Running head: VIDEO ASSIGNMENT #2 FOR BUSINESS ETHICS 1

Video Assignment #2 for Business Ethics

Ethics and social responsibility pose significant risks and challenges for companies wanting

to operate within a foreign market. Businesses have the charge to create and maintain codes of

conduct or ethical practices that every person of the company must follow by and comfortably

put into action. Important ethical issues include beliefs such as integrity and trust, with more

complex problems including governance, compliance, and decision-making. In this paper, I have

chosen Starbucks as my business of focus and will discuss the company's need for expansion in

the global market while highlighting the role of ethics and social responsibility in that decision.

Do the business practices demonstrated by Starbucks represent Corporate Social

Responsibility? Why or why not?

There are lots of responsibilities for a company. Some of them are social while some are

corporate. And, the key corporate responsibility issues for Starbucks Coffee Company is how to

make a fair deal with the farmers when it comes to purchasing of coffee. Starbucks is a

successful global company of the world. They are positively committed to community and

environment (Peloza, & Shang, 2011). The business practices demonstrated by Starbucks

represent Corporate Social Responsibility. Starbucks has made attempts to buy fair trade coffee.

They have also made choices based on preserving the environment and ensuring that the workers

are receiving enough pay to make a living off of. Starbucks pays more than the minimum price

as an investment to ensure that their coffee growers can afford to stay in business.

Starbucks maintained various causes like in both the societies where Starbucks stores were

situated and the countries where Starbucks coffee was grown (Werther & Chandler, 2010). They

have to make sure that the coffee beans they are purchasing from the farmers are at lower price.

By this, they earn a huge business profit. The impact of this purchase is that, the life of farmers

didn’t change a little bit or it went even worse while doing business with Starbucks.
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Critics of Starbucks’ business relationships with their coffee growers argue that their sole

interest is in maintaining a stable supply of coffee beans. Is that a fair assessment? Why or

why not?

Critics of Starbucks’ business relationships with their coffee growers argue that their sole

interest is in preserving a stable supply of coffee beans. While this may be a fair assessment,

preserving a stable supply of coffee beans means maintaining the environment and conditions of

the workers; this is something that Starbucks recognizes and addresses in its decisions.

Maintaining a stable supply of coffee beans and maintaining the environment and/or the

conditions of workers go hand in hand and cannot be treated independently. If they were not

concerned about the environment and worker conditions, they would lose their stable supply of

coffee beans in the long term.

From a CSR perspective, how could Starbucks approach this issue differently?

From a CSR perspective, Starbucks could approach this subject differently by buying only fair

trade coffee. They have made an effort over the years to buy fair trade coffee and believe that their

practices align with the guidelines of fair trade coffee. They state that they believe all of their

coffee is bought fairly. If this is the case, I believe they should make the transition to buying only

certified fair trade coffee. This would back their Corporate Social Responsibility.
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Reference

Peloza, J., & Shang, J. (2011). How can corporate social responsibility activities create value for

stakeholders? A systematic review. Journal of the academy of Marketing Science, 39(1),

117-135.

Werther Jr, W. B., & Chandler, D. (2010). Strategic corporate social responsibility:

Stakeholders in a global environment. Sage.