The points of difference can vary based on the nature of the company, its resources or the industry in which it operates.

Multinational corporations which possess vast resources, as is the case of Starbucks, are more and more focused on social and environmental responsibility in an effort to create points of difference. They promote the development and well-being of the communities in which they operate and they strive to improve their social corporate responsibility programs.

In line with this tendency, economic agents come to place more emphasis on ethical behavior as a means of responding to the threat of more social pressure from the communities. This emerges as a competitive strength as Starbucks is committed to ethical behavior in the relationship with all of its stakeholder categories -- employees, business partners, customers and the general public.

The organization has generally kept a reasonable distance between itself and ethical problems. It...
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