Nike’s strategic intent is to be a company that “stands for something meaningful”—what does this mean? What are the upsides and downsides of this kind of corporate social responsibility?

Answer:

This means that Nike is focusing its strategic intent towards supporting a cause or supporting something that it feels is right and is ethical and will help the company to perpetuate the overall good of all its stakeholders in a collective and combined manner. For instance Nike “is standing for something” by supporting and having a public stand on issues related to patriotism, rights of the citizens and politicization of sports.

The upside is that in the long run the company as well as its customers will become progressive. This will help Nike to create higher social value in the long run in a systematic and tangible manner. Actions are always louder than words and such actions will improve long term profit prospective of the company and will also bolster the social image and social equity of the company.

On the downside there will always be two sides to a coin and any stand for an issue or a matter will have its fair share of supporters and non-supporters. The non-supporters might lead to drop in social value accretion in the short run.