What is Corporate Social Responsibility? - InnoTrain CSR

corporate social business family which is dealing for example with the shortcomings
of the poor concerning access to communication technologies, education and healthy
food.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Yunus and other organisations have also created a
cooperation option relevant for the corporate CSR management: Social business
joint ventures with commercial enterprises. For all intents and purposes, social
business and the corporate CSR strategy are interacting in this form of organisation.
Social as well as economic value is generated jointly in that social entrepreneurs and
traditional companies are taking turns with the management and are contributing their
expertise. For companies, this includes for example their products as well as the
financing, while social entrepreneurs are in the possession of sales networks as well
as information about and adequate financing models for the customer. An example
of these types of alliances, especially with respect to the the poorest of the poor, the
"base of the pyramid market (BoP)", is a joint venture between Danone and the
Grameen Bank (see example case).
Ashoka is the first and largest international organisation for the promotion of social
entrepreneurs. Since 1980, the organisation has selected and promoted close to two
thousand people as fellows in more than seventy countries. Many of them succeed in
developing their projects into profitable companies over time, but re-invest their
profits to continue pursuing the social goal. Others remain dependent on donations
and endowments because they are working in fields in which it is impossible to
generate financial income on the free market. Muhammad Yunus is the best known
fellow of the organisation.
Example case (based on information provided by the company)
"Grameen Danone Foods - Social Business Enterprise" - is the name of the joint
venture between Danone and Grameen Bank with which Danone is embarking on a
new path in Bangladesh. It is a social business - the focus is not on generating a
profit but on the social commitment for combating poverty in the Third World.
Generated income is re-invested into the company. A maximum dividend of 1 percent
is permitted.
The project "InnoTrain CSR" is organized by GILDE GmbH and has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 12/2010
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