The original text link:
https://blogs.ubc.ca/tianyeguo/2014/10/28/ethics-social-responsibilities-market-research-toms/

As I read Tianye Guo’s blog, I realize that when people talk about Toms, the first thing comes to their mind must be its “Buy one, give one” slogan which is also regarded as a successful model of taking social responsibility. Obviously, it is true that TOMS does devote itself to charity based on the fact that it gives aid to numerous people during the past years. But looking at the gross profit in the past 3 years, we might want to ask: Is it really a good business model?

The definition of TOMS shown in Wiki uses the following description—a for-profit company. What the expression tells us is that the prior goal of TOMS is to maximize its profit instead of being a pioneer in philanthropy. Based on the recent market research, people’s passion for TOMS is plunging, gross profit decreasing accordingly. As we can see, the problem has nothing to do with TOMS’s ethical strategies; instead, the problem occurs since TOMS does not think highly of sustainability of its social responsibility. TOMS does not resonate or build social mission sense with its customers, thus failing to maintain clients.

We have learned that to maintain good performance in market, the best way is to create shared value(CSV); similarly, to maintain long-run social responsibility, CSV plays a vital role as well. For TOMS, only by integrating itself with customers can it expect long-term contract, which is also the fundamental of its long-run social responsibility.

Works Cited:

1. John Converse Townsend. “A Better Way to ‘Buy one, give one'”. Forbes. Oct 8, 2014
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2014/10/08/a-better-way-to-buy-one-give-one/

2. Cheryl Davenport. “The Broken ‘Buy One, Give One’ Model: 3 Ways to Save TOMS Shoes”. Co.Exist. April 10, 2014
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679628/the-broken-buy-one-give-one-model-three-ways-to-save-toms-shoes

3. TOMS shoes. Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toms_Shoes

4. “Toms shoes: doing more harm than good?”
http://bizgovsociii.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/toms-shoes-doing-more-harm-than-good/