McDonald’s stakeholders affect the business especially by way of consumer perception. The company’s various corporate citizenship, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs address stakeholders’ interests.
McDonald’s corporate social responsibility policy addresses most stakeholders for prudent business relations. Satisfactory corporate citizenship helps maintain a positive brand image, which is a competitive advantage and strength noted in the SWOT analysis of McDonald’s.
Effective CSR and ESG programs strengthen the business against competitors, such as Burger King, Wendy’s, Subway, and Dunkin’, as well as Starbucks and Tim Hortons. McDonald’s and these competitors influence industry CSR and ESG practices for stakeholders.
McDonald’s Stakeholders’ Interests, CSR & ESG Initiatives
McDonald’s top stakeholders are its employees and customers. However, other stakeholders are significant factors in the company’s CSR and ESG strategy. The following are McDonald’s main stakeholder groups:
- Employees
- Customers
- Investors
- Communities
Employees
McDonald’s corporate citizenship and CSR/ESG programs prioritize employees as a top stakeholder group. The interests of these stakeholders include career development and fair compensation.
McDonald’s addresses these interests through training and development programs. For example, the company maintains Hamburger University, which provides industry-specific training for the fast-food restaurant chain’s personnel.
McDonald’s also has a global mobility policy that supports leadership development throughout the business organization. This factor supports employees’ career goals within the restaurant chain and optimizes human resource flexibility.
McDonald’s workplace culture (organizational culture) helps provide a positive environment for employees. This positive environment contributes to the strength of the fast-food company’s corporate citizenship status.
McDonald’s also pays competitive wages, although typically at only a slightly higher level compared to the industry average or legal minimum wage levels. This factor reflects the company’s CSR and ESG efforts to optimize employee satisfaction and retention.
Customers
McDonald’s views its customers as a top stakeholder group. The interests of these stakeholders focus on the affordability, health effects, and taste of the company’s food and beverages. Customers also show increasing interest in sustainable foodservice.
McDonald’s corporate social responsibility and ESG initiatives ensure the affordability of its food and beverage products through standardization and supply-chain streamlining and sustainability. However, the business is sometimes criticized for the health effects of its food.
For this stakeholder group, CSR and ESG relate to McDonald’s generic strategy for competitive advantage and intensive strategies for growth. These strategies reflect goals for foodservice business growth and competitiveness through low costs and competitive prices.
In terms of these stakeholders’ sustainability interests, McDonald’s ESG and CSR programs prioritize supply chain enhancements for sustainable sourcing, as well as the use of recyclable materials for packaging food and drinks.
Investors
McDonald’s ESG strategy strives to fulfill the demands of investors, who are a stakeholder group that determines the company’s capital and financial condition. The interests of these stakeholders include profitability, growing revenues, and the stability of the restaurant chain.
McDonald’s addresses these concerns through stable business growth, although at a limited rate and only in some markets or regions. The introduction of new products, such as McCafé product variants, also helps improve profitability to address these stakeholders’ interests.
The fulfillment of the strategic objectives based on McDonald’s mission statement and vision statement comes with profitability and business growth that support the ESG interests of this stakeholder group.
Communities
McDonald’s CSR and ESG programs address communities, which are stakeholders interested in the company’s support for community development, business sustainability, environmental programs, and other community-based or nonprofit endeavors.
McDonald’s corporate citizenship strategy involves support programs for this stakeholder group through various ways. For example, the company’s partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities provides financial support for families in need.
Also, McDonald’s sourcing policy prioritizes sustainable production to encourage the sustainability of farms and other producers. This CSR and ESG policy meets stakeholders’ interests in the fast-food restaurant chain’s effects on communities’ agriculture and food supply.
These community-centered CSR and ESG efforts for business ethics and corporate citizenship relate to the foodservice industry’s ecological and sociocultural trends demonstrated in the PESTEL/PESTLE analysis of McDonald’s.
In this regard, the company’s sustainability and related efforts for this stakeholder group are a response to the foodservice industry trends that are most relevant to communities and their interests.
McDonald’s CSR & ESG Performance for Stakeholders’ Interests
McDonald’s initiatives and programs for corporate social responsibility and ESG are well supported and directly deal with the interests of the stakeholder groups of investors and communities.
However, there may be challenges in McDonald’s corporate citizenship approach to satisfying the interests of employees and customers regarding wages and the health effects of fast food, respectively.
To address these CSR and ESG challenges, McDonald’s may need to review and implement changes in its policies on wages and compensation for the entire restaurant chain or for some regional operations.
Sustainable business practices and product innovation for more healthful foods can also help increase the satisfaction of the stakeholder group of McDonald’s customers. More healthful foods are relevant to current industry trends and consumer preferences.
References
- Chandon, P., & Indaburu, A. (2026). When and how simplified nutrition labels improve fast-food choices. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 1-23.
- Kandpal, V., Jaswal, A., Santibanez Gonzalez, E. D., & Agarwal, N. (2024). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ESG reporting: Redefining business in the twenty-first century. In Sustainable Energy Transition: Circular Economy and Sustainable Financing for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Practices (pp. 239-272). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
- Lee, Y. Y., Kee, D. M. H., Ang, V. W. N., Laneishwar, A., Vehlan, L. S. S. V., Lee, L. X., … & Ardel, M. R. (2024). Golden Arches going green: The impact of McDonald’s sustainability achievements on public image. Advances in Global Economics and Business Journal, 5(1), 27-43.
- McDonald’s Corporation – Form 10-K.
- McDonald’s Corporation – Impact Strategy & Governance.
- McDonald’s Corporation – Values in Action.
- Watson, A., Perrigot, R., & Dada, O. (2024). The effects of green brand image on brand loyalty: The case of mainstream fast-food brands. Business Strategy and the Environment, 33(2), 806-819.