Details of the Assignment: Part A
Students are asked to reflect on 3 case studies from the case studies presented in the seminars. See Appendices A. Each reflection should be 100–130 words. The purpose of this part of the portfolio is to critically analyse a business’ economic, social and environmental contexts and Identify business opportunities of New Sustainable and Green Technologies or New Business Models for Sustainability.
Please solely use the recommended core text readings in your reflections. Do not use and hence do not cite additional readings. Use your own words to express arguments.
Part A forms the 3 first sections of your coursework / paper.
Details of the Assignment: Part B
Students are asked to engage in case research relating to a company of choice. That company must either offers Green Technology or engage in New Business Models for Sustainability. Students should critically discuss selected theory from the lecture. Make sure that you have compiled the sections below yourself. Please remember we have zero tolerance for plagiarism.
Part B forms the other sections 4 to 8 of your coursework / paper.
The learning purpose of this Portfolio Part is to analyse the business case for sustainability. It is to develop proposals for reconciling tensions between a business’ economic, social and environmental contexts. The assignment will advance the students’ ability to communicate effectively in writing, to create spread sheets and to analyse data in MS Excel or comparable tools.
You are asked to analyse the market position of a company in offering sustainability products or related services. Do not just rewrite a case you find in academic literature or in a public report. Please follow the below paper sections structure and detailed advice. The latter will outline the assignment task in more specific.
The maximum word count for Part B is 1200 words. The maximum word count for the entire submission (Part A + Part B) is 1500 words. Please include the following tasks as sections of the paper (see overleaf / next pages).
Part A
No Abstract and No Introduction Note please that no abstract is required and valued for this assignment. Likewise, no introduction is required. Please do not add such extra sections here.
Paper section 1.
Answer this question with max. 130 words for the case study below:
How do corporate social responsibility activities affect the reputation and product positioning of a firm? Demonstrate subject knowledge by applying theory to this case study and make an own argument.
• Relevant book chapters: 5. Introducing Corporate Responsibility, pp. 78–105.
• Use the above core reading chapter for defining corporate social responsibility activities. Use the below case study in order to discuss the above question.
Cadbury’s Path to Sustainability
In 1909, the London Evening Standard accused the confectionary company Cadbury’s of knowingly profiting from the widespread use of slaves on cocoa plantations in the Portuguese colony of São Tomé. The public was shocked: the company was not only one of the most famous brands in the British Empire, but also an exemplar of compassionate capitalism founded in the Quaker religious tradition. Cadbury’s sued the Evening Standard for libel. The company won the case, but over the course of the trial, Charles Cadbury, joint head of the firm and a figurehead of virtuous capitalism, was forced to admit that he not only knew slaves were being used, but actually regarded it as essential to his company’s prosperity. Despite the court’s ruling in Cadbury’s favour, it lost in the court of public opinion, and the reputation of the firm was damaged.
A century later, in 2000, the company found itself once again accused of buying slave-farmed cocoa beans from West Africa in a media assault by the full spectrum of the British press, from the Daily Mirror to the Financial Times. Acting with others in the industry, Cadbury’s (by then Cadbury Schweppes) denied the allegations. In contrast with the 1909 case, this time the industry condemned the use of slavery outright, but to no avail, because it was unable to prove that it really knew what was happening on cocoa farms. The human rights advocates seemed to know little more: their early allegations of slavery soon switched to ones about child labour as it became apparent that slavery was not prevalent on cocoa farms. But that did not matter: these groups held the moral high ground and the industry could do nothing to displace them.
The news headlines could not have come at a worse time, appearing on the front pages in the run up to Easter, a peak time for chocolate sales. Schoolchildren around Britain wrote in to Cadbury’s saying they would not be buying Easter eggs that year. In the USA, two congressmen persuaded the industry to sign up to the Harkin-Engel Protocol, an industry-wide certification standard to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. Cadbury’s had once again lost in the court of public opinion. The company’s share price was not hurt but its reputation was. The question was whether it needed to take action, and if so what?
Across the industry, companies pondered whether to be defensive and protect their reputations, or to become more proactive and see if there was a value-adding dimension to the cocoa labour problem. Cadbury’s supported a 2002 study by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture to investigate the extent of child labour and forced labour. It also joined the International Cocoa Initiative, a partnership of business, NGO, and government representatives committed to getting rid of unacceptable labour practices in cocoa production. In 2006 it asked consultants to map out what sustainable production would mean for the company.
