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Lindsey Giffey
Dr. Abrams
MGT/MKT 424
1 May 2014
Corporate Responsibility of Walmart vs. Target
Corporate Social Responsibility also known as CSR is something that every business
needs in order to be successful, and show their customers that they are really interested in
providing good business. The definition of Corporate Social Responsibility is “the idea that a
company should be interested in and willing to help society and the environment as well as be
concerned about the products and profits it makes” (Cambridge Dictionary). CSR is highly
concerned with values and how choices made by a company will affect the stakeholders of the
company. The CSR that a company goes by shows how business decisions made will affect those
who work for, invest in, supply to, and associate with the companies are looked at. Two
companies that have different CSR strategies are Walmart and Target. Although they are both
discount retail stores, they are run by different corporation executives who have different
opinions and affect what the output is from the two different stores. Examining these types of
things is important because by knowing the corporate social responsibility of the corporations
available to shop at, one can decide exactly where they want to shop, and have legitimate reasons
backing why they shop at certain places.
The first company that will be examined is Walmart. As many people know, Walmart is
the largest superstore in America. Not only is Walmart the largest superstore in America, but
according to the Fortune 500 list on the 2013 report, it is also America’s largest corporation, with
a $469.2 billion in revenue (University Alliance). As a corporation, Walmart has decided to
commit itself more towards corporate social responsibility, and they have four main points that
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they are focusing on. The four areas that they are looking specifically at include social
responsibility, local responsibility, environmental responsibility, and company responsibility. To
break each of these down, Walmart wants to promote things like women’s economic
empowerment, helping with nutrition in public schools, being more eco-friendly, and being an
overall better company that promotes better basic values, and good governing (University
Alliance). According to an article written by the University of San Francisco, some things that
Walmart prides itself on are its charitable contributions, its emphasis on making women feel
empowered and important, and being energy efficient. There are pledges made by Walmart to do
other things in the community such as helping with disaster relief, hiring U. S. veterans, and
buying U.S.-produced goods to sell and make Walmart a more U.S. made product business. All
