Corporate social responsibility: Interview with Nooshin Warren

Do you think companies should give back to society and support activist movements? Or do you think they should just focus on business? Listen to the following interview with Nooshin Warren, an associate professor (US)außerordentliche(r) Professor(in)associate professor of marketing and Eller Faculty fellowhier: (Ehren-, Gast-) Mitgliedfellow at the University of Arizona. Business Spotlight correspondent Talitha Linehan asked Warren questions about the role of companies in society today. 

Talitha: Let’s talk about corporateUnternehmens-corporate social activism. Now, there seems to be more pressure than ever on corporationUnternehmencorporations to engage in sth.sich an etw. beteiligenengage in social activism. Why is that?

Nooshin: If you go back, there was a time that businesses were totally focused on doing business. Then, some big companies started getting involved in philanthropic actions, like paying for cancer researchForschungresearch. They were sending food to places that were struggling, and it was very difficult for a lot of shareholderAktionär(in)shareholders to accept that. It started by constantly saying, “Keep your business separate from these types of non-business actions.” But then, we got used to that. Shareholders got used to that. Now, CSR, or those types of corporate social responsibility (CSR)soziale Verantwortung des Unternehmenscorporate social responsibility, is not even questionable. They are part of what you report. People are more aware now how much influence companies have on regulations and government. They are more demanding them [NB (nota bene)übrigensNB: non-standard] to say what they think. And if the firms don’t, actually, the pressure is so high. There are so many examples of it that firms, at the end of the day, they have to. So, I think that is what is happening. And then, as something increases, all the companies have to join. If they don’t join, they’re going to get compared to their competitorsMitbewerber(in), Konkurrent(in)competitors. And sometimes, this is really not good for them.

Talitha: How much do you think right now it plays into someone’s decision whether to purchase sth.etw. kaufenpurchase a product from a company, or whether to maybe work for a company? How much do you think, like, that the company stanceStandpunkt, Einstellungstance on various issueProblem, Frageissues influences that?

Nooshin: I think that younger generation[s] really do make these decisions. I would not say that older millennials, which I would be part of or Generation X, do. But, I believe that the younger generations, the Z, the Alpha, are more be into sth. (ifml.)etw. mögen, auf etw. abfahreninto shopping from where it’s closer to their values.

Talitha: And is that because they grew up in the age of the internet and social media and this time of polarity, especially in the US, but also globally?

Nooshin: Yes. It’s a tough thing to say. They’re more informed, but also because of the way our social media and our news outletNachrichtenagenturnews outlets and the media are set [up], they’re very biasedbeeinflusst, voreingenommenbiased, which make[s] them then have a bigger sense of “I have to stick with sb./sth.zu jmdm./etw. stestick with companies that have these values because the other side is really wrong.” The older generations — the upbringingErziehungupbringing was different.