These activities helped the company realize that it had lost touch with its supply base. Not only was it blind to human rights issues in the supply chain, it was ignorant of the production issues affecting the millions of small independent farmers it depended on. If anything, the risk of being out of touch was greater now than in 2000. In 2005, Cadbury had acquired Green & Black’s, the organic chocolate company with a loyal ethical consumer base. This was one of Cadbury’s fastest growing business areas, a brand built on product quality and ethical credibility. Any criticism of the Cadbury supply chain now would damage Green & Black’s reputation as well.
But another problem came to light as Cadbury started to reacquaint itself with its supply base: for various farmers were growing less cocoa, and if the situation continued Cadbury’s risked not having enough beans to meet demand. Cadbury-commissioned academic research had shown that the average production for smallholder cocoa farmers in Ghana had dropped to just 40% of potential yield, and that cocoa farming was becoming less and less appealing to the next generation of farmers despite rising prices. In January 2008, Cadbury’s launched its £44 million Cocoa Partnership “to secure the economic, social and environmental sustainability of around a million cocoa farmers and their communities in Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean.” Furthermore, in 2009 Cadbury’s announced that all cocoa used in its top-selling Dairy Milk brand would be sourced from Fairtrade certified farms with the hope that farmers would benefit from the stable prices and community investment Fairtrade promises.
Related academic sources:
Du Cann, R. (1993) The Art of the Advocate. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Satre, L.J. 2005, Chocolate on trial: slavery, politics, and the ethics of business, 1st edn. Athens, Ohio, US: Ohio University Press. Websites: http://www.mondelezinternational.com/well-being.
Copyrights: Oxford University Press (2011). Rights granted with textbook for this course. Case has been modified and extended for this module. This case can be used by UEL but must not be reprinted.
Paper section 2.
Answer this question with max. 130 words for the case study below:
How could crowdfunding help and promote “impact investing” in terms of cleaner energy?
• Relevant book chapters: 4. Socially Responsible Investment, pp. 49–77.
• Use the above core reading chapter for defining impact investment. Use the below case study in order to discuss the above question.
Crowdfunding: Indiegogo and Mosaic
“This new type of start-up business model has the opportunity to disrupt industries and change the way we determine success and let the best ideas flourish, rather than the best access to capital. It’s exciting, because the venture capital model that powers Silicon Valley and the global start-up scene is inherently biased based on geography and connections. According to the Small Business Administration, about 600,000 new businesses are started in the US every year. The number of start-ups funded by Venture Capitalists? 300 start-ups. That means 99.95% of entrepreneurs won’t get funded. The different types of crowdfunding:
• Equity crowdfunding – Investors receive a stake in the company with this model. At the moment, equity crowdfunding is the least developed because of regulations about liability of equity.
• Donation-based crowdfunding – Backers come together to donate to support a cause, and may receive a thank-you or shout out.
• Reward-based crowdfunding – In exchange for a pledge, a backer receives a gift or other reward (like the product when it is released) instead of money or a share in the company.” (Source: TechRepublic, 2014).
Among the biggest crowdfunding platforms are Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The history of Indiegogo displays the variety of undertakings people have seek funding for:
• “January 2008. Indiegogo debuts at the Sundance Film Festival. Its name is explained by its initial target market: independent filmmakers.
• June 2011. Jessica and Sean Haley, a Florida couple, turn to Indie-gogo to pay for fertility treatments. Their son, Landon, born in 2012, becomes the first crowdfunded baby.
• July 2013. Scanadu’s Scout, a health-monitoring puck designed to read your vital signs, raises $1.66 million. Indiegogo always welcomed medical devices; Kickstarter forbid them until June 2014.
• April 2014. GoBe, a gizmo that claims to count the calories you’ve consumed, raises more than $1 million. Though experts call it an impossibility, the device goes into production. It’s not the first, nor the last time, Indie-gogo is plagued by allegations of fraud.
• December 2014. Indiegogo Life launches, letting users seek funding for personal events, including weddings, charitable campaigns, education, and medical emergencies.
• January 2015. Successful campaigns can convert crowdfunding pages into ongoing ecommerce sites, continuing to accept contributions, manage perks, and distribute newsletters for as long as they like.” (McCracken, 2015).
Since January 2016, Indiegogo offers crowdfunding to large corporations with their customers:
“The crowdfunding site Indiegogo formally announced its intention to work more closely with the world’s biggest corporations. The firm said it wanted to help them crowdfund their own research ideas and get customers to vote with their wallets on which to develop by pledging cash to back their favourites. While Indiegogo will hope the move proves lucrative, one expert warned that it also risked crowding out entrepreneurs. And other people have speculated that few people would be interested in funding projects on behalf of multi-billion pound companies. Indiegogo said that firms would be able to ask its users to suggest ideas for which it could then seek financial backing and input from potential customers. They could also put out their own projects to gauge the potential market and attract funding and would receive promotional and strategic support from Indiegogo staff, it said. The firm said the new programme was open only to Fortune 1000 and Global 500 companies.” (Rawlinson, 2016).
