In the corporate social responsibility (CSR), ExxonMobil can be termed as on the companies that seemingly take a slow pace and may not be aggressively on the forefront. As Werther and Chandler reveal, “A corporate social responsibility (CSR) related failure that might inflict limited harm on a firm relying on a broad, cost-based strategy, could prove significantly damaging to one reliant on a strategy of focused differentiation (66).
In the petroleum industry, consumers have less sensitivity to differentiation and do not give much attention to the distinction between various gasolines business strategies become the main playing board for competitive advantage.
The natural history of the petroleum industry therefore creates a conducive environment for ExxonMobil to assume a lower CSR profile than its competitors.
This, on the other hand implies a higher market entrance for ExxonMobil because it has both lower visibility among environmentalists and its products are hardly differentiated from those of companies such as British Petroleum and Shell. ExxonMobil also took a long time to state their stand and follow its competitors as they publicly decaled their commitment to the reduction of emissions asserting the company’s low profile in CSR matters.
In many cases, this strategy seemed to work well for the company.
By choosing to be silent or non-responsive helped the company evade high and detailed scrutiny from environmental and social activists. ExxonMobil’s international policy was founded on the company’s continuous effort to conform to the laws, rules and regulations of the countries where it conducts its operations as well as the United State’s international business laws.
In doing this, the company is able to gain footing in local governments’ image and make ensure close corporation between the company and the governing bodies as well as the governments.
This would enhance the company’s relations and partnerships with the governments, hence giving the company rapport to steer for favourable tax laws, operation and expansion regulations as well as in partnering with government for community and national development efforts defined in the company’s corporate citizenship accord. In every offshore operation, ExxonMobil uses the policy of considering locally available resources to develop the local/national businesses first. This is turn helps enhance the company’s short-term and long-term relations with its suppliers.
The company’s capital and operational costs helps local suppliers and contractors generate direct income for themselves as well as their vendors hence the company’s multiple effect on local economies. The resultant outcome is openly visible in the amount of disposable income possessed by local workers, enhancing their consumer purchase trends and even higher national income and gross domestic growth and development. This implies that, the higher the company’s local suppliers’ capacity, the higher its exploration of locally executed operations and local development efforts.