ALL CASES FOR
Business & Society 11th Edition Archie B. Carroll, Jill Brown
GUIDELINES FOR CASE ANALYSIS
The following guidelines are designed to assist in the case analysis process. The guidelines are
not intended to be a rigid format, however. Each question is intended to surface information that
will be helpful in analyzing and resolving the case. Each case is different, and some parts of
these guidelines may not apply in every case.
Following each case are discussion questions that should be answered as part of any complete
case analysis. The heart of any case analysis is the recommendations made based on a solid
logical foundation. The questions dealing with Problem and Issue Identification and Analysis
and Evaluation should be used to define and then defend recommendations made in the final
Recommendations step.
Guidelines for Analyzing Cases
Problem and Issue Identification
1. What are the central facts of the case? What assumptions are you making about these facts?
2. What is the major overriding issue in the case? What major question or issues does this case
address that merits study at this point in the course?
3. What sub-issues or related issues are present in the case that merit consideration now?
Analysis and Evaluation
1. Who are the stakeholders in the case, and what are their stakes? What challenges, threats, or
opportunities are posed by these stakeholders?
2. What economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities does the company have,
and what is the nature and extent of these responsibilities?
3. If the case involves company actions, evaluate what the company did or did not do in
handling the issue affecting it.
Recommendations
1. What recommendations do you have for this case? If a company's strategies or actions are
involved, should the company have acted as it did? What action should the company take
now? Why? Be as specific as possible. List several options as well as the pros and cons of
each alternative. Be prepared to discuss why you eliminated those options you discarded and
defend your chosen alternative. Mention and discuss any important implementation
considerations. This last step is crucial because recommendations that cannot be
implemented are worthless.
1
,Case 1: Walmart: The Main Street Merchant of Doom
1. What are the major issues in the case? What does Walmart’s experience tell you about the
business and society relationship?
The major issues in the case center on Walmart‘s expansion. The case focuses on the impact to
the communities to which Walmart moves, from both environmental and economic perspectives.
Walmart has been criticized for the aggressive and even predatory tactics that it takes with
respect to local merchants. Competition is what drives Walmart, and a merchant who competes
directly with them will lose. Is it unethical for any company, not just Walmart, to drive out all
competition? Is Walmart using its size and ability to undersell small local merchants until they
are driven out in order to establish an unfair monopoly on local markets? Is this a violation of the
spirit of anti-monopoly laws? The Walmart experience tells us that business and society have a
symbiotic relationship, that the fabric of a community is impacted dramatically by the entry of a
company like Walmart, and that this fabric is sacrificed to poor working conditions, low wages,
and lower-priced goods.
2. What happened to the —Penney Idea,‖ Sam’s ten-foot rule, and the Buy America Plan? Were
these discontinued over time, or did they fade away and get lost when Sam died?
To fulfill a cost-cutting philosophy, many stores eliminated their famed greeters, and this opened
the door to problems (increased crime) because one fewer deterrent existed. Walmart eventually
abandoned the Buy American Plan and became one of the largest purchasers of products made
overseas. In fact, the company in time became the country‘s largest purchaser of Chinese goods
in any industry.
3. Assess Walmart’s corporate social responsibility using the four-part CSR model. Is Walmart
socially responsible even though it has had a devastating impact on many small merchants and
various stakeholder groups, and some communities do not want it?
The following is an assessment of Walmart‘s corporate social responsibility using the four-part
CSR model:
Economic: Walmart‘s economic performance has been outstanding. According to the text, in the
2020 Fortune 500 listing, Walmart has held on to its #1 position in terms of revenues: $524
million. On a global scale, Walmart has more than 11,500 stores, and during the pandemic, its
e-commerce went up by 74 percent. The year 2020 was a big year for Walmart as it continued to
provide essential products and services for millions of citizens. The company grew its revenue
by $35 billion, and its e-commerce business grew by triple digits. Its goal of providing quality
merchandise at a low cost to consumers meets society‘s economic expectations for the company.
Legal: Walmart‘s adherence to the laws of the country generally has been good, but an explosion
of lawsuits by employees and other stakeholders is tarnishing the company‘s image in this area.
