Business and Government
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According to Epstein (1989), companies believe that they have societal obligations on top of economic functions of producing goods and services and generating profits for the shareholder. Thus corporation has social responsibility towards the Profit (Economic), People (Community) and Planet (Environment) (Singapore Compact for CSR, 2007). Regardless of the size and ownership structure of the organizations, they should integrate CSR into their business model in order to sustain their businesses successfully in the long run. There are four main principles to CSR (Steiner & Steiner, 2009):
Economic benefits – Responsibility to create profit for shareholders and not only to meet social needs without financial incentives.
Legal compliance – Responsibility to comply with the law of the countries they operate in.
Ethical – Not acting just for profit, but also ensuring what is right, just and fair so as to enhance ethical behavior within the organization.
Voluntary and philanthropic – Promoting human welfare and goodwill and being a good corporate citizen contributing to the community and quality of life.
A for-profit social enterprise is a business which follows this model that balances both social concerns and the needs of the shareholder. There are three characteristics that distinguishes for-profit social enterprises from conventional non-profit organizations and conventional businesses which are 1) its main aim is for the common good, 2) they make their own income and not dependable on grants, and 3) they reinvest their profits for societal needs. Thus social enterprises could offer a politically attractive win-win solution to a society and tackling social problem such as poverty alleviation and creating new jobs.
An example of such for-profit social enterprise is the Streetwires located in South Africa (International Labour Organization, 2011). The organization trains unemployed artists or disadvantage people interested in art to make wire and bead art craft. The organization would then retails these art craft thus creating a stable income for the artists. In this case, Streetwires safeguard the interest of the artists by ensuring that they are not exploited and receive fair value for their work with the organization.