Unilever is one of the world largest multinational companies, merged by British soapmaker Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie in 1929, which is related with lives of over two billion people every day mainly in the area of food and beverage, home care and personal care. The corporate purpose of Unilever indicates that they require "the highest standard of corporate behavior towards everyone we work with, the communities we touch, and the environment on which we have an impact (Purpose & principles 2010)". This corporate purpose highlights the importance of social performances and the interactions with their shareholders.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly essential in the global environment (Wilburn 2009, 111), especially for large multinational companies who confirm that making contributions to shareholders is the driving force to increase the value of the corporations. Unilever claims that corporate social responsibility is at the heart of its business (Cescau 2007). “We 've always believed in the power of our brands to improve the quality of people’s lives and in doing the right thing. As our business grows, so do our responsibilities (Our vision 2010)” Unilever has made a clear direction about their vision. These years Unilever has focus on building their corporate image with full consideration and improvement of social performance, varying from sustainable development, safety of food, to welfare of labor and other social performance beyond those areas, but there are still some problems existed that need much more improvement to do . The aspect of environment of Unilever will be illustrated amply in this paper to indicate the impact of social performance to the corporation.
Positive elements of performance
In the current trend, Unilever has observed that standards of social responsibility set by customers stimulate the
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