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Through the Nestle Coordination Center for Nutrition, Nestle set up a special Commission to monitor whether the company was following a marketing code for infant formula established by the World Health Organization. The formation of this Commission was a high‐risk innovative move on Nestle's part. The result has been that this Commission was instrumental in settling the controversy surrounding Nestle's marketing of the formula in Third World countries.

This paper attempts to provide a critique of the Commitment to Africa report in an effort to understand how one large transnational corporation sees its role in the continent and to explain its social responsibility and its approach to citizenship.

The critique analyses sections of the report by identifying the key messages contained therein and reflects on these in the light of other evidence and viewpoints. For instance: On what does Nestlé base its corporate citizenship? What contribution does Nestlé make to economic development in Africa? What wider social issues does Nestlé embrace? How does the report discharge Nestlé's accountability to its stakeholders?

The report prioritises economic development and indicates that this is the means of achieving poverty alleviation in Africa. There is some engagement with the Millennium Development Goals by the company, which indicates a philanthropic model of corporate social responsibility.

The study is limited to one company but there are implications for other transnational companies as many of these produce reports in a similar vein. The research could therefore be replicated by examining further reports.

The paper adds to the knowledge on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and poverty alleviation. It also provides additional evidence on the role of transnational enterprises in globalisation processes.

Infant formula manufacturers have faced a major international controversy concerning their products. Activists took issue with the way these manufacturers marketed infant formula in Third World countries. Because Nestle was one of the largest producers of infant formula, activists staged a worldwide boycott of all Nestle products. In years to come, the solution to the controversy will be seen as a landmark in the development of a more dynamic attitude by business toward the larger world around it.

Trouble was brewing for Nestle in India with a lab test finding MSG in Maggi noodles, a product brand which had been adjudged ‘most powerful’ and ‘most trusted’ in India;it was being banned in different parts of the country. Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestle SA, arrived in New Delhi to face the heat and take necessary damage control measures. The case challenges the participants to review the events leading to a total ban on all the nine variants of Maggi noodles imposed by FSSAI, the Indian Regulator, by Nestle India. It also challenges them to suggest ways of taking care of the business in future in India as well as its effects in other countries.

The learning outcomes are as follows: identifying and prioritising of stakeholders’ needs during crises; gaining insight into applying contextual intelligence in leaders’ decision-making on philanthropic investments; and evaluating initiatives by differentiating between creating shared value and corporate social responsibility.

On 15 March 2020, Bruno Olierhoek, Chairman and MD, Nestlé East and Southern Africa considers his dilemma of where to focus his community support initiatives during COVID-19, which could reflect their company’s purpose of enhancing quality of life and contributing to a healthier future in their response to the crisis? Also, creating shared value (CSV) was in their DNA as a company, and they wanted to do more than philanthropic gestures; therefore, they had to decide carefully about leveraging their strategic partnerships in the relief effort. The case highlights existing community involvement projects, pre-COVID-19, which illustrate multi-stakeholder collaboration. These existing trust relationships and partnerships are then leveraged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case highlights unintended consequences of Nestlé’s gesture of donating food products to the 5,000 frontline health-care workers for specific stakeholder groups, such as the positive emotional responses of Nestlé’s own employees. These events in the case relate to existing theoretical frameworks, such as corporate citizenship which elicits pro-organisational behaviour in stakeholder groups.

Postgraduate programmes MBA or MPhil.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 7 Management Science

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate over time the ethical performance of a multinational foods company – Nestlé – operating in a highly dynamic, complex, and often ambiguous environment in a crisis torn Zimbabwe.

The case study applies an ethical performance evaluation (EPE) managerial framework to evaluate the actions of Nestlé Zimbabwe at various critical decision‐making time periods.

While consumer pressure groups and international rights activists in Europe condemned Nestlé's actions in Zimbabwe as unethical and unacceptable, this research found that by exploring the events over time (i.e. longitudinal research) as the context of the event (crisis in Zimbabwe) evolved, it was shown that Nestlé faced a major ethical dilemma; and may have acted ethically and indeed acceptably given the unfolding crisis in Zimbabwe.

An EPE managerial framework is a useful tool to provide insight and knowledge of a particular event, however using the framework will not determine what is ethical or not. Evaluating ethical performance is always a value judgement and therefore the framework only offers insight and knowledge into the events over time, allowing the researcher or manager the opportunity to draw better, more informed, ethical decisions.

The case study provides an illustration of a dynamic approach that can be used by business managers to assess the ethical performance of a company.

The paper proposes that an ethical performance of a company needs to be evaluated over time as the context of the events evolves. The EPE managerial framework is adapted to emphasize the importance of evaluating the time and context parameters.

Operations and Logistics.

Senior undergraduate students and postgraduate students specialising in agricultural economics/agribusiness/supply chain management and can also be used for executive training for supply chain managers and corporate social responsibility (CSR) managers of food companies.

This case presents an industry leading company – Nestlé’s sustainable initiative in its dairy supply chain in China. The case begins with the background of China’s dairy industry, followed by an introduction of the case company. The case then moves on to the comparison of Nestlé’s fresh milk supply chain operation before and after 2008 and different approaches to help the dairy suppliers’ transformation. The focus is on Nestlé’s innovative industry collaboration platform, the Dairy Farming Institute.

This case allows students to explore the following theoretical frameworks: sustainable supply chain management; supply chain leadership, supply chain learning and supply chain structure. By analysing this case, students should be able to gain an understanding of how multinational corporations (MNCs) play a supply chain leadership role in supply chain learning of sustainable supply chain initiatives.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

In this chapter we discuss the “Nestlé on the Move” program. The program focuses especially on the areas of leadership and people development and finding ways to better align people with the organization, gain their insights, engage them cooperatively, and stimulate initiative.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how two multinational companies (MNCs) faced the challenge of market uncertainty and political instability in a newly emerging market, and how it affected the impact of their product marketing strategy (PMS) and product (brand) performance.

A comparative longitudinal paired case study of a market entry by two global MNCs. Twelve global brands (products) were studied, which were locally manufactured and launched by the two MNCs during their first ten years of operation in Vietnam.

The authors approached the investigation from a conventional point of view: standardization versus adaptation. The results showed that in addition to these two traditional processes, a third one was also operating, which the authors labeled semi-adaptation, or the midway PMS. Semi-adaptation refers to a product that has been introduced to Vietnam from a neighboring country.

This research is based on two European MNCs active in the food and consumer-household goods industry in a newly emerging market: Vietnam.

This primary data indicate that the product standardization, semi-adaptation and adaptation process in practice is a technique applied to fit a product to a newly emerging market more by degree of change than by product category.

This paper supports a recent stream of research, which views Standardization or Adaptation as the two ends of the same continuum, where the degree of the firm’s PMS can range between them.

The case explicates a situation wherein an international flight from Newark to Ahmedabad, with a stopover in Mumbai, is delayed during the final leg of its journey between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that all international and domestic passengers are already on board when they face this five-hour delay. The case provides a rich context to discuss issues related to difficult communication and persuasion during crisis. The captain communicates with the passengers, through a series of announcements, with updates on the situation. He attempts to manage the escalating tension within the airplane and does succeed to a certain level. The case highlights the significance of timely and well-crafted messages during crisis situations. It also illuminates how the use of rhetorical strategies influence customer perception of credibility and at times, shift attribution of blame.