Social Responsibility In China Research Articles

The peer effects of corporate social responsibility in China: A pre-registered report

In recent years, businesses worldwide have shown a growing interest in adopting corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. The driver of corporate CSR engagement has attracted widespread attention. This study seeks to examine how firms react to the CSR practices of their peers in China. The ordinary least square would be used to validate our hypothesis and the instrumental variable approach would be utilized to alleviate endogeneity threats. In addition, we propose two channels, named as market competition hypothesis and institutional pressure hypothesis to account for this peer effect. We plan to provide some empirical evidence to support both channels.

Corporate Social Responsibility in China: A Tool of Policy Implementation

Abstract Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in China is a result of political, regulatory, and administrative pressures and civil society pressures. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) plays a dominant role in deciding the content of CSR, while the other influences are rather limited. As a result, Chinese CSR has not only voluntary and explicit elements but also mandatory and implicit elements. On the one hand, companies can perform CSR in a way that aligns with their commercial interests. On the other, CSR is a response to the CCP’s political pressure, while corporate failure to satisfy the requirements can result in serious negative impacts on companies’ business. In China, CSR has moved far from its origins as a tool of reputation enhancement and assumed a sui generis meaning as a tool of policy implementation. CSR has been evolving towards legal requirements in other jurisdictions as well, such as the EU. However, in China, the main force behind CSR comes from the CCP, which wields legislative and administrative power to promote CSR in a way that aligns with its political interests.

The evolution of corporate social responsibility in China: Do political connection and ownership matter?

The rising CSR awareness globally has influence CSR development in China but unlike anywhere in the world, the central government is always the main driver of CSR here, making it a unique case study. Under this political state, this study examines how a firm's political connections and foreign ownership affects its CSR reporting. We study a long sample over 4 different stages of CSR development in China between 2006 and 2019 with panel regression analysis. Our results show that CSR reporting and participation have increased over the sample period, but firms with political connection and foreign ownership are associated with lower levels of CSR reporting. The findings contradict theories of political cost theory that fit well in other countries. We propose crony relationship to explain the phenomena of low CSR compliance in the political linked firms in China. We further study Xi Jinping (XJP) regime and find that CSR reporting in China improved significantly in this regime but XJP regime moderates the state and foreign owned firms differently. Under XJP government, crony relationship has reduced following improved CSR reporting in politically connected firms, but CSR score has declined in foreign owned firms, implying they have become more opportunistic in cutting business cost and seeking profit.

Targeted poverty alleviation and corporate financial performance: The CSR strategy perspective

As an emerging way for firms to fulfil social responsibility in China, targeted poverty alleviation (TPA) helps the Chinese government to achieve its sustainable development goals. Although the effect of TPA on poor areas has been deeply explored, the influence of firms’ participation in TPA on themselves and its mechanism is unclear. We analyse the performance of listed firms which engaged in TPA from 2016 to 2021 by adopting a causal steps approach model, which indicate that firm engagement in TPA has a significant positive effect on corporate finance performance (CFP), and the mediating effect of financing constraints and media attention is verified. Our findings contribute to corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices from the new strategy perspective of TPA. JEL Classification: G18, M14, M41

Executive compensation, internal control quality, and corporate social responsibility in China

AbstractWe explore the relations among executive compensation, internal control quality (ICQ), and corporate social responsibility (CSR), focusing on improving the CSR outcomes of listed firms in China. Our findings are fourfold. First, we document that executive compensation and