Online Exam Assessment Question and answer

1. Review the current and emerging methods for sustainable business growth and development.

A) You work for a FTSE100 company. Define” Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and explain why your company should understand the significance of Sustainability and the Triple Bottom Line.

Definition

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be defined as a practice of a business firm that entails it to get involved in activities that are considered to have a positive impact on society (Barauskaite and Streimikiene, 2021). It is a model within which social, environmental and economic factors and issues are addressed in the day-to-day functioning and management of a firm as well as its relations with other players. CSR differs from business purposes and aims at producing a positive influence on all the stakeholders (Rodriguez-Gomez et al., 2020).

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Role of CSR for a FTSE100 Company

Brand Reputation and Trust: CSR can often create a positive image of the firm to the customers as well as the other members of society and investors (Khuong, Truong an and Thanh Hang, 2021). Thus, for a large corporation with big production, CSR commitment demonstrates ethical policy and responsibility, which can become a competitive advantage and help to attract a consumer with a social conscience.

Risk Management: According to this theory, CSR is used to look into risks related to the social, environmental, and governance aspects (Karwowski and Raulinajtys‐Grzybek, 2021). The significance of these areas can be understood by the fact that legal issues, fines and reputational loss could be prevented when organizations take preventive measures.

Employee Engagement and Retention: Hence, CSR programmes enhance the quality of the work environment thus satisfying, motivating and retaining employees (Bu et al., 2022). It is necessary to underline that people are willing to be devoted more and more to the employer who, in turn, affects the positions of the organization becoming a socially responsible company.

B) What is the concept of Environmental Social and Governance (CSR)

Environmental Social Governance (ESG) is an elaborate methodology used to evaluate the sustainability and ethical standards in business organizations (Rajesh and Rajendran, 2019). It evaluates a company's performance in three critical areas: sustainability, socio-political responsibilities, and corporate governance. Environmental, social, and corporate governance criteria are widely employed to measure organizations’ future viability and responsibility to society, affecting investment choices and organizational strategies.

Environmental

The environmental pillar of ESG analyses the influence that a corporation has on the environment and how it deals with that influence (Alsaid, 2024). This encompasses its drives towards cutting the emission of carbon, optimising of uses of natural resources, and putting measures that can prevent climate change. Businesses are required to regulate and lessen their emissions of greenhouse gases as a way of combating climate change. This requires the preservation of water, energy and other natural resources to acceptable levels in order to reduce on the impacts of the organization on the environment.

Social

The social aspect of ESG deals with a firm’s management of its employee relations, customer treatment, and relationship with suppliers and society in general (Torres et al., 2023). It assesses the employment practices, treatment of its people, relations with people of different diversity, and the general treatment of human rights as and when. Absence of discrimination and child labour, employee care and well-being, and affirmative action are integral to a sound workforce (Lippert-Rasmussen, 2020).

Governance

The governance component of ESG analyses the practices, mechanisms, rules, and regulations that define the management and operations of a business (Aldowaish et al., 2022). The subject area does relate to leadership, ethical principles, accountability, and transparency. Business entities with good governance structures tend to have ethical heads who ensure the organization’s operations are ethical. Sustainability also includes transparency in the financial reporting, decision-making, and ethical activities of a business organization in order to ensure the trust of stakeholders (Aldowaish et al., 2022).

C) Companies are focusing more on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) instead of Environmental Social and Governance (CSR). Is this statement correct? Justify your answer.

Holistic Approach

The main difference between CSR and ESG is that CSR focuses only on the social aspect and is not as comprehensive as ESG (Shaikh, 2022). Conversely, CSR addresses a company’s efforts to be responsible to society and the environment without being obligatory and with greater emphasis on quality than on quantity, but compared to ESG it can appear less well-defined and quantifiable.

CSR: It is less strategic than other types and often includes a company’s philanthropic initiatives while being mostly about image. CSR is a prudent function which consists of aspects such as community participation, contributions to a cause and supply chain principles. Business CSR endeavours are often less process-driven and more difficult to measure (Goel, 2021).

Investor Focus

ESG is more or less largely spearheaded by investors (Bowley and Hill, 2024). More and more investors are employing ESG elements while conducting their assessments as they realise that these considerations play a role in determining a firm’s future profitability. ESG is a model that outlines norms that investors can use in evaluating threats and potential in sustainability.

Risk Management: Thus, ESG criteria assist the investors to find out any lucrative requirements associated with the environment, society, and governance that might affect the future operations of a specific company (Matos, 2020).

Regulatory Pressure

Regulators and governments are gradually insisting on ESG reporting and adherence to such principles. Businesses are obliged to disclose their ESG and managerial responsibilities to fulfil legal and regulatory provisions.

Transparency and Accountability: In ESG frameworks, companies are required to disclose their performance concerning a company’s ESG activities, among other things.

Stakeholder Expectations

Consumers, staff and the societies in which businesses operate are expectant and require more from the companies regarding sustainability and ethical standards (Kuokkanen and Sun, 2019). In this aspect, ESG aligns more with these expectations owing to the fact that it offers a tangible and systematic way of managing environmental, social, as well as governance challenges.

