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The Body Shop International - Sustainable Corporation

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The Body Shop International - Sustainable Corporation
Businesses worldwide are being urged to assume more serious and broader responsibilities to community than ever in recent decades, and asked to serve a wider range of human values. The pressures of society responsibilities are distinctly real as many leading global businesses including Nike, Reebok, and Nestle are witnesses; these businesses have been encountered tense disrepute to their reputations because they failed to cleave to social responsibility standards. The term sustainability or the triple bottom line hence has been widely discussed and debated in both academic and practical to align businesses’ economic performance with social responsibilities. This essay will serve a considerable discussion on the latest triple bottom line or sustainability conception; then leads to examine and evaluate The Body Shop Corporation because the Body Shop has claimed its title of the ‘Green’ corporation, and has been reportedly a pioneer in acting sustainably to communities where its businesses operate. Inspiration to examine the case of Body Shop will hence satisfy the purpose of this essay.

Deriving from the idea that corporate has its absolute obligation to foster social betterment in which the company operates, corporate social responsibility planted its root in early 19th century simply by industrial revolution which provided workers with housing and basic comforts. It then became more accustomed to corporate world with the notion that corporations should take into account of all stakeholders including shareholders, employees, suppliers, communities, and customers (Thompson, Strickland, and Gamble 2007). The idea has been well developed throughout decade experienced large number of global companies failed to act in according to social responsibilities by which resulted in huge unexpected business lost. Sweatshops scandal of child labour, during the 1990s, in Nike third world countries contractors is a typical example of acting socially irresponsible resulting in



References: Bavaria, J., Becker, E. and Billenness, S. 1994, “Body Shop scrutinized”, Insight, September 15. Boulton, L. 1997. Body Shop tops league table of ‘green’ reports, Financial Times, London Edition, February 2, p. 12. The Body Shop International. 1996, January. The values report 1995. Littlehampton, UK: Author The Body Shop International. 1998, January. The road ahead: A summary of The Body Shop Values Report 1997 Brown, D., J. Dillard and R.S. Marshall. (2006) "Triple Bottom Line: A business metaphor for a social construct." Portland State University, School of Business Administration. Retrieved on: 13 Apr 2013 Cheney, G July 12, 2004. Dennis, B., Neck, P. C., and Goldsby, M. 1998. Body Shop International: an Exploration of Corporate Social Responsibility. Management Decision 36(10), pp.649-653. Elkington, J. 2004. Enter the Triple Bottom Line. In Henriques A. and Richardson J (eds) The Triple Bottom Line: does it all add up Entine, J. 1995, “The Body Shop: truth and consequences”, Drug & Cosmetic Industry, Vol. 156, February, pp. 54-9. Entine, J. 1997, “Vivisecting the anti-vivisectionist movement”, Drug & Cosmetic Industry, 160(1), pp Kurschner, D. 1996, Tree press, Business Ethics, January/February 1996. Livesey, M. S. and Kearins, K. 2002. Transparent and caring corporations? A Study of Sustainability Reports by The Body Shop and Royal Dutch/Shell. Organization and Environment, 15(3), September, pp.233-258 Luthans, F Mehegan, S. (1996), “Green on green”, Brand week, 37 (27), May 20, p. 43. Roderick, K. (1993), “Searching for sustainability: The Body Shop tries Living Water”, Omni, Vol. 16, November, p. 26. Rosenthal, T. (1994), “Soft soap philosophy”, Business First of Buffalo, 10(42), August 1, pp. 15-17. Schilizzi, S. 2002. Triple Bottom Line Accounting: How serious is it? Connections. Online Publication of Agribusiness Association of Australia, at http://www.agrifood.info/10pub_conn_Win2002.htm Slapper, T. and Hall, J. T. 2011. The triple Bottom Line: What is it and How does it work? Indiana Business Review, Spring 2011, pp.4-8. Sodeman, W. A. 2003. The Body Shop International PLC. In Carroll A. B. and Buchholtz A. (eds). pp.600-609. Thomson, Jr. A. A, Strickland III, J. A., and Gamble, E. J. 2007. Crafting and Executing Strategy: the quest for competitive Advantage Concepts and Cases 15th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Ven, V D B., Nijhof, A. and Jeurissen, R. 2009. Sticking to core values: the case of The Body Shop. In Malline, A. C. Eds. Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case study Approach, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing limited.

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