Coporate social responsibility

You have been hired as a business consultant to review a proposal created by two environmentally-conscious entrepreneurs who want to start a new company that designs solar-powered cellular phones (NOT a case or charger). The cell phones will run on the Android operating system. The entrepreneurs are looking for advice regarding several decisions they need to make.

First, visit the following two links to visualize the product that the entrepreneurs desire to design and build. The proposed cell phones will look something like the ones you see in those websites.

(Links to an external site.)

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/05/16/solar-powered-iphone-x-tesla-by-caviar-goes-on-sale-for-4500
(Links to an external site.)

You are primarily asked for giving advice in the following areas:

Target customer group, price and specifications: The entrepreneurs are still debating if they should develop the product for the extremely high-end, high-end, high-middle, middle, low-middle, or low-end market. You need to help them to identify an appropriate target customer group. They are seriously considering targeting the young and college students by including high quality cameras, both front and back into their proposed cell phones. They want to create a brand image of a trend setter that sells high quality products at a lower than average market price. The product must actually have revenue higher than average if they are to make any profit, so they are debating how to obtain extra fees and upgrades.
Product release cycle: The entrepreneurs do not want to be technologically behind their competitors. Instead, actually they want to be one-step-ahead. So they want to release a new version of their product every 9 months, instead of the typical once-every-12 months cycle. However, this means that their models will become obsolete faster (more frequently than is the norm).
Raw material suppliers: The entrepreneurs want to minimize the costs associated with direct materials. Therefore, they intend to ask suppliers to submit bids from which the entrepreneurs will then choose the lowest bid.
Assembly factory: The entrepreneurs want to minimize the production costs and possibly also eliminate the cost of building a factory. Thus they are considering outsourcing the manufacturing of their innovative cell pones to a company in China.

Analyze the decision considerations that the entrepreneurs are grappling with as outlines in the bullet points above. Then, write a report that outlines the top CSR issues (at least 3 issues) that may become critical for these entrepreneurs’ business over the next three years. (PLEASE USE this Template
, this Grading Rubric
, and these writing guidelines
when you preparing your final report). The report MUST address the following:

1. INTRODUCTION (Clearly discuss the purpose of the report and demonstrate your understanding of the audience)
2. BACKGROUND OF SITUATION
3. OVERVIEW OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) FRAMEWORKS
4. ISSUES THAT MAY HAVE CSR IMPLICATIONS (Choose three most important issues that have CSR implications and discuss why you chose the three (and/or why you did not choose others if there are any other)
5. AFFECTED STAKEHOLDERS AND ASSESSED IMPACT OF THE THREE ISSUES (Stakeholders must be discussed in the order of importance and you need to justify the order, which means the most important stakeholder must be discussed first. Clearly show logical connection between the issues and each of the stakeholders.)
6. CONCLUSIONS (This assignment asks you for solid “business” advice for success. NOT the “most socially responsible” path that fails the company.)

Then, as shown in the “Template
“, your report should have:
7. REFERENCES (APA style: At least 10 references including those from the16 assigned reading materials in Modules1, 2 & 3. The credibility of each reference must be evaluated using the CRAAP test and the summary of the CRAAP test result must be in APPENDIX)
8. APPENDIX: (Must contain at least one table: Summary of the CRAAP Test Results. See the CRAAP test and a sample table
.)

NOTE THAT as shown in the “Template
“, the cover page must show only:

Report title
Your Full Name
Your Major
Date Originally Created
Date Last Revised

Again, as shown in the “Template
“, and as explained in the writing guidelines
,

Your report must be single-spaced and the body of your report should contain around 1500 words (or more) excluding the references.
Your report must be professionally formatted with section headings and sub-section headings if necessary.
All tables and figures must be numbered and titled.
References should be listed alphabetically at the end of the paper according to APA style. These must be cited in-text (parenthetical citation) and be accompanied by a full citation in the reference list. In general, we consider a source to be scholarly if it is published in an edited book, a peer-reviewed publication, an academic journal, or by a university press. Citing multiple works by the same author(s) or web-links (URLs) only qualifies as meeting one of the required five.] Your report must NOT have any direct quotations. Do NOT use direct quotations. Paraphrase the information you used from the references.
Any tables or figures that exceed the given width of the page should be included in an appendix.
Appendices may be formatted in any way you deem necessary, with the exception that all pages must adhere to the standard page margins on an 8.5″ x 11” page template. Any rotated pages in landscape orientation in the appendices should be rotated ninety (90) degrees to the left (commonly referred to as “counter-clockwise” or “anti-clockwise” rotation).

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Conduct extensive research but your report must reflect AT LEAST what you have learned from

7 reading materials for Report #1 in Module 1 (some may NOT directly related to this assignment)
5 reading materials for Report #1 in Module 2
4 reading materials for Report #1 in Module 3

To find credible sources for your research, use

FGCU Library article, e-journals, and databases at https://library.fgcu.edu/
(Links to an external site.)
Google Scholar at https://scholar.google.com/

Use the CRAAP test
to check the credibility.

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Important Note:

If the turnitin.com overall match % is higher than 40%, your score will be 50% of the raw score. In some case, it may be considered an academic dishonesty conduct. A likely sanction of an academic dishonesty conduct is an F in the course.

You can submit your report several times if the overall match % is too high.