Another platform, Mosaic, especially funds green technology and solar projects.
“Mosaic charges a 1 percent fee on each investment and a small percentage fee on each origination loan. Investors can earn a 4.5 to 7 percent return on rooftop power plants. The loans are typically paid back over 10 years. Investors pay a minimum of $25 to fund one of these projects, so most of the investments are small to medium scale. According to Mosaic, most of the projects cost a couple hundred thousand dollars and have an average of a couple hundred investors. Since its initial launch in 2010, company has raised more than $7 million in investments through crowdfunding with a 100 percent payback rate. In its seed rounds, Mosaic raised $3.4 million from venture capitalists. In 2012, Mosaic received a $2 million grant from the Department of Energy. The biggest project to date is installing solar panels on 1,500 military homes in Fort Dix, New Jersey. Another successful project included installing a solar roof on Pinnacle Charter School in Denver, Colorado, which doubled as clean energy education for the students.” (Gilpin, 2014).
Mosaic writes: “Financing your solar panels makes sense. You can lock in your energy rates for up to 30 years and know how much you will pay. When the time comes to sell your home, solar panels can increase your home value. Get a quote and see if solar is a fit for your home.” How does this work? “Mosaic connects high quality borrowers who are going solar with qualified investors. The borrower gets clean energy and saves money. Solar power is less expensive than power from theutility. Investors get paid back with interest and can easily reinvest payments or transfer them to their bank accounts.”
The portal matches both market sides, investors and consumers. They also include installers into their ecosystem. Investors can borrow small amounts of money. Home owners can install a solar roof without major investments themselves. They rather sign a contract that mandates them to see the produced electricity at a fixed or bound rate. The resulting profit generates the return on investment for the investors.
Images’ source: Mosaic.
Two testimonials illustrate the economic but green rational of the Mosaic crowdfunding portal users:
• “Owning my solar system, with no up-front cost, means more savings, increased home value, and decades of reliable clean energy for my kids. Those are things that I’ll always feel good about.” (Sarah, Mosaic borrower).
• “Mosaic is usually one of the first places I look to when I want to invest. Mosaic offers one of the highest returns in the market.” (Jatin, Investor).
Cited references:
Gilpin, L. (2014) How crowdfunding solar power is democratizing the way we finance clean energy, http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-crowdfunding-solar-power-is-democratizingthe-way-we-finance-clean-energy/.
McCracken (2015) Indiegogo is getting ready for equity crowdfunding, http://www.fastcompany.com/3050200/the-big-idea/indiegogo-is-getting-ready-for-equitycrowdfunding.
Rawlinson, K. (2016) Indiegogo tries to sell crowdfunding to major firms, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35258160.
TechRepublic (2014) The rise of crowdfunding: 10 things to know, http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-rise-of-crowdfunding-10-things-to-know/.
Copyrights: Slowak, A.P.. Own case compilation. The copyrights of the individual passages remain with their authors.
Paper section 3.
Answer this question with max. 130 words for the case study below:
Sharing is caring?! Take a critical stance on the sharing economy and discuss which sharing ideas could promote a more social or environmentally sustainable communities.
• Relevant core reading: Bocken, N.M.P., Short, S.W., Rana, P. and Evans, S. (2014) “A Literature and Practice Review to Develop Sustainable Business Model Archetypes”, Journal of Cleaner Production, 65, pp. 42–56. This article is web-linked on the Moodle site.
• Use the reading in order to understand that sharing is both social and a business model. The article will be discussed in the lecture. Use the below case study in order to discuss the above question.
ShareYourMeal and Peerby: Business with Your Neighbour
“The sharing economy connects individuals who need a particular product or service with other individuals who have or can render that particular product or service. Examples include:
• Uber, the ridesharing app; Airbnb, which helps you rent your spare room or empty house to people vacationing in your city;
• And TaskRabbit, which connects you with people in your neighbourhood who are willing to do your errands and chores for a nominal fee.
In his new book, The Business of Sharing, author Alex Stephany explains that the sharing economy has produced literally millions of micro-entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs often start out with a few hundred dollars or less in capital. Many of the most successful sharing economy start-ups began with very little traditional financial backing. For instance, take a company like Justpark. They’ve created tens of thousands of inner city parking spaces in the last year without so much as turning a spade of dirt or razing a single building.” (Source: Relander, 2016).