As the world‘s largest employer and the largest nongovernmental employer, Walmart gets sued
20 times a day, close to 5,000 times every year. Many of these lawsuits are filed by its
employees over employment discrimination issues or wage and hour claims, often regarding
overtime. The most serious employee issues Walmart has faced in the past decades have been
accusations of gender discrimination against women. More often than not, these lawsuits are
settled out of court. According to Walmart‘s annual report for the year ending January 31, 2010,
2
,the company is a defendant in —various cases containing class-action allegations.‖ The company
notes that if these cases are —decided adversely to [the company] or settled by [the company],‖ it
could result in a material liability to the company and adversely impact the company‘s —financial
condition or results of operations.‖ In April 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en
banc, upheld the class-action status in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., a class-action lawsuit
—brought on behalf of all past and present female employees in all of our retail stores and
warehouse clubs in the United States.‖ The certified class includes approximately 1.6 million
individuals. In 2020, a new issue arose regarding Walmart‘s policies and practices on filling
opioid prescriptions at its pharmacies. The U.S. Justice Department did accuse Walmart of
helping to fuel the country‘s opioid crisis by insufficiently screening questionable prescriptions.
Ethical: Walmart‘s internal policies have certainly been above the spirit of the law. Questions
may be raised, however, about (1) the degree to which it has considered its impact on other small
stores and merchants and on town culture, and (2) certain employment-related practices that have
resulted in mammoth lawsuits for the company.
Discretionary: Walmart‘s contributions to the local community, its Buy American program, and
its recycling centers all speak to the positive aspects of societal expectations. At the time of this
writing, Walmart has several corporate citizenship initiatives, including, among others,
scholarships to high school seniors, fundraisers for The Children‘s Miracle Network Telethon,
and environmental programs. In its 2020 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report,
Walmart featured and summarized some of its recent goals and achievements: Walmart states
that it prioritizes ESG issues that offer the greatest potential to create shared value. The company
focuses on issues that are highly relevant to their business and stakeholders. However, Walmart
is often criticized for the predatory practices it uses against local merchants, its lack of sensitivity
to community needs when a store is closed, and to community culture.
4. What about Walmart’s impact on communities in terms of sprawl, traffic congestion, and
impact on the appearance of the environment? What responsibility, if any, does the company
have to the communities it enters?
Walmart has been condemned for its impact on communities in terms of sprawl, traffic
congestion, and appearance of the environment. The website Wal-Mart Watch
(http://walmartwatch.com) notes that Walmart‘s entry into new communities results in
abandoned retail space, increased traffic congestion, and dead and decaying areas in such
communities.
As noted, questions may be raised about some of Walmart‘s practices and effects described in the
case. Walmart‘s responsibility to community merchants could extend to the point that Walmart
should teach them how to complete with, not against them. Predatory competition designed by
department managers to increase store sales should be stopped and punished if necessary.
5. Sam Walton has been called a motivational genius. After reading this case, and with what you
have observed at your local Walmart store, do you think his motivational genius is still felt by
associates? What is the —Walmart Way‖? How would you characterize the store’s culture now
that Sam is no longer around?
Sam motivated the associates by giving them the responsibility and the credit for Walmart‘s
success. He gave them ownership in the company through stock options. He posted the stock
3
, price daily and pointed to it often. He held weekly videoconferences with all the stores
explaining new ideas, promotions, and products. He included the associates in the decision-
making process.
However, now that Sam Walton has died and Walmart has morphed into a mega-industrial giant,
the culture arguably has changed. While the focus on customer satisfaction and low prices was
once perceived as consumer (and perhaps community) friendly, now many associate low prices
with social and economic injustice (the opposite of Sam‘s original intentions). Further,
management‘s emphasis on corporate numbers has led to employee lawsuits that could have a
material impact on the company in the long run. When one visits a Walmart store you rarely get
the sense that employees are engaged and are part of a positive culture. Apart from the famed
—Walmart greeters,‖ there seems to be little in the way of a corporate identity that indicates a
culture that values its employees.
