Företags sociala ansvar och deras varumärkesidentiteter

Dagens konsumenter efterfrågar i allt större utsträckning företagens engagemang gentemot miljö och samhälle. För vissa är Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, ett krav för att konsumera en tjänst eller produkt. Verksamheter som arbetar med CSR kan stärka sina varumärken samt differentiera sig mot konkurrenterna i branschen. Syftet med denna studie är att ge en teoretisk belysning av hur våra valda fallföretag jobbar med det växande intresset kring CSR, samt identifiera vilka lärdomar som kan dras kring framgångsrikt varumärkesbyggande med utgångspunkt från CSR. Studien tillämpar kvalitativa forskningsmetoden med tre fallföretag som empiri. Inom CSR finns flera olika metoder för att analysera hur företag arbetar, samt huruvida de får med de olika delar som är viktiga komponenter för ett givande CSR- arbete. Olika forskning tar upp olika delar, men de flesta går att överföra på varandra, vilket visas i teorikapitlet. Genom att arbeta med dessa olika komponenter och tillämpa dem på företag, har sedan en analys av tre fallföretag gjorts. De fallföretag vi har valt att studera är The Body Shop, Patagonia samt Max Hamburgerrestauranger. Dessa företag valdes på grund av att CSR har en framträdande roll i deras marknadskommunikation. CSR är en del i deras varumärkesidentitet och bidrar till deras marknadspositionering. I analysen har Kapferers modell Identitetsprisman använts för att analysera de olika varumärkena. Genom att applicera denna modell på de tre fallföretagen har slutsatser kunnat dras kring hur varumärkena påverkas av CSR. Med hjälp av detta verktyg analyseras sex olika delar av de tre fallföretagens varumärken: fysik, personlighet, kultur, relation, reflektion samt självbild. Genom att jämföra de tre företagens CSR- aktiviteter, har ytterligare slutsatser kunnat dras kring fallföretagen. De slutsatser som vi kommit fram till är att de tre fallföretagen påverkas av deras CSR- arbete och att detta stärker deras varumärkesidentiteter. Detta görs genom kampanjer och reklam. Vi har studerat vilka CSR-aktiviteter företagen redovisar. The Body Shop har tillsammans med flera andra organisationer och företag drivit flertalet kampanjer, exempelvis med företaget Amnesty genom en kampanj för människors rättigheter runt om i världen. Ytterligare samarbeten har skett med företag som Greenpeace och ECPAT. Klädföretaget Patagonia ingår i organisationen ”One Percent For The Planet”, och uppger att de årligen stöder dess verksamhet med en procent av sin försäljningsomsättning. Även Max Hamburgerrestauranger redovisar ett tydligt miljöfokus, då de som första restaurang i världen har infogat en klimatdeklarerad meny, där de redovisar hur mycket koldioxidutsläpp varje meny orsakar.Today's consumers are demanding increasingly corporate commitment to the environment and society. For some Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, a requirement to consume a service or product. Businesses that work with CSR can strengthen their brands and differentiate themselves from their competitors. The purpose of this study is to provide a theoretical clarification of how our chosen case companies are working with the growing interest on CSR, and identify what lessons can be learned about successful branding based on CSR. The study applies the qualitative research methodology with three case companies. CSR are several different methods to analyze how companies work, and whether they get with the different elements that are important components of a rewarding CSR work. Different research addressing various parts, but most can transfer to each other, as shown in the theory chapter. By working with these different components and apply them to the company, then an analysis of three case companies is made. The case companies we have chosen to study is The Body Shop, Patagonia and Max Hamburgerrestauranger. These companies were chosen because of that CSR plays a prominent role in their marketing communications. CSR is an integral part of their brand identity and adds to their market positioning. In the analysis, Kapferer's model Brand Identity Prism is used to analyze the various brands. By applying this model to the three case companies, the companies has conclusions could be drawn about how their brands are influenced by CSR. With the help of this tool are analyzed six different parts of the three cases corporate brands: physique, personality, culture, relationship, reflection, and self-image. By comparing the three companies' CSR activities, has further conclusions could be drawn about the case companies. The conclusions that has drawn is that their work with CSR affect their brands in a clear manner that also strengthen their brand identities. This is done through promotions and advertising. We have studied the CSR activities the companies are reporting. The Body Shop, along with several other organizations and companies run many campaigns, for example by undertaking Amnesty through a campaign for human rights around the world. Additional collaborations have been with companies such as Greenpeace and ECPAT. Clothing company Patagonia is a part of the organization "One Percent For The Planet", and state that they annually supports its operations with a percentage of their sales turnover. Even Max Hamburgerrestauranger reports a clear environmental focus, then the first restaurant in the world has introduced a climate declared menu, where they describe the amount of carbon dioxide emissions each menu causes

