employee community perceives the Google Company to be one of the most alluring places to work (Myers & Fellow, 2013). The Google Company has widened its concerns to the social welfare section and as a part of which it had donated the huge sum of $ 3.6 million to the cause of earthquake relief. The company has also proven its reliability towards the global environment and has highly limited its energy consumption. Google is recorded to be a carbon-neutral organization from the year 2007. Hence it could be observed that the proper implication of corporate social responsibility concepts would help the companies in developing a constructive reputation.

The acquisition of multiple markets by implementing effective strategies to expand the organization is termed to be the process of diversification. The management of the organization does the alteration to the products and services to commence the diversification. It is to enter into another line of business that is not currently followed by the company that the process of diversification is done. The process of diversification could be further classified into the categories of conglomerate diversification, and concentric diversification. It is the approach of diversification that is majorly followed by the company to imply the growth strategies. By introducing the products with new characteristics, various strategies for growth are implied by the corporate entities. Though, it could be understood that there is both positive and negative aspect of diversification. The major example of a company that has successfully commenced diversification is ‘Walt Disney’ (Lindgreen et al., 2009). The wide financial scope has been unrevealed by Walt Disney by dominating various markets through diversification. Introducing various amusement parks, television shows, and movies had effectively contributed to the cause of diversification. In the current scenario, the company has also strengthened its diversification by introducing various internet sites, resort properties, interactive software, radio broadcasting, etc. The approach of diversification has brought immense financial success to the company of Walt Disney. Another company that has achieved huge success through the approach of diversification is 'Samsung'. The various markets, like apartments, ships, and military hardware, are being dominated by Samsung by the approach of diversification. The company is majorly known for providing a wide set of mobile gadgets. Being a Korean company, it has proven its excellence in providing premium quality televisions, tablets, smartphones, etc. The diversification approach of Samsung is very advanced, and it even retains a modern Korean amusement park. It is a little known fact that the company is also focusing on presenting the gadgets which operate on the platform of Windows. The company is one of the dominating in the field of LED screen manufacturing. By taking the calculated risk, the company has collaborated with Bosch, one of the leading automobile parts manufacturing companies. The company has also marked its presence in the medical machinery manufacturing field. Hence, the instance of Samsung could be taken as one of the most successfully diversified company.

It is the concept of integration that comes next in the apple corporate social responsibility. A higher level of coordination is aimed to be achieved from various organizations, departments, groups, and systems by the task of integration. The act of making a new legally existing body by merging two or more organizations is also termed as integration. The act of integration could also be classified into two further divisions. They are horizontal integration and vertical integration. The organizations majorly imply the tool of integration to strengthen the current position in the market so that higher position could be offered to the competitors. At the stage of product distribution, the act of vertical integration is done by a company so that the multiple stages of manufacturing could be controlled easily. By adopting this approach, the total control on the supply and circulation of raw materials could be practised, which directly impacts the pace of manufacturing. The option of horizontal integration is also termed as a potential one by the companies and is widely implied. By this approach, a particular company would try to take possession or hold of another company that has the same reputation and is at the same level of the value chain. The companies could relate to different industries in this context. The process of integration is majorly seen in the organization which operates in the food industry. The major such instance was the acquisition of Goodman Fielder by First Pacific Company Limited, and Wilmar International Limited (Etzioni, 2018). Goodman Fielder Ltd.'s authority was offered $ 1.4 billion by the buyer while the acquisition (Lanis & Richardson, 2015). The company has turned out to be one of the dominating ones in the food industry after the process of integration (Asongu, 2007). The integration of WhatsApp with Facebook could be considered one of the most significant acts of integration. By offering the sum of $ 19 billion, WhatsApp was integrated into Facebook, which later turns out to be the milestone (Gottschalk, 2011). It had been made clear by the CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg that the company was not focusing on the monetary profit and its primary objective is to reach the mark of one billion active users. Hence these are some of the perfect examples of apple corporate social responsibility mentioned in this report.

References
Asongu, J. J. (2007). Innovation as an argument for apple corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business and Public Policy, 1(3), 1-21.

Etzioni, A. (2018). Apple corporate social responsibility: Good business, poor citizen?. Journal of Business Ethics, 151(1), 1-11.

Gottschalk, P. (2011). Apple corporate social responsibility, governance and corporate reputation. World Scientific.

Hong, S. Y., Yang, S. U., & Rim, H. (2010). The influence of Apple corporate social responsibility and customer–company identification on publics’ dialogic communication intentions. Public Relations Review, 36(2), 196-198.

Lanis, R., & Richardson, G. (2015). Is Apple corporate social responsibility performance associated with tax avoidance?. Journal of Business Ethics, 127(2), 439-457.

Lindgreen, A., Swaen, V., Maon, F., Andersen, M., & Skjoett?Larsen, T. (2009). Apple corporate social responsibility in global supply chains. Supply chain management: an international journal.

Myers, C., & Fellow, K. (2013). Apple corporate social responsibility in the consumer electronics industry: A case study of Apple Inc.