6. Walmart was an early leader in the area of corporate social responsibility. Is the company’s
detrimental impact on merchants, and current opioid, labor, and bribery scandals, offset by the
benefits of its recent corporate citizenship and sustainability initiatives?
Both the Buy America and Environment Awareness campaigns are examples of how Walmart
continues to promote corporate sustainability initiatives. The Buy American program not only
promotes the purchasing of goods made in America, but the advertising of such a program raises
awareness of this issue in the minds of the hundreds of thousands of Walmart shoppers. The use
of Walmart‘s vast purchasing power also creates awareness in the manufacturing and marketing
sectors that there is a demand for American-made goods. The Environmental Awareness
campaign works in much the same way.
These programs may have been both an example of corporate social responsibility and gimmicks
to entice customers into the store. By enticing people into the stores by dealing with emotional
issues such as buying American-made products, the image of corporate social responsibility
comes home to the consumer. Many may view the Buy American program as a gimmick, rather
than corporate social responsibility, as Walmart has abandoned this emphasis and now is one of
the largest purchasers of overseas products. In addition to its retail size and power, many
consider the company to be socially responsible in addition to being a provider of thousands of
jobs, low prices, and high value and service. Walmart has numerous corporate citizenship and
sustainability initiatives at the local and national levels. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation
together provide more than $1 billion in cash and in-kind donations to support programs that
align with their philanthropic priorities. In 2021, they committed $100 million over five years to
fund research advocacy, innovation of practices, and stakeholder convening to address racial
inequity through Walmart.org‘s Center for Racial Equity.
While corporate citizenship programs that focus on certain aspects of the community are an
important part of a company‘s corporate social responsibilities, it bears noting that corporate
social responsibility encompasses a company‘s economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic
responsibilities. Given the record of these programs, it is difficult to believe that Walmart‘s
social responsibility initiatives go far enough to be able to alleviate the detrimental impact on
merchants by the company. While success in one area should be celebrated, it should not come at
the expense of another area. Companies, like Walmart, must focus on all their responsibilities to
be truly successful corporate citizens.
4
Business & Society 11th Edition Archie B. Carroll, Jill Brown
GUIDELINES FOR CASE ANALYSIS
The following guidelines are designed to assist in the case analysis process. The guidelines are
not intended to be a rigid format, however. Each question is intended to surface information that
will be helpful in analyzing and resolving the case. Each case is different, and some parts of
these guidelines may not apply in every case.
Following each case are discussion questions that should be answered as part of any complete
case analysis. The heart of any case analysis is the recommendations made based on a solid
logical foundation. The questions dealing with Problem and Issue Identification and Analysis
and Evaluation should be used to define and then defend recommendations made in the final
Recommendations step.
Guidelines for Analyzing Cases
Problem and Issue Identification
1. What are the central facts of the case? What assumptions are you making about these facts?
2. What is the major overriding issue in the case? What major question or issues does this case
address that merits study at this point in the course?
3. What sub-issues or related issues are present in the case that merit consideration now?
Analysis and Evaluation
1. Who are the stakeholders in the case, and what are their stakes? What challenges, threats, or
opportunities are posed by these stakeholders?
2. What economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities does the company have,
and what is the nature and extent of these responsibilities?
3. If the case involves company actions, evaluate what the company did or did not do in
handling the issue affecting it.
Recommendations
1. What recommendations do you have for this case? If a company's strategies or actions are
involved, should the company have acted as it did? What action should the company take
now? Why? Be as specific as possible. List several options as well as the pros and cons of
each alternative. Be prepared to discuss why you eliminated those options you discarded and
defend your chosen alternative. Mention and discuss any important implementation
considerations. This last step is crucial because recommendations that cannot be
implemented are worthless.
1
,Case 1: Walmart: The Main Street Merchant of Doom
1. What are the major issues in the case? What does Walmart’s experience tell you about the
business and society relationship?
The major issues in the case center on Walmart‘s expansion. The case focuses on the impact to
the communities to which Walmart moves, from both environmental and economic perspectives.
