The nature of Corporate Social Responsibility in China

What is it about?

This article introduces the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of Chinese “authoritarian capitalism.” The article considers the emergence of CSR in China using Matten and Moon’s framework of explaining CSR development in terms both of a business system’s historic institutions and of the impacts of new institutionalism on corporations arising from societal pressures in their global and national environments. We find two forms of CSR in China, reflecting the “multiplexity” of its business system: one in the mainly family-owned small and medium-sized enterprise sector reflecting concern with local reputation, and another in the corporate, mainly state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector, reflecting global and national societal expectations. We investigate the dynamics of CSR in China through the interplay of the global and national societal pressures and mediating and even leading roles played by the State and the Party. We consider the conceptual integrity and practical prospects for “state-led society-driven” CSR.

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Why is it important?

The nature of CSR in China is still poorly understood and this article aims to shed further light on this by examining fundamental features of Chinese business-government-society relations that shape CSR in China.