Small world in the real world: Long distance dispersal governs epidemic dynamics in agricultural landscapes

Outbreaks of a plant disease in a landscape can be meaningfully modelled using networks with nodes representing individual crop-fields, and edges representing potential infection pathways between them. Their spatial structure, which resembles that of a regular lattice, makes such networks fairly robust against epidemics. Yet, it is well-known how the addition of a few shortcuts can turn robust regular lattices into vulnerable ‘small world’ networks. Although the relevance of this phenomenon has been shown theoretically for networks with nodes corresponding to individual host plants, its real-world implications at a larger scale (i.e. in networks with nodes representing crop fields or other plantations) remain elusive. Focusing on realistic spatial networks connecting olive orchards in Andalusia (Southern Spain), the world’s leading olive producer, we show how even very small probabilities of long distance dispersal of infectious vectors result in a small-world effect that dramatically exacerbates a hypothetical outbreak of a disease targeting olive trees (loosely modelled on known epidemiological information on the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, an important emerging threat for European agriculture). More specifically, we found that the probability of long distance vector dispersal has a disproportionately larger effect on epidemic dynamics compared to pathogen’s intrinsic infectivity, increasing total infected area by up to one order of magnitude (in the absence of quarantine). Furthermore, even a very small probability of long distance dispersal increased the effort needed to halt a hypothetical outbreak through quarantine by about 50% in respect to scenarios modelling local/short distance pathogen’s dispersal only. This highlights how identifying (and disrupting) long distance dispersal processes may be more efficacious to contain a plant disease epidemic than surveillance and intervention concentrated on local scale transmission processes.Peer reviewe

An engineered planar plasmonic reflector for polaritonic mode confinement

It was recently demonstrated that, in deep subwavelength gap resonators coupled to two-dimensional electron gases, coupling to propagating plasmons can lead to energy leakage and prevent the formation of polaritonic resonances. This process, akin to Landau damping, limits the achievable field confinement and thus the value of light-matter coupling strength. In this work, we show how plasmonic subwavelength reflectors can be used to create an artificial energy stopband in the plasmon dispersion, confining them and enabling the recovery of the polaritonic resonances. Using this approach we demonstrate a normalized light-matter coupling ratio of {\Omega}/{\omega} = 0.35 employing a single quantum well with a gap size of {\lambda}/2400 in vacuum.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Global tropical reef fish richness could decline by around half if corals are lost

Reef fishes are a treasured part of marine biodiversity, and also provide needed protein for many millions of people. Although most reef fishes might survive projected increases in ocean temperatures, corals are less tolerant. A few fish species strictly depend on corals for food and shelter, suggesting that coral extinctions could lead to some secondary fish extinctions. However, secondary extinctions could extend far beyond those few coral-dependent species. Furthermore, it is yet unknown how such fish declines might vary around the world. Current coral mass mortalities led us to ask how fish communities would respond to coral loss within and across oceans. We mapped 6964 coral-reef-fish species and 119 coral genera, and then regressed reef-fish species richness against coral generic richness at the 1 degrees scale (after controlling for biogeographic factors that drive species diversification). Consistent with small-scale studies, statistical extrapolations suggested that local fish richness across the globe would be around half its current value in a hypothetical world without coral, leading to more areas with low or intermediate fish species richness and fewer fish diversity hotspots.Peer reviewe

Ecological dependencies make remote reef fish communities most vulnerable to coral loss

yEcosystems face both local hazards, such as over-exploitation, and global hazards, such as climate change. Since the impact of local hazards attenuates with distance from humans, local extinction risk should decrease with remoteness, making faraway areas safe havens for biodiversity. However, isolation and reduced anthropogenic disturbance may increase ecological specialization in remote communities, and hence their vulnerability to secondary effects of diversity loss propagating through networks of interacting species. We show this to be true for reef fish communities across the globe. An increase in fish-coral dependency with the distance of coral reefs from human settlements, paired with the far-reaching impacts of global hazards, increases the risk of fish species loss, counteracting the benefits of remoteness. Hotspots of fish risk from fish-coral dependency are distinct from those caused by direct human impacts, increasing the number of risk hotspots by similar to 30% globally. These findings might apply to other ecosystems on Earth and depict a world where no place, no matter how remote, is safe for biodiversity, calling for a reconsideration of global conservation priorities.Peer reviewe