Walmart has been criticized for the aggressive and even predatory tactics that it takes with
respect to local merchants. Competition is what drives Walmart, and a merchant who competes
directly with them will lose. Is it unethical for any company, not just Walmart, to drive out all
competition? Is Walmart using its size and ability to undersell small local merchants until they
are driven out in order to establish an unfair monopoly on local markets? Is this a violation of the
spirit of anti-monopoly laws? The Walmart experience tells us that business and society have a
symbiotic relationship, that the fabric of a community is impacted dramatically by the entry of a
company like Walmart, and that this fabric is sacrificed to poor working conditions, low wages,
and lower-priced goods.
2. What happened to the —Penney Idea,‖ Sam’s ten-foot rule, and the Buy America Plan? Were
these discontinued over time, or did they fade away and get lost when Sam died?
To fulfill a cost-cutting philosophy, many stores eliminated their famed greeters, and this opened
the door to problems (increased crime) because one fewer deterrent existed. Walmart eventually
abandoned the Buy American Plan and became one of the largest purchasers of products made
overseas. In fact, the company in time became the country‘s largest purchaser of Chinese goods
in any industry.
3. Assess Walmart’s corporate social responsibility using the four-part CSR model. Is Walmart
socially responsible even though it has had a devastating impact on many small merchants and
various stakeholder groups, and some communities do not want it?
The following is an assessment of Walmart‘s corporate social responsibility using the four-part
CSR model:
Economic: Walmart‘s economic performance has been outstanding. According to the text, in the
2020 Fortune 500 listing, Walmart has held on to its #1 position in terms of revenues: $524
million. On a global scale, Walmart has more than 11,500 stores, and during the pandemic, its
e-commerce went up by 74 percent. The year 2020 was a big year for Walmart as it continued to
provide essential products and services for millions of citizens. The company grew its revenue
by $35 billion, and its e-commerce business grew by triple digits. Its goal of providing quality
merchandise at a low cost to consumers meets society‘s economic expectations for the company.
Legal: Walmart‘s adherence to the laws of the country generally has been good, but an explosion
of lawsuits by employees and other stakeholders is tarnishing the company‘s image in this area.
As the world‘s largest employer and the largest nongovernmental employer, Walmart gets sued
20 times a day, close to 5,000 times every year. Many of these lawsuits are filed by its
employees over employment discrimination issues or wage and hour claims, often regarding
overtime. The most serious employee issues Walmart has faced in the past decades have been
accusations of gender discrimination against women. More often than not, these lawsuits are
settled out of court. According to Walmart‘s annual report for the year ending January 31, 2010,
2
,the company is a defendant in —various cases containing class-action allegations.‖ The company
notes that if these cases are —decided adversely to [the company] or settled by [the company],‖ it
could result in a material liability to the company and adversely impact the company‘s —financial
condition or results of operations.‖ In April 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en
banc, upheld the class-action status in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., a class-action lawsuit
—brought on behalf of all past and present female employees in all of our retail stores and
warehouse clubs in the United States.‖ The certified class includes approximately 1.6 million
individuals. In 2020, a new issue arose regarding Walmart‘s policies and practices on filling
opioid prescriptions at its pharmacies. The U.S. Justice Department did accuse Walmart of
helping to fuel the country‘s opioid crisis by insufficiently screening questionable prescriptions.
Ethical: Walmart‘s internal policies have certainly been above the spirit of the law. Questions
may be raised, however, about (1) the degree to which it has considered its impact on other small
stores and merchants and on town culture, and (2) certain employment-related practices that have
resulted in mammoth lawsuits for the company.
Discretionary: Walmart‘s contributions to the local community, its Buy American program, and
its recycling centers all speak to the positive aspects of societal expectations. At the time of this
writing, Walmart has several corporate citizenship initiatives, including, among others,
scholarships to high school seniors, fundraisers for The Children‘s Miracle Network Telethon,
and environmental programs. In its 2020 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report,
Walmart featured and summarized some of its recent goals and achievements: Walmart states
that it prioritizes ESG issues that offer the greatest potential to create shared value. The company
focuses on issues that are highly relevant to their business and stakeholders. However, Walmart
is often criticized for the predatory practices it uses against local merchants, its lack of sensitivity
to community needs when a store is closed, and to community culture.
