The influence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on Taiwanese Dissertation

The influence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on Taiwanese Consumers' Purchase Intention and Brand Image in the Diamo - Dissertation Example They also reported that compared to 2010, the global diamond sales significantly increased by 18% to $71 billion, close to the 2007 peak of $73 billion before the crisis. IDEX (2013) and Tacy LTD (2013) indicated that the majority of growth contributed to the mounting demand from Chinese and Indian markets. De Beers, which is reviewed in this proposal as an example of the world’s leading diamond companies for more than a century, reached their second highest level of sales ever to $6.5 billion in 2011. In the 1990s an issue of â€Å"conflict diamonds† or â€Å"blood diamonds† was heatedly debated across the globe. The diamond industry encountered the crisis from their diamond sourced countries. In several politically unstable African countries, such as Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the diamond mines were under control of the military as a means to finance their military power. With the media‘s widespread coverage and t he movie â€Å"Blood Diamond†, the transactions between diamond buyers and the military, although not all from such illegal channels, were regarded as intensifying violent tribal conflict. Consequently, the reputation of the diamond industry was blackened (The Kimberly Process, 2013; Pauwelyn, 2003; Worldbank.org, 2013). In response to this situation, the Kimberley Process was organized in 2002. Under the auspices of the United Nations, The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) conducted a list of rules that every diamond trading country should obey: certification of rough diamonds is now required before being exported (Pauwelyn, 2003; Schefer, 2005). This is to "guarantee that their trade does not finance rebel activities" (The Kimberly Process, 2013). To establish a positive prestige from the infamous â€Å"blood diamond† image, and to ensure that De Beers’ â€Å"corporate activities contribute significantly to the development and prosperity of the co untries and communities in which they operate† (De Beers Group, 2013), their CSR principles has developed across five sustainability factors – Economics, Ethics, Employees, Communities and Environment, as all well as obeying the KPCS trading system (ibid). The case of De Beers will be explored, because it is a company which has executed its CSR policy since 2006, which provides luxury industry marketers a possible framework for strategic thinking and the effective use of CSR activities. There has been an upward research trend on how a company’s corporate social responsibility policy benefits consumer communication for several decades (Maignan, 2001). Meanwhile, this academic stream has invigorated the potential marketing development of corporate responsibility initiatives, such as the issue of corporate sustainability, environmentalism and corporate citizenship, among the real business world (Menon & Menon, 1997; Drumwright, 1994; Wigley, 2008; Lee, 2009;). Howev er, most of previous research discussed on CSR is more in the context of sustainability management or shareholder theory, rather than consumer aspects of understanding of this notion. Reinforcing this, Sen and