Value, Values and Sustainability: Corporate Responsibility in Emerging Market Companies

Abstract

This study examines the level and extent of corporate responsibility (CR) reporting by companies based in emerging markets. Examining a range of data and using original empirical research, it looks at corporate reporting as a proxy for CR, in the subject areas business ethics, environment, human resources and community/philanthropy. It finds that while there are vast differences between countries and subject areas, the overall take-up of CR is not significantly less in emerging market than in developed market economies. Five emerging markets are then analysed in more detail - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - to understand why CR take-up is high in South Africa and Brazil, and to some extent India, and why it is extremely low, almost non-existent, in Russia and China. It finds that CR is most likely to be found in those countries where it is internally driven (rather than externally imposed) and in countries with high levels of poverty/inequality, an active and informed civil society, companies with global aspirations, and the lack of perceived autocratic political options for organised business. The study examines a range of secondary literature related to corporate purpose, corporate responsibility, and emerging markets, and develops a number of models for understanding the context, drivers and pressures relevant to corporate responsibility in general and the drivers of CR in emerging markets in particular.