Uniqlo Csr - Analysis by Porter and Kremer Model

UNIQLO was established at 1984 by the cooperation “Japan’s Fast Retailing Co” in the city of Hiroshima, Japan. UNIQLO is a fast-fashion retailer that focuses on selling well-made basic essential cloth such as T-shirts, jeans, socks and underwear at a very low price. UNIQLO is Japan’s leading clothing retail chain in terms of both sales and profits. The company operates 703 stores in Japan alone and 136 in other countries such as China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Russia, Malaysia, England, France and the United States. Japan’s Fast Retailing Co. plans to dramatically increase its number of UNIQLO stores in China and to expand into India and Brazil.

Porter and Kramer suggest that companies should incorporate their CSR policy with their core business operations and interests. They propose that the more closely tied a social issue is to a company’s business, the greater the opportunity to leverage the firm’s resources and capabilities and benefit society.

UNIQLO publishes its CSR report on a yearly basis in four different languages. The company has a very intense and well thought of CSR program. The majority of the program and its implementations fully incorporate Porter and Kramer suggestions. Only a small part of UNIQLO’s CSR practices does not comply with the ideas presented above.

Porter and Kramer suggest a frame in which a company should organize its CRM activities. They present three possible dimensions for CSR. While the authors recommend companies not to focus on generic social issues dimension, they argue that the company should focus on value chain social impacts and social competitive context dimensions. UNIQLO is socially active in all of those three areas.

Porter and Kramer regard “value chain social impact” as “those that are significantly affected by the company’s activities in the ordinary course of business”. UNIQLO has a strong environmental awareness and practices when operating its business. It incorporates environmental...