What is Corporate Social Responsibility and how could this influence the organizational behavior of “BreadTalk”?

Corporate Social Responsibility refers to a company’s sense of responsibility towards the community and environment in which it operates. Companies express this citizenship through their waste and pollution reduction processes, by contributing educational and social programs, and by earning adequate returns on the employed resources. CSR is also considered as a strategy to create, develop and sustain positive company reputation and brand images.

BreadTalk who owns businesses in China had practiced in CSR programme during one of the world’s most horrifying disasters – the Sichuan earthquake which happened on 12th May 2008.
For example, there are several bakery stores in Australia presently and one of them has a rather similar concept as BreadTalk, named BreadTop. BreadTop not only owns a rather similar colour for their brand name (white and orange), it also has a range of products which are somehow alike – for example the pork floss bun, the Seaweed Pork Floss Bun, Blueberry Danish from BreadTop and Flosss Seaweed Wasabi, Honey Blueberry Danish from BreadTalk etc. Besides the similarity of products between the two organizations, they both have the same open concept for their kitchen, allowing the public to view the manufacturing process of the buns. Also, a study conducted last year shows that 67% of the Australians believe it is important to purchase local brands.

In conclusion, although BreadTalk has met the requirements of the Australia Food & Beverage culture, it does not advantage them if they were to expand their businesses to Australia as there is already a similar concept that exists. BreadTop being a local brand in Australia had already established its brand name. In addition, Australians being more favorable to own local brands may not be willingly to purchase from a non-local brand. If BreadTalk were to expand to Australia, Australians may also take ‘BreadTalk’ as an imitation or copycat brand. Some disadvantages that BreadTalk will face is Australians may mistakenly think that they are buying from BreadTop when they purchase products from BreadTalk.