Introduction

McDonald’s is one of the largest fast food chain of restaurants in the world.

There are more than 36,000 restaurants worldwide serving more than 69 million

customers daily in over 100 countries. Its headquarters located in Oak Brook, Illinois.

Besides, there are more than 90% in the US and nearly 70% worldwide that

McDonald’s restaurants are owned and operated by approximately 4,000 independent,

small and mid- sized businessmen and women (McDonald’s, 2018). Its franchisees

bring the commitment to communities by providing good food, job opportunities and

customer service, supporting local charities and other way of positive impact to the

communities. According to Statista (2018), the net income of Mc Donald’s corporation

amounted to approximately 5.19 billion U.S dollars and it generated 22.82 billion U.S.

dollars of income in 2017. In Malaysia, there are more than 250 restaurants nationwide,

it has employ more than 10,000 Malaysians and provide them with training, career and

development opportunities. The corporation of McDonald’s franchisees, suppliers and

employees toward the common goal which created today’s McDonald’s. In fact, the

key to success is McDonald’s serious toward social responsibility. Due to social

consciousness about fast food, communities prefer to more healthy food. Communities

will be given more choices in healthier food. McDonald’s had involved itself in corporate

social responsibility, it used the 3R concept by searching for solutions to reduce, reuse

and recycle in their restaurants. For instance, McDonald’s implement energy saving

equipment, waterless urinals and low energy LED light bulbs. In addition, it also

recycles used cooking oil into biodiesel to use as fuel in McDonald’s delivery truck.

Furthermore, there are more than 89% of used cardboard boxes in restaurants had

been recycled and 85% of packaging are made from renewable resources

(McDonald’s, 2018).

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1.0 Social responsibility in today’s world has become increasingly essential to

corporations. Corporate social responsibility is a company’s initiatives to do their bit for

the social, cultural and environment issues. Some argument clarified CSR as

voluntarism and contributing towards social warfare (Aminu et al., 2015). It is said that

CSR’s voluntary nature is a unique feature which it helps in allocating organization’s

resources in an efficient way and creates values for organization and communities

(Sarna, 2016). Corporate citizenship is the company’s image in society. It is the

company’s behaviour that integrates basic social values in daily business practices,

operations and policies. Practising corporate social responsibility bring several benefits

to the organization. First, CSR as an initiative to enhance corporate reputation and

strengthen brand recognition. These corporations improve their public image and

reputation through volunteerism and etc by supporting non-profits. Consequently,

corporations increase their chances to become favourable among consumers by

publicizing their efforts. The corporation want to let the public know about their

philanthropy. This can be seen through McDonald's’ corporation raised and contributed

$50 million to children which is supported by Ronald McDonald House Charities

(RMHC®) and other children’s organization (CSRwire, 2006). Other than that, CSR

can boost employee engagement. A business’s commitments in CSR can affect its

employees’ job satisfaction. According to Woods (2010), CSR can bring impact on how

the employees willingness to recommend it as a better workplace and rate their overall

satisfaction toward the company. Employees who happy to work at the company, are

satisfied with the performance of their employers too. Therefore, CSR can more easily

to hire and retain valuable, hardworking and engaged people. Furthermore, CSR can

also attract investors. Investors who are investing their funds into companies want to

know that whether their funds are being used properly. When a company involve itself

in CSR initiatives and encourage its employees to spend their time in CSR, it shows

that the company do not just care about the profits. Instead, they show that they have

an interest in the local and global community. In addition, CSR help in cost reduction.

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According to Sailorandwatters (2014), Mcdonald’s save 84 million tonnes of paper by

reducing the size of the packaging and removing the foam polystyrene packaging.

Finally, CSR can create competitive advantage of the business. As previously stated,

fast-food consumers are rapidly becoming CSR conscious. The Corporation that

practices CSR will have competitive advantage in the industry, especially for fast food

industry. Based on the research, the customers are aware of CSR activities such as

3R activities carried out by fast food restaurant (Tong and Wong, 2016). It is believed

that 3R is consider better in long run in fast food industry. In fact, the companies that

practices CSR and 3R have the competitive advantage as it can enhance reputation

of company.

