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Vodafone Group and its Corporate Citizenship Programme

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Multinationals in their Communities

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Abstract

Vodafone was formed in 1984 as a subsidiary of Racal Electronics plc (Vodafone, 2005a). In 1991 it was demerged from Racal and became an independent company known as Vodafone Group Ltd (Vodafone is an abbreviation of Voice Data Fone). In the 1980s Vodafone became committed to aggressive development by entering into consortia to bid for licences and by identifying opportunities for acquisitions on a global scale. High profile examples include the merger with AirTouch Communications Ltd in 1999 and the acquisition of Mannesmann in 2000, which doubled the size of the Vodafone group. At the end of 1985 the company had 19,000 customers, by 1999 this had risen to ten million and during 2002 the 100 million mark was achieved. Vodafone is now the largest mobile telecommunications company in the world, with operations in Europe, the USA and the Asia Pacific region (Wikipedia, 2006a).1 Vodafone provides an extensive range of mobile telecommunication services including voice and data communications. As well as 14 controlled networks, Vodafone also has nine associates and 14 partner network agreements (as of 31/12/2004). The company has approximately 180 million customers and 57,000 employees in 26 countries (biz.yahoo.com, 2005; Vodafone Group, 2005a; Wikipedia, 2006b). As of 23rd May 2005 Vodafone had a total market capitalisation of £94 billion, making it the third largest firm in the FTSE100 and the eleventh largest firm in the world. The Group’s turnover in 2004/5 was £34 billion (Vodafone Group, 2005a, p.35). The Group’s success is predicated upon rapid and effective technological innovation allied to timely strategic responses to market opportunities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Somerville College, University of Oxford, UK

    Ian W. Jones (Lecturer in Management)

  2. Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK

    Michael G. Pollitt (Reader)

  3. Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge, UK

    David Bek (Research Associate)

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  1. Ian W. Jones
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  2. Michael G. Pollitt
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  3. David Bek
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© 2007 Ian W. Jones, Michael G. Pollitt and David Bek

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Jones, I.W., Pollitt, M.G., Bek, D. (2007). Vodafone Group and its Corporate Citizenship Programme. In: Multinationals in their Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230211056_10

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