4. What about Walmart’s impact on communities in terms of sprawl, traffic congestion, and
impact on the appearance of the environment? What responsibility, if any, does the company
have to the communities it enters?
Walmart has been condemned for its impact on communities in terms of sprawl, traffic
congestion, and appearance of the environment. The website Wal-Mart Watch
(http://walmartwatch.com) notes that Walmart‘s entry into new communities results in
abandoned retail space, increased traffic congestion, and dead and decaying areas in such
communities.
As noted, questions may be raised about some of Walmart‘s practices and effects described in the
case. Walmart‘s responsibility to community merchants could extend to the point that Walmart
should teach them how to complete with, not against them. Predatory competition designed by
department managers to increase store sales should be stopped and punished if necessary.
5. Sam Walton has been called a motivational genius. After reading this case, and with what you
have observed at your local Walmart store, do you think his motivational genius is still felt by
associates? What is the —Walmart Way‖? How would you characterize the store’s culture now
that Sam is no longer around?
Sam motivated the associates by giving them the responsibility and the credit for Walmart‘s
success. He gave them ownership in the company through stock options. He posted the stock
3
, price daily and pointed to it often. He held weekly videoconferences with all the stores
explaining new ideas, promotions, and products. He included the associates in the decision-
making process.
However, now that Sam Walton has died and Walmart has morphed into a mega-industrial giant,
the culture arguably has changed. While the focus on customer satisfaction and low prices was
once perceived as consumer (and perhaps community) friendly, now many associate low prices
with social and economic injustice (the opposite of Sam‘s original intentions). Further,
management‘s emphasis on corporate numbers has led to employee lawsuits that could have a
material impact on the company in the long run. When one visits a Walmart store you rarely get
the sense that employees are engaged and are part of a positive culture. Apart from the famed
—Walmart greeters,‖ there seems to be little in the way of a corporate identity that indicates a
culture that values its employees.
6. Walmart was an early leader in the area of corporate social responsibility. Is the company’s
detrimental impact on merchants, and current opioid, labor, and bribery scandals, offset by the
benefits of its recent corporate citizenship and sustainability initiatives?
Both the Buy America and Environment Awareness campaigns are examples of how Walmart
continues to promote corporate sustainability initiatives. The Buy American program not only
promotes the purchasing of goods made in America, but the advertising of such a program raises
awareness of this issue in the minds of the hundreds of thousands of Walmart shoppers. The use
of Walmart‘s vast purchasing power also creates awareness in the manufacturing and marketing
sectors that there is a demand for American-made goods. The Environmental Awareness
campaign works in much the same way.
These programs may have been both an example of corporate social responsibility and gimmicks
to entice customers into the store. By enticing people into the stores by dealing with emotional
issues such as buying American-made products, the image of corporate social responsibility
comes home to the consumer. Many may view the Buy American program as a gimmick, rather
than corporate social responsibility, as Walmart has abandoned this emphasis and now is one of
the largest purchasers of overseas products. In addition to its retail size and power, many
consider the company to be socially responsible in addition to being a provider of thousands of
jobs, low prices, and high value and service. Walmart has numerous corporate citizenship and
sustainability initiatives at the local and national levels. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation
together provide more than $1 billion in cash and in-kind donations to support programs that
align with their philanthropic priorities. In 2021, they committed $100 million over five years to
fund research advocacy, innovation of practices, and stakeholder convening to address racial
inequity through Walmart.org‘s Center for Racial Equity.
While corporate citizenship programs that focus on certain aspects of the community are an
important part of a company‘s corporate social responsibilities, it bears noting that corporate
social responsibility encompasses a company‘s economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic
responsibilities. Given the record of these programs, it is difficult to believe that Walmart‘s
social responsibility initiatives go far enough to be able to alleviate the detrimental impact on
merchants by the company. While success in one area should be celebrated, it should not come at
the expense of another area. Companies, like Walmart, must focus on all their responsibilities to
be truly successful corporate citizens.
4