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2.0 All forms of business should undertake CSR initiative especially the company with

a higher profit. Especially, small and medium enterprise (SMEs) play an important role

in boosting CSR initiatives. In Malaysia, there are 98.5% of business establishments

are Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) (SMEs Corp, 2018). If most of the SMEs

business willing to implement CRS, it will lead more companies start to undertake CSR

activities. This can create the tendency and awareness of CRS to other businesses.

When all the companies are undertaking CSR, it will benefit the whole society. It is

challenging for small company to implement CSR due to the lack of financial, employee

and time. However, there is many ways that small company can overcome the

challenge and implement CSR successful in their business. Firstly, collaborate on your

cause. The employee in the small business will be easier to involve in CSR project. It

can be one of the advantage for small business because the CSR project allows

employees to choose causes that they prefer. This can help in increasing the

engagement. There is no necessary to implement large-scale CSR project because it

might costly to small business. Thus, small business can implement with small CSR

project such as bake sales, volunteering in the community and fundraising for the

needy. Next, make it part of company’s daily operation. It is important that the

employee aware of the CSR project which undertake by the company. The company

can always publish and update the CSR project undertaking in the website or office

regularly to remind the employees. Also, the company is the leaders of the CSR, it has

to communicate and discuss with the employees about the CSR policies. So that,

employees understand their long-term benefits and well aware of company’s current

initiatives. In addition, communication is the key. Employees need to understand the

collective impact of their CSR contributions. As word of mouth travels more quickly,

internal feedback will serve a strong impact in workplace and encourage the employee

involved in future project. In order to access updates easily, internal networks and

social media need to be utilised. CSR activities can build the team of the company

stronger. The company can give employees an opportunity to collaborate and

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communicate with a different team. It can promote the unity among the employee. It

helps the employee to achieve the common goal and mission of the company. Not only

internal team will be build, the company can also collaborate with clients or local

business to improve the relationship. It is important to promote CSR project or policy

undertaking or set by the company. The company can promote by publishing the photo,

article, video of CSR project undertaking on the website of the company or even on

the careers page for potential applicant to noticed. Therefore, CSR project undertaking

by the company can enhance recruitment and remain the employee or talent for the

company. It is because younger workers nowadays are more willing to work and stay

with the company that have social conscience as the employee will feel proud of the

company that undertaking CSR project.

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3.0 CSR is a top priority for many worldwide companies in different industry. They are

trying to minimise their impact toward society, especially petroleum industry, chemical

industry and automobile industry. These industries should be more socially conscious

as the activities of these industries usually lead to significant emission and bring huge

impact to the environment and society. For instance, the activities of petroleum industry

will result in pollution and bring impact on marine life by generating emissions to the

air and discharging to sea. The petroleum is a non-renewable natural resource. If the

industry keeps on craving for more petroleum, it will face shortage of oil supply.

Besides, in chemical industry, its operation can cause serious illness and

environmental problems. According to Delzell (2001), 20% or more of established

human carcinogens are coming from activities of chemical industry. For automotive

industry, it always generates emission of Co2, NO2 and particular matter which may

lead to bad environmental effects, such as acid rain. As mentioned above, these

industries should be more responsible toward socially responsible as they are the

major contributor who contribute in health and environmental problems. Nonetheless,

some companies in this industry had aimed at reducing the chances of environmental

disasters. They are looking for alternative energy in order to replace the use of natural

resources such as fossil fuels. The petroleum companies focus more on renewable

energy. BP and Exxon Mobil are the example of petroleum companies. BP is one of

the largest integrated oil and gas companies. This company have been investing in

renewables by focusing on biofuels, bio power, solar energy and wind energy. They

believe that biofuels are one of the best solutions to reduce transportation emissions.

In automotive industry, automotive companies such as Tesla and Toyota, both

companies are ranked among top world’s green companies. For instances, Toyota

company had engaged in research and development in eco-cars. Recently, the

company comes out with a new type of car called hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCV).

