Thesis on Enhancing Corporate Image Through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiatives

Enhancing Corporate Image Through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiatives – A Comparative Analysis On British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATC)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is necessarily an evolving term that does not have a standard definition or a fully recognized set of specific criteria. With the understanding that businesses play a key role on job and wealth creation in society, CSR is generally understood to be the way a company achieves a balance or integration of economic, environmental ,and social imperatives while at the same time addressing shareholder and stakeholder expectations. CSR is generally accepted as applying to firms wherever they operate in the domestic and global economy. The way businesses engage/involve the shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, governments, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and other stakeholders is usually a key feature of the concept. While business compliance with laws and regulations on social, environmental and economic objectives set the official level of CSR performance, CSR is often understood as involving the private sector commitments and activities that extend beyond this foundation of compliance with laws.

British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) Company Limited is the recognized leader in Bangladesh cigarette market, with a long established reputation for providing its consumers with consistently high quality brands. The journey of this company started long back. BATB was established back in 1910 as Imperial Tobacco Company Ltd. with head office in Calcutta. In March 01, 1949 Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC) came into existence with head office in Karachi; with the assets and liabilities of ITC Limited held in Pakistan. The then East Pakistan Office was situated in Alico Building, Motijheel. In order to meet the increasing demand, the first factory in the then East Pakistan was established in Chittagong in 1952. In 1954 PTC established its first cigarette factory although high-grade cigarettes still came from West Pakistan. The Dhaka factory of PTC went into production in 1965.

After independence, Bangladesh Tobacco Company (Pvt.) Limited was formed on 02 February 1972 under the Companies Act 1913, with the assets and liabilities of PTC. BTC (Pvt.) was converted into a public limited company on 03 September 1973. British American Tobacco played a pivotal role in BTC's creation in 1972 and since then has been involved in BTC's development every step of the way. To pronounce the successful relationship with British American Tobacco, BTC has changed its name and identity to British American Tobacco (BAT) Bangladesh Company Limited on March 1998.

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