Consumer Demand: buyers are shifting to brands that follow ESG principles which are important to them regarding transparency and accountability.

2. You work as a legal advisor for a large UK company in the retail industry with multiple branches across the country. You are analyzing contractual and other legal consequences for your business.

Define Contract law and Tort of Negligence and explain why these concepts are important for your company

Contract Law is the branch of law that deals with agreements about legally enforceable relations of the parties (Khuong, Truong an and Thanh Hang, 2021). The integration of a contract means offer, acceptance, consideration as well as the intention to be legally bound by the contract. In the situation of a substantial retail enterprise, employment of contract law is necessary in the reproduction of the specifics of diverse contracts as supplier and customer, leasing of premises and facilities, and employment relations. Such contracts play a pivotal role in ensuring that business relationships are well-defined, thus minimizing conflict incidences (Goel, 2021).

The tort of Negligence is that which occurs when one has been negligent to another in ensuring that they exercise reasonable caution and harm or loss is caused to the other person. In order for liability to be established on the grounds of negligence it has to be established that the defendant had a duty of caring for the plaintiff, the defendant failed to discharge this duty and damage that was foreseeable ensued (Matos, 2020). In the perspective of liability law, negligence is a concept that is central to the functioning of a retail company because the company must be cautious enough not to harm customers or employees. This entails protecting clients from harm within the business premises as well as offering a safe workplace to the personnel and not supplying substandard goods. The inability to meet these responsibilities exposes the company to legal liabilities and tarnishes the company’s reputation when negligence claims arise (Rodriguez-Gomez et al., 2020).

3. Examine how Contract law and Tort of Negligence affect the concept below. Support your answer with an example from the retail industry in which you company operates:

UK Employment Law

Contract law is one of the pillars of UK employment law therefore has significant responsibilities in determining employment terms regarding duties, remuneration, privileges, and other working conditions (Snyder, Maslow and Dadush, 2021). In particular, the employment contracts should be lucid, and conform to the existing legislation to prevent possible problems concerning wages or responsibilities. For example, the employment agreements of a retailing firm regarding its sales personnel should describe the anticipated work schedule, wages, and duties. This tort because it compels employers to assure their employees a safe workplace contributes to employment law.

UK Health & Safety

In UK Health and Safety, contracts where organizations deal with their suppliers and service providers contain terms whereby the suppliers and service providers stick to the health and standards (Kim et al., 2022). For example, a retail company needs to be guaranteed that no workplace accidents will occur within contracts that need to be signed between the company and the contractor. The tort of negligence impacts health and safety in a direct manner since it requires the company to take responsibility of ensuring that hazardous aspects are eliminated in the stores.

Intellectual Property

In Intellectual Property, the rights will be protected by contracts such as licensing and non-disclosure contracts, which form a part of the contract law (Mahfuzzah et al., 2024). Licenses define rights of usage of brand s, logos and other objects that can be considered as an object of intellectual property. The tort of negligence doesn’t connect to IP as directly, but the absence of these assets protection could result in loss of money and negligence controversy.

4. Appraise the current and emerging methods for sustainable business growth and development.

A) Your company has asked you to write a report to the board. You should explain the difference between Corporate Responsibility (CSR) and Environment Social & Governance (ESG) concepts.

CSR is considered to be a style of management, in which the firms take social and environmental issues into consideration while attaining their objectives and acting either independently or in cooperation with other businesses and stakeholders. CSR usually refers to an organization’s contribution, giving to the community, and proactivity in community welfare, environmental conservation, employees’ well-being, and product differentiation for a constructive reputation (Wirba, 2023). Often it is considered as an act of public goodwill from companies which actually improve organizational image, but it has been criticized for lack of perfect measurement and standardization techniques.

In contrast, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is a framework used by investors to evaluate a company's operations and performance across three key areas: sustainability factors which include; environment, social and governance factors. ESG stresses quantifiable and fixed tools, such as scores that serve as key indicators to direct the investment processes, which pay attention to the disclosure, stewardship, and governance of risks. ESG measures a company’s contribution to the negative consequences of the world including the emission of carbon and how they manage wastes, it also looks at aspects of labour, relationships with the community and also corporate governance; leadership and transparency (Baratta et al., 2023).

B) Explain what is meant by Sustainability and the Triple Bottom Line and why these concepts are significant for business?

Sustainability should be understood as the ability to perform business activities and maintain appropriate rates of resource consumption and pollution and people’s standard of living (Khuong, Truong and Thanh Hang, 2021). It involves making decisions the fulfil the requirements of the present without negatively having an impact on the resource requirements of the next generation. Such practices will ensure the proper use of resources, minimize wastage, ensure the company operates at low costs, and also meet statutory requirements hence reducing risks associated with environmental and social issues which can affect the company’s reputation and longevity (Mahfuzzah et al., 2024).

The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is a framework for evaluating a company’s performance based on three pillars: The three key management emphases are economic value (profit), people, and planet. This approach goes beyond the financial performance: profit, sales, retention, and earnings, thus offering a comprehensive view of a company’s success in relation to society and the environment (Żak, 2015). Economic solidarity creates the foundation for financial viability and returns on investment, social solidarity focuses on the well-being of employees, consumers and the population and the last one advocates for the sustainable use of products and conservation of natural resources (Żak, 2015).

