The only motive for social responsibility in a business is to increase its profits

Social responsibility refers to investments or activities undertaken by businesses to promote the welfare of the society. It is not usually required by law and firms engage in it voluntarily. Despite this apparent commitment to the welfare of the society, it is widely believed that businesses engage in social responsibility for the sole purpose of enhancing their profitability.

Even though social responsibility contributes to the profitability of businesses, organisations are also motivated by the need to improve the welfare of the society. Sustainable profitability is attained through social responsibility by improving the market’s perception about a company and subsequently impacting on their willingness to buy its products (Bonanni, Lepaneux and Roloff, 2012). This forms the basis for consumer apathy towards such activities where firms are deemed to engage in them purely for profit.

The commitment to the welfare of society can be proven when it is considered that organisations tend to realise lower profits from such ventures than would be realised if investment was made into profitable ventures. For instance, funds invested in empowering young people through education and other forms of training could yield more profits if it was invested into marketing or new product development (Batten and Fetherston, 2003). Organisations do make sacrifices in order to deliver on their social responsibility goals.

Engagement in social responsibility also demonstrates organisation’s commitment to all its stakeholders. The society is one of the stakeholders and organisations tend to play their role as good corporate citizens to improve the welfare of host communities (Batten and Fetherston, 2003). This is often done at the expense of shareholders whose main interest is profit with the only saving grace being that social responsibility makes the diminished profits more sustainable.

From the arguments presented above, it should be acknowledged that social responsibility does help in generating profits of businesses. However, the social responsibility investments tend to have very low returns and it is only through commitment to societal welfare that businesses can justify their investment in them. Social responsibility is not done solely for profits.

References

Batten, J.A., Fetherston, T.A., 2003. Social responsibility: corporate governance issues. Amsterdam: JAI

Bonanni, C., Lepineux, F., Roloff, J., 2012. Social responsibility, entrepreneurship, and the common good : international and interdisciplinary perspectives. New York : Palgrave Macmillan