Corporate Social Responsibility Trends In India

India is becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world. With a soaring growth rate, India is inviting more international investors to its markets. But is this rise in economic growth solely based on successful business operations? As far as the upliftment of communities, generation of employment opportunities and economic growth is concerned, the government alone cannot attain success. It is also the responsibility of business organizations to take up social and environmental causes and make a difference to communities. This is where the importance of corporate social responsibility steps in.

The concept of CSR is not new to India as large companies like BIRLA and TATA have been integrating good work in their business operations for decades. Even though the concept is not new to the country, its implementation has been a major concern for years. If experts are to be believed, corporate social responsibility is still in the nascent stages in India. In short, CSR is misunderstood for charity by a large number of Indian companies. It is merely considered a policy that should be implemented in business operations rather than giving importance to social good.

Business organizations across the world are realizing the benefits of adopting socially responsible behavior. If a company manages effective stakeholder engagement, it can enjoy a strong reputation in the market for years to come. This idea still needs to be understood and implemented in a better manner by the business sector in India. CSR experts blame the lack of trained personnel, non-availability of accurate information and lack of understanding for the slow acceptance of corporate social responsibility in the country. But the present condition seems to be changing as many companies are trying to accept CSR as more than just planting trees or giving away charity to the needy.

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Social Media Integration with Mobile Apps Can Bring Nifty Benefits to Your Business

Popular social media platforms like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and others have not only helped people in connecting and sharing thoughts, ideas and knowledge but also paved the way to promote brand or business online. Small as well as large companies can easily reach out to millions of prospective customers and increase their brand value and recognition.

Social networking sites play a significant role in mobile experience. In addition to sharing Facebook wall posts, Facebook website integration help in keeping your users engaged in your activities and that of your company. Similarly with Twitter integration, you can lure users with twitter feeds. Offering all of this in a single convenient app can provide great experience to users. This method is shaping new ways of preferences, interactions and expectations that should be well met to be successful and edge over market competitors.

In simple words, social media integration helps in getting people’s attention, luring them in and converting them into your app users. Merging of mobile actions with social media (Facebook, Twitter and others) – two rapidly growing medias, can help businesses or brands can easily get connected with day-to-day lives of their customers. This practice allows applications in leveraging the power of social networking for market research, marketing communications and more.

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The Zen of Social Media Marketing

Establishing a social media marketing strategy and creating effective Web content that is indexed by search engines is critical for any business. When people are looking for answers to problems, they go online first!

People and organizations that participate in social media (creating YouTube videos, participating on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, starting a blog and the like) become part of a vibrant online community and show that market that they are worthy of doing business with.

Unlike non-targeted, in-your-face, interruption-based advertising, social media is content that people actually want to see. How cool is that? Rather than forcing you to convince people to pay attention to your products and services by dreaming up messages and ad campaigns, search engines deliver interested buyers right to your company’s virtual doorstep. This is a marketer’s dream-come-true.

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Social Accountability 8000 And Its Impact On China

The face of the business world has been changing over the last thirty years, as consumers are becoming wiser about ethical practices by companies. More consumers are requiring for the products they purchase to be ethically sound and for the companies to deliver on their codes of conduct.

In 1997, the discovery of a sweatshop by an Observer investigation caused major embarrassment for retail giant Gap. Major retailer Walmart, was also embroiled in a child labour scandal after children as young as five were found working on a farm that supplies blueberries to the company.
A growing interest in ethical trade meant that a number of initiatives were set up in the 1990s in order to deal with this problem. The Apparel Industry Partnership was set up by the White House in 1996 in order to combat sweatshops. It included corporate, trades union, and NGO members, but many non-profit organizations and unions that had originally supported it, started pulling out. In 2000, the AIP was renamed the Fair Labor Association. The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Purposes was also set up to tackle this problem.

The Ethical Trading Initiative was initiated in the UK in 1998 to bring together NGOs, and unions to promote good practices in businesses. The ETI has been successful in obtaining the membership of big corporations such as Body Shop, Levis, Marks and Spencer amongst others. The Clean Clothes Campaign was set up in the Netherlands to improve working conditions in the global garment and sportswear industries.

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Sociology How Past Experiences Affect Your Life

Sociologist Herbert Mead developed a theory known as social behaviorism, which helped explained why past social experiences help form an individuals personality. Mead did not believe that personality was developed by drives or biologically, but more on terms socially. He stated that the self only developed when people interact with one another. Without the interaction of other people an individual cant develop a personality. An example of this is if a child is left in total isolation for a long period of time then they dont mature both physically or mentally.

Next, social experience is crucial, and this includes the exchange of symbols. Only people attach meanings to words and symbols. If you tell a dog to sit and it obeys then you may give it a snack. However, this doesnt mean it knows why to sit down, but it does so to get food. You can tell a dog to sit for numerous of reasons such as wanting to impress your friends, or to calm it down because it is running all over the place. Also, Mead noted that understanding individual intentions is critical. This will help us to analyze how an individual will respond even before we act. For example, when were driving we all anticipate what others may do because of experience. If an individual behinds you is speeding up rather quickly, then you can assume that they are about to switch lanes, or you can assume that they are in a rush and need to get somewhere quickly. Mead refers to this as taking another individuals role.

Another important theory that is related to social behaviorism is the looking-glass self. This is basically like mirroring what we think others think of us. If we think others view you as being good looking, then you will see yourself as being good looking, or if you think people think that you are fat then you will have that image of yourself. People take the roles of other people during development. Infants have very little knowledge so they tend to mimic others. Children often have creative minds and take on roles of other significant others or people such as parents that have a special importance in their social development. For example, children will play house in which someone will take the role of a mother while another take that of a father. As they age children will learn to take various roles and adjust to their surroundings. As we continue to age we will continue to see changes in our social life. There are a lot of critics of Meads theories and some claim that he focus too much on the society in developing an individuals behavior. Another sociologist Erik H. Erikson stated that unlike Freud who believed that personality was pretty much set in stone in the first couple of years of an individuals life, that personality changes in stages and occurs all the way up to death. His theory is not all that accurate as well, because people experience changes in different orders and time.

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