Global Corporate Social Responsibility of Tesco (Grocery Retailer, UK)

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, The University of Chicago, language: English, abstract: The companies are the integral part of the society and they have both, the potential and obligations to the society and their obligations to the society is called corporate social responsibility. CSR is practiced by all the companies including SMEs. The CSR practices of the food retail sector of the UK have been a matter of prime concern as they are the major contributors to the UK economy. Tesco PLC is the largest food retailer in the UK and its CSR practices need to be examined with respect to its operations, activities and products. Generally, large companies claim their concern and commitment to CSR and announce it elaborately in their reports. The claims made by Tesco are different from the ground realities. The company claimed to reduce energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases but could not achieve it for some or other reasons. Similarly, Tesco claimed to adapt to a compatible process of sourcing of its food products to be sold in its stores. The process claimed to investigate and monitor different stages of sourcing sincerely, but the recent horse-meat scandal revealed that there is a wide gap between the claims and the ground realities. The CSR is practiced by most of the companies for building reputation and the objective of the CSR to create value for the society is left behind.