This type of vehicle generates electricity through the chemical reaction of hydrogen

and oxygen to power the engine and it will result in zero CO2 emission (Toyota, 2018).

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Other than that, there are other industries including food industries which had earn

enormous profits should equally responsible toward society and environmental. This

is because food industry also contributes to environmental degradation with actions

such as food transportation, logging and land clearing for agriculture, wastage of

company, etc. McDonald are the example of companies in food industry. McDonald’s

global has come out with many green strategies by focusing on green restaurant

design, waste management, sustainable packaging and energy efficiency. According

to CSRwire (2014), one of the McDonald’s 2020 CSR and Sustainability framework is

to serve 100% more fruit, vegetables and others organic food in its markets. They want

to provide more healthier food for their customers and offer more choices, including

fruit and vegetables.

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4.0 Leadership of a company plays an important role to ensure high standards of CSR

in long-term. A company that practices CSR have leaders who believe that it is the

right thing to do and it is good for business (Caneva, 2014). Some of the companies’

leaders feel a compulsion to serve their society and communities during their operation

of the business, whereas others sponsor CSR programs to support and the community

values of employees. To enhance the CSR practice into effective CSR, chief

executives have to be more focus on how to bring coherence to their program of CSR.

Furthermore, he or she need to be more concerned with how to measure and report

on the environmental and social value of their initiatives. The leaders of the company

need to make proper decision where and how to spend profits of the company in a way

which can contribute to environmental and social value. In McDonald’s corporation,

Senior vice president of McDonald’s Global CSR, Sustainability and Philanthropy, J.C

Gonzalez-Mendez announced that in their McDonald’s 2020 CSR and Sustainability

Framework, they collaborate to source sustainable production such as beef, coffee,

palm oil and fish (McDonald’s Corporation, 2014). Besides, he also mentioned that in

order to increase recycling policy in their restaurants and factories by developing

practical solutions with multiple stakeholders. McDonald’s is affected by its

stakeholders, especially its consumer perception. In fact, business and stakeholders

are affected with each other. This situation indicates that McDonald’s CSR efforts as

a way to optimize the company’s position related to the stakeholders. In McDonald’s,

employees are its priority stakeholder group. As we know, the stakeholders are interest

in fair compensation and career development. Thus, the company provide them many

development programs and training. Moreover, the second group of stakeholders is

the customers. The stakeholders are interest on healthful food choices and it id

affordable for them. Through the standardisation of supply chain, McDonald’s CSR

initiatives ensure product’s affordability. However, the company is being criticized for

the health effects from its foods. As a result, McDonald’s CSR efforts cannot fully

satisfy its customers. In addition, the investors is McDonald’s major stakeholder in the

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business. McDonald’s try hard to fulfil the investor’s demands. As their interests is on

growing revenues and profitability, the company addresses these concerns through

stable business operations. Lastly, the main stakeholder group is communities. The

community is attracted by the environmental and community development programs.

McDonald’s support the sustainability projects for the society. For instances, the

Ronald McDonald House Charities support the needed of poor families by providing

financial support. The company are effective in addressing the communities’ and

investors’ interests. Therefore, the company should improve and enhance its CSR

efforts.

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5.0 Traditionally, CSR can be defined as the responsibility of businesses to behave

ethically and think for their impacts on the community and it does not need to

encompass sustainability. On the other hand, sustainability is operating in a way that

beneficial in long-term by preserving resources. CSR and sustainability consist of

social responsiveness, economic viability and environmental integrity. These include

products, activities, processes and programs that enable organizations in improving

the social and environmental and also deliver financially-beneficial returns or long term

economic. Through the activities of CSR, the companies can be sustainable. This is

because CSR and sustainability are linked with the company to carry out responsible

actions. Sustainability have many of meanings and it depends on context of business.

