Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Driven Innovation & Opportunities for Sustainable International Business

Abstract

In this world, there is no alternative to sustainable development and ready-made garments industry, and Bangladesh is no exception to that. Corporate social responsibility practices (CSR) in developing countries are not very popular yet, and this is true for Bangladesh as well. This paper will demonstrate how corporate social responsibility activities can be pursued as a core business strategy (CSR-Driven) in companies, especially in the ready-made garments (RMG) sector in Bangladesh. RMG is contributing more than 75% of total export earnings for Bangladesh, but the sector is undergoing very critical moments for a number of incidents including Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashions lately. This is the prime time to shift the focus of the industry to redefine the business model of the ready-made garments companies to retain the customers and attract new business opportunities internationally including CSR-driven innovation strategy in the company’s core business strategy. Case study method has been applied to carry out the research to show that CSR-driven innovative strategy will not only help to find the new solutions to business to respond compliance requirements of international buyers but also find innovative strategies for the companies to create win-win situation including all the stakeholders. To outline and justify the importance of CSR-driven strategies and explain the benefits of it, Echotex  Limited and New Look Fashion’s innovative strategy will be introduced and examined that changed their history of business capturing new markets globally.