Business Ethics
Please provide your answers in a thought-out, coherent form and use complete sentences. Each of these questions asks you to analyze the issues presented in the Chapter. In addition to presenting direct answers, you will also be expected to provide your opinion(s). If possible, please also share any unique insights you may have regarding the issues based on your background and life experiences.
Read: Case #2 –Starbucks’s Mission: Social Responsibility and Brand Strength(pages 396-403)
Starbucks’s Global Responsibility Report
Over the past 30 years, Starbucks has worked to expand nationwide, and even internationally. Focusing on the quality of its product, they have worked to spread their brand name anywhere and everywhere. As a large, brand name firm producing coffee for about 20,000 stores they have had to find the balance between building up the company and its name while maintaining social responsibility and customer satisfaction.
Using the concepts presented in Chapter 2 as well as information you have read in the Starbucks’ case, please answer the following questions:
- Why do you think Starbucks has been so concerned with social responsibility in its overall corporate strategy?
- Is Starbucks unique in being able to provide a high level of benefits to its employees? Explain your answer.
- Do you think Starbucks has grown rapidly because of its ethical and socially responsible activities or because it provides products and an environment customers want? Justify your reasoning.
- Evaluate Starbucks’s performance in 2012. Did Starbucks reach the goals it set in 2008? Provide at least two examples to prove your answer.
- How has Starbucks shown responsibility to the community around it and in the world at large?