But is this yet a mass market? Some facts on the sharing economy (US market data, PWC):
• 69% of consumers say they will not trust sharing economy companies until they are recommended by someone they trust
• 78% of consumers agree that the sharing economy reduces waste
• Airbnb averages 425,000 guests per night, nearly 22% more than Hilton Worldwide
• 8% of all adults have participated in some form of automotive sharing. 1% have served as providers under this new model.
• 6% of the US population has participated as a consumer in the hospitality sharing economy; 1.4% has served as a provider.
Some authors on CSR and critical of growth have argued that sharing could lead to a different economy, an economy based on less growth and consumption but with more quality of living. For controversy, let us have a look at two consumer market start-ups. ShareYourMeal and Peerby – two case study examples:
“Launched in Amsterdam in March 2012 Shareyourmeal has already shared more than 120,000 meals! Right now we have more than 55,000 home cooks and foodies in the Netherlands alone. We’ve appeared in many Dutch news programs and won several awards. Including;
• Accenture Innovation Awards 2012
• Change in Business Award 2012
• Rabobank Award
• Power to the Pioneers 2012”
“Shareyourmeal is an online cooking platform where people with a taste for good food get together. You can share your own delicious meals with people from your neighbourhood. Or if cooking is not really your thing, but eating is, you can look at what is being offered near you.” (Source: ShareYourMeal).
Their business model lets the users classify themselves into different roles on the online platform:
“The foodie – When you register on the website, you will automatically receive e-mails with all the meals in your neighbourhood. Or you can look on the website to see which delicious meals are on offer near you. If you see something, you fancy click on ‘order’ to order the meal and your order will be e-mailed to the cook. Additional requirements (for example: do not add salt) can be added when you order. The price will be paid in the exact amount and in cash when you pick up the meal.” (Source: ShareYourMeal).
“The cook – Once you offer a meal on Shareyourmeal, you will be displayed as a ‘cook’ on the website. When you put a meal online, you write down shortly:
• The name of your meal.
• What kind of ingredients you use?
• How many portions are on offer?
•Until which date interested foodies can order the meal.
• Within which timeframe foodies can pick up the meal.
• The price per portion. (These are the costs for buying the ingredients)
• If you like, you can also add a picture of your meal.” (Source: ShareYourMeal).
When the meal is placed, other members in the neighbourhood will receive an e-mail with your meal(s). They can click on the link to your meal and order it. You will then receive a meal order which you can accept or reject. When you accept the order, you will receive an e-mail with the foodie’s contact information.” (Source, all case study text above: ShareYourMeal website, http://www.shareyourmeal.net).
The other example is Peerby:
“Everything you need, on the go, for free: Curious what your neighbours are sharing? Download the Peerby app and borrow the things you need from people in your neighbourhood. How it works: As a renter you simply ask Peerby for the things you need. We find a neighbour who has what you’re looking for and arrange it to be delivered and picked up where and when you need it (delivery is not available in the lending service). The owner makes some extra money (up to €250 a month) by renting his/her household items. When signing up as a Superbuur (‘super neighbour in Dutch)’, the owner indicates what he/she has to rent, and receives an SMS when there is demand for their stuff. Super Neighbours can earn even more extra cash by delivering the item themselves or let Peerby arrange delivery by bike. As a Superbuur you have the guarantee that your item is returned in the same condition that you lent it.” (Source: Peerby website). Peerby argues it promotes sustainability: Sharing connects you with your neighbour and thus facilitates communities and social capital. Sharing also makes more use of the items and thus helps to make better use of resources.
“Daan Weddepohl, founder of Peerby: ‘Borrowing is fun, but it’s not the best solution if you frequently need household items. According to interviews with our members, convenience and reciprocity are key factors enabling daily use. Borrowing feels to many people as a special favour, that you only occasionally call upon. Renting however, is easily done daily, just like going to the bakery. With Peerby GO we want to offer people a serious alternative to buying. To achieve this, we want to offer at least the same convenience as the best (web) shops; full stock, good quality and accessibility wherever and whenever it suits you.’” (Source, all case study text above: Peerby website, http://www.peerby.com)
Cited references:
PWC (2015) The Sharing Economy, https://www.pwc.com/us/en/technology/publications/assets/pwc-consumer-intelligenceseries-the-sharing-economy.pdf.
Relander (2016) 5 Reasons You Should Join the Sharing Economy Revolution, http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254914.
Copyrights: Slowak, A.P.. Own case compilation. The copyrights of the individual passages remain with their authors
Part B
Paper section 4. The green product or service (200 words)
Discuss and classify how the offerings of your chosen company specifically focus on environmental sustainability. Make use of its Annual Report or its Sustainability Report, and please cite such reports where used. Identify stakeholders connected to producing or consuming the relevant products or services and the company’s efforts in corporate social responsibility. What is the company’s approach of making profit from sustainability?
