Motives for Corporate Social Responsibility in Chinese Food Companies

Dongyong Zhang,Stephen Morse,Qiaoyun Ma

doi:10.3390/su10010117

Dongyong Zhang, Stephen Morse + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su10010117

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Abstract

This paper explores the connection between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and food safety and how best to promote CSR in Chinese food companies by comparing two groups of food companies, one which had food safety incidents in the previous three years and one which had no food safety incidents during the same period. Managers of 498 food companies in 17 regions of China were surveyed. It was found that companies where the senior management gave higher levels of support and commitment to CSR and companies that had higher levels of CSR engagement had lower food safety incident rates. Motives for CSR engagement by food companies are the expected benefits that might accrue to the company including helping to achieve strategic objectives, improving daily management, ensuring food safety, improving internal cooperation, enhancing food quality, improving employees’ skills at work, increasing employee benefit and improving their morale, and maintaining business integrity. It was also found that the external factors for CSR engagement are consumer demand, as well as pressures from the government and from other companies in the supply chain. Finally, the paper makes a number of suggestions for improvements in policy.

Highlights

In recent years, a series of food safety scandals reported by the national and international mass media have brought food safety problems in China into the spotlight
Mann–Whitney U test results reveal that significant differences existed between the two groups of companies regarding their views as to whether or not corporate social responsibility (CSR) would help in achieving strategic objectives, improving daily management, ensuring food safety, internal cooperation, enhancing product quality, encouraging employees to improve their skills at work, increasing employee benefit and improving their morale, and in maintaining business integrity
While the managers of both CHI and CH0I claimed to have a positive attitude to CSR, the senior managements of CH0Is showed steadily increasing support and commitment to CSR in the previous three years, and the levels of current CSR engagement of CH0Is were higher than that of CHIs

Summary

Introduction

A series of food safety scandals reported by the national and international mass media have brought food safety problems in China into the spotlight. In 2010, swill-cooked “gutter” oil was first found to be sold as a cheaper alternative to normal cooking oil in the market. In 2013, some pork dealers in Zhejiang were found to sell dead pig meat that was unfit for sale in the legal market, and the crack-down on illicit pig-trade resulted in over 15,000 dead pigs being dumped by the illegal pork dealers, drifting down the Huangpu River. A recent survey released by Xiaokang magazine and Tsinghua University found that food safety still ranked at the top of a list of 10 safety issues that are most worrisome for Chinese consumers [2] with increasing awareness of food safety problems, such as swill-cooked “gutter” oil (89.7%), food hygiene problem (79%), pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables exceeding standard amount (71.3%), harmful food additives (such as melamine, clenbuterol, etc.) (60.5%) [3]

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