Corporate social responsibility in china: an analysis of domestic and foreign retailers' sustainability dimensions

Abstract

In the past decade, a sizeable body of literature has built up on the concept and characteristics of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Western countries, where it has also been referred to as sustainability. More recently, attention has grown for CSR in emerging countries. Remarkably, China has hardly been studied so far. This paper aims to help fill this gap by considering, against this background, the CSR notion in China, through an exploration of a small sample of large retailers in China, both Chinese and non‐Chinese companies. The analysis of CSR/sustainability dimensions, as communicated by these large retailers in both the Chinese and the English language, shows substantial differences between the Chinese and international contexts. Interestingly, the largest divergence can be found for international retailers between their Chinese and corporate attention for CSR (so home versus host settings), most notably in the case of Carrefour, and to a lesser extent Wal‐Mart. In the Chinese context, there are differences between the Chinese and international retailers as well (so domestic versus foreign firms), with the former reporting more on economic dimensions, including philanthropy, and the latter more on product responsibility – contentious labour issues and the environment receive relatively limited attention in both groups in China. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for research and practice. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Seeking Legitimacy Through CSR: Institutional Pressures and Corporate Responses of Multinationals in Sri Lanka

“…In this context, previous studies have found evidence indicative of the pressures exerted by host-country institutions on MNE subsidiaries' CSR, such as increased local adaptation of their CSR (Barin Cruz and Boehe, 2010;Kolk et al, 2010;Yang and Rivers, 2009). …”

Consumer perceptions of CSR: (how) is China different?

“…In addition, we offered respondents the option to indicate that they had no idea. 4 As an exploratory extension, we included items on environmental and labour/workforce responsibility, as these have been mentioned to be of increasing importance to Chinese consumers and in the evaluation of domestic versus foreign firms (French, 2010a(French, , 2010bKolk et al, 2010;Lin, 2010;Zhou et al, 2012;cf. Xu and Yang, 2010).…”

“…These two topics were also mentioned to be of increasing importance to Chinese consumers and to the evaluation of domestic versus foreign firms in other publications, but left unexplored (French, 2012a(French, , 2012bKolk et al, 2010;Zhou et al, 2012).…”

“…Putting more emphasis on CSR might also help to prepare Chinese firms for a process of internationalization, and combat suspiscions regarding their lower CSR performance abroad (e.g. Kolk et al, 2010). And as consumers are recognised as a crucial for CSR, also in other emerging markets (e.g.…”

“…Another aspect left unexplored in research on consumers and CSR in China is the distinction between local and foreign firms, an aspect that has increasingly been mentioned as representing a source of different expectations. reflected in a wave of publications by practitioners and especially academics (French 2010a(French , 2010bHarper Ho, 2012;Kolk et al, 2010;Lin, 2010;Marquis and Qian, 2014;Moon and Shin, 2010;Ni et al, 2013;Sarkis et al, 2011;Tsoi, 2010;Xu and Yang, 2010;Wong, 2009;Zhou et al, 2012). While yielding a range of valuable insights, what has remained relatively unexplored is the consumer perspective of CSR, i.e., how Chinese consumers perceive CSR and what they expect from companies with respect to CSR.…”