C) Discuss why your company might change focus from CSR to ESG

The transition from CSR to ESG offers improved measurement and reporting because it has a keener focus on compliance with set measures (Gao et al., 2023). ESG provides definite standards for evaluating organizations’ performance as well as for providing society with relevant information in response to transparency requests from investors, regulators, and other stakeholders. Another one is the investors’ demand as investors today integrate the ESG factors to evaluate the financial performance and risks in the long run (Jeriji, Louhichi and Ftiti, 2022). ESG hence brings in socially conscious investors and capital from the ESG ESG reporting has become a legal mandate in many jurisdictions funds.

Regulatory compliance also makes the shift a necessity since governments have increased the stringency of sustainability standards which forces organizations to integrate ESG frameworks to meet the regulatory necessities (Rajesh and Rajendran, 2019). Risk management is perhaps the biggest achievement of ESG since it addresses environmental, social, and governance issues that increase the risk of operations and returns. This also has the effect of shielding companies from possible risks, fortifying them, and preserving their image.

Finally, being responsible for the environment and stakeholders, ESG meets stakeholder needs, as customers, employees and communities increasingly require business to be sustainable and ethical (Kim et al., 2022). Thus, ESG’s method for identifying and addressing such concerns is concrete and systematic, making stakeholders confident in the companies’ mutual values and principles with which they share.

5. You work in the legal department of a medium-sized pharmaceutical company in the UK Analyse the contractual and other legal implications of your business activities.

Explain the three different business protection laws.

Intellectual Property Law

IP law refers to the branch of law that deals with creations of the mind among them being invention patents, industrial designs, trade and brand s as well as artistic works (R. G., Sreeragi, 2021). In the pharmaceutical organization, the IP laws are important for the protection of patents of the drugs as well as the formulation and trademarks for the products and trade secrets which are unique to the company.

Contract Law

This field involves provisions, rules and principles that help in the regulation of the formation and performance of contracts between the parties. It checks that each of the partners to a contract complies with the agreed terms and has measures in place for dealing with failure. To the pharmaceutical company, contract law is important as it sets out legal aspects as to relations between the company and suppliers, distributors, research partners and employees.

Competition Law

Antitrust also referred to as competition law seeks to provide rules and policies that regulate and prevent anti-competitive conducts that exercise negative impacts on customers and other undertakings (Karsten Nowrot and Sipiorski, 2020). This incorporates restricting certain conducts as; exclusive conduct, agreements to fix prices, and market manipulation. With reference to the pharmaceutical industry, competition law guarantees fair competition among the various players, which in turn, encourages competitiveness and sets moderate prices for drugs to be sold in the market.

How contract law and tort relate to the following: Labor law.

Employment Law(Support your answer with an example of how you mean the nature of your business)

Contract Law Relation: The area of contract law is of immense importance in employment law due to the fact that the contractual agreement lays down the terms and conditions of the employment relationship between the employer and the employee (Bornudd, 2022). These contracts serve to make sure that employment relations are legal, in regards to wages, leave, or termination matters. For instance, when creating employment contracts for a pharma company’s research scientists, the company should meet the statutory provisions on leave and remuneration to afford legal protection to both the company and the employees.

Tort Relation: Employment law is a branch of law that overlaps with tort law where an employee is denied his/her rights hence bringing a tort claim of personal injury or emotional harm (Matos, 2020). For instance, where a pharmaceutical sales representative experiences stress as a result of unreasonable demands made at the workplace, he or she may sue for tort of mental distress. Employers must ensure there is no way different kinds of claims can be made at their workplaces to avoid allowing such claims (Matos, 2020).

Health and Safety(Support you answer with an example of how you mean the nature of your business)

Contract Law Relation: Tort law safeguards that contracts signed with contractors and service providers involve meeting health and safety standards (Lippert-Rasmussen, 2020). For instance, if a pharmaceutical company engage a cleaner service to clean its laboratories, the contract must have provisions that outline health standards like the use of gloves and proper handling of chemicals among others.

Tort Relation: Tort law is most connected with health and safety through the legal responsibility that employers have towards their workers and other people who may visit their premises (Wirba, 2023). If a pharmaceutical company has not availed a safe working environment and an incident or a mishap occurs then the affected person would sue for negligence. For instance, if a lab technician is involved in an accident related to safety measures when dealing with dangerous products, the company could be sued for tort, or negligence.

References

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• Alsaid, L.A. (2024). Editorial: Participatory corporate governance for sustainability and accountability. Journal of Governance and Regulation, [online] 13(2), pp.4–5. doi:https://doi.org/10.22495/jgrv13i2editorial.
• Baratta, A., Cimino, A., Longo, F., Solina, V. and Verteramo, S. (2023). The Impact of ESG Practices in Industry with a Focus on Carbon Emissions: Insights and Future Perspectives. Sustainability, [online] 15(8), p.6685. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086685.
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