When choosing the company for this assignment, please make sure that there is data publicly available or well documented in press or trade publications.
NOTE PLEASE:Students are prohibited to choose a company from the first 100 in the Fortune 500 year 2015 index. You shall not choose: 3M, Aetna, AIG, Allstate, Alphabet, Amazon, American Airlines, American Express, AmerisourceBergen, Anthem, Apple, Archer Daniels Midland, AT&T, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, Best Buy, Boeing, Cardinal Health, Caterpillar, Chevron, CHS, Cigna, Cisco Systems, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Comcast, ConocoPhillips, Costco, CVS Health, Deere, Delta Air Lines, DirecTV, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Energy Transfer Equity, Enterprise Products, Express Scripts Holding, Exxon Mobil, Fannie Mae, FedEx, Ford Motor, Freddie Mac, General Dynamics, General Electric, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Halliburton, HCA Holdings, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Home Depot, Honeywell International, Humana, Ingram Micro, Intel, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), INTL FCStone, Johnson & Johnson, Johnson Controls, JP Morgan Chase, Kroger, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Lockheed Martin, Lowe’s, Marathon Petroleum, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, McKesson, Merck, MetLife, Microsoft, Mondelez International, Morgan Stanley, Nationwide, New York Life Insurance, Oracle, Pepsi, Pfizer, Phillips, Plains GP Holdings, Procter & Gamble, Prudential Financial, Safeway, Sears Holdings, State Farm Insurance, Sysco, Target, Tesoro, TIAA-CREF, TwentyFirst Century Fox, Tyson Foods, United Continental Holdings, United Technologies, UnitedHealth Grou, UPS, Valero Energy, Verizon, Walgreens, Walmart, Walt Disney, Wells Fargo, World Fuel Services.
Why so? We have experienced that those companies are too likely already documented with a sustainability case in books or case repositories. There would be a very high risk of plagiarism and paraphrasing. Note please that the above rule has been drawn solely to protect students from the risk of plagiarism. In your selected case, students choose one of the above companies, against this advice, and the elaboration is much too similar to published cases, all marking criteria for Part B will be marked with 0%. We reserve the right to investigate in suspected breaches of regulations.
Paper section 5. Review of relevant literature (300 words)
Refer to about five focused literature sources in order to explain how the selected company may best pursue sustainability for its offerings. You may use journal articles retrieved from http://www.scopus.com.
Paper section 6. Industry benchmark (250 words)
Research and cite a competitors ranking of the relevant industry. List the top 5 competing companies. Please answer the following questions:
1 – How appropriate are the measurement criteria of the ranking?
2 – What bias or issues could that measurement have?
3 – Is the industry highly concentrated in market shares or rather not? What could be the reasons?
Paper section 7. Sustainability benchmark (250 words)
Pick a selected graph embodying documented data from the sustainability report, press releases or other reports of your chosen company. Answer the following question:
1 – How could this graph be improved and better used in order to compare the company with a competitor? Use Excel to generate a ‘better’ graph; include the new graph in the paper.
If required, you can attach data or a spreadsheet in the data appendix section. That data appendix will not be included in your word count.
This section should also be used in order to give brief but insightful business recommendations. Recommendations for research and academic purposes are not required in this assignment.
Paper section 8. Conclusions (100 words)
Finally, conclude what your paper has found that is novel from the selected and appraised company example. Add one or two sentences about how these conclusions compare to, or inform literature. Do not give recommendations for business or research in this section.
It is not required to state the limitations of your study.
Paper section 9. References list
I need at least 20 different references
Paper section 10. Data appendix
Paper Presentation
Dour work should be word processed in accordance with the following:
• Font style: Calibri, size 11; 1.5-line spacing
• The page orientation should be “portrait”
• Margins on both sides of the page should be no less than 2.5 cm
• Pages should be numbered
• Your name must not appear on the script but it is essential to give your student number on the first page of your submission file.
Skills Advice Pay particular attention to:
• Proper data appraisal of the presented case
• Sufficient link of theory and selected company case
• Paragraph structure and headings: Use the eight sections headings as suggested in this guide
Do refer, if needed, to info skills at http://writeitright.uelconnect.org.uk/home/ and http://infoskills.uelconnect.org.uk/
Referencing
The University expects students to use Harvard referencing as specified in the book Cite them Right. You should be careful to include citations within your work as well as a reference list at the end. Unreferenced work is subject to UEL policies and a judgement of plagiarism. It could thus fail or be considered as a breach of regulations.
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