In order to ensure ecosystem are not face endanger, company has to conserve or

replace the natural resources with sustainably resources in long terms. Besides,

sustainability mean that the overall corporate policies are assisting the long-term

wellbeing of the company in terms of business practices. In McDonald, its supply chain

is unique. To serve high-quality food, the company’s business model is depend on

culture of collaboration and partnership. For McDonald’s, it is important that their

suppliers run a profitable and sustainable business and the suppliers can get benefit

from working with it. In addition, it is also important for McDonald to source its products

in an ethical manner and responsible that contributes to food manufacturing process

and sustainable agriculture sustainable development (McDonald’s, 2012). For

example, McDonald’s had introduced the McCafé Sustainability Improvement Platform.

This is programs will support the company engages its coffee value chain in

sustainable sourcing (McDonald’s, 2016). In addition, this framework also helps in

strengthening the coffee growing communities in long-term investments. Other than

that, McDonald’s is one of the largest purchasers of beef globally. This means

McDonald’s are concerned on environmentally, improves farmer livelihoods and

advances animal welfare by supporting the production of sustainable beef. In beef

sustainability programs, the company aims to promote the health and welfare of

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animals, preserve forests and etc. All the frameworks are part of McDonald’s Scale of

Good. As one of the world’s largest restaurant firms, the firm embrace the Scale of

Good by collaborating with millions of employees, suppliers, customers, Franchisees

and other partners.

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Conclusion

Corporate social responsibility becomes a topic of concern to everyone. Even

McDonald’s the largest fast food chain of restaurants is concerning the CSR initiatives.

Corporate social responsibility helps in sustainable of business as there are many

competitors in the industry which also contribute in corporate social responsibility.

McDonald’s had involved itself in corporate social responsibility through

implementation of 3R concept, energy saving, etc. CSR is not prescribed by law, but

by the requirements of society and public. As communities are increasingly interested

in the social responsibility of the companies. Besides, the Companies can gain benefits

by practising CSR, such as enhance corporate reputation and strengthen brand

recognition, boost employee engagement, attract and retains investors, cost reduction

and create competitive advantage of business. Social responsibility is a great way for

a business to set itself apart from its competitors (Agrawal, 2017). All form of business

has the social responsibility to undertake CSR initiatives to increase the awareness of

all parties, especially for SMEs. It is challenging for SMEs to carry out CSR as

investment in CSR as it requires a lot of funds. To implement successful CSR initiatives

and programs, SMEs should collaborate on your cause, make it part of company’s

daily operation, communicate, build strong team and enhance recruitment. CSR is

important in every industry as well. For certain industries such as petroleum industry,

chemical industry and automotive industry, they should do more CSR as they bring

huge impacts to the environment and society. After discussed the benefits and impact

of the CSR, all these CSR programs and initiatives are led by the leaders of the

company. In order to achieve success in a long run, the leaders of the company had

to survey, investigate and even get feedbacks from their employees. They collaborate

with suppliers and the stakeholders to support the sustainability of the products and

company itself.

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 In my opinion, nowadays the communities are more concerned and expected

CSR activities from those profitable company. Many of today's consumers care about

more than just the quality of the products. At the same time, they are also looking to

what the corporation supports, how the corporation create the products and what is

the impact to the world’s environment with the product created. According to a Neilsen

survey in 2015, it is found that around two-thirds of global consumers are willing to

spend more for product made from sustainably (Driver, 2017). Regardless size of the

company, the implementation of the CSR is necessary and it should be compulsory for

all form of business, especially the most profitable companies or industries.

McDonald’s had carried out sufficient CSR initiatives, but these CSR programs do not

seem to attract the attention of the communities. It is recommended that McDonald’s

should utilized all the social networking such as Facebook, Instagram and etc to spread

the awareness of CRS projects. In addition, the CSR programs is support by

McDonald’s top management. They all collaborate to plan and execute the CSR

initiatives or programs such as promote healthier foods. Research for more healthier

foods can help in satisfying the McDonald’s customers. Furthermore, McDonald’s can

encourage the involvement of employees in the meeting of CSR programs. As they

are one who contact with customers, suppliers and food production, they should know

better than anyone else. Also, McDonald’s can improve CSR regarding employees.

For example, McDonald’s can improve its strategy in order to fulfil the employees’

requirement on their salary. Last but not least, McDonald’s as a huge company, it

should be the example for other companies in all industries.

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