Creating Shared Value by Aligning Business and Social Objectives through the Application of Technology

In few months from now, world will have more number of mobile phones than the total human beings breathing on this earth. Technology has become very pervasive in our lives. From agriculture to education, from transportation to smarter cities, from human rights to government, technology has impacted enormously in the well-being of people. It has changed the face of business as well. However, in the recent past, corporates have woken up to new challenges where their markets and margins have shrunk and resources from the society and environment are hard to come by. In their pursuit to survive and thrive, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives could play a strategic role for business in creating shared value for all the stakeholders including bottom of the pyramid (BOP) population. But the issue is many CSR initiatives have not been impactful, neither for the business nor for the society. In this paper, authors have proposed a 3*3 Shared Value Matrix of business value and social value, and mapped different kinds of CSR initiatives on to the matrix depending upon the impact they create. Philanthropy, volunteering efforts and technology are the drivers in the matrix for determining the impact. This paper also explains that by leveraging technology, most CSR initiatives can be evolved to create shared value for all the stakeholders. Authors have elaborated the matrix with the help of five case studies where CSR initiatives based on technology created varied forms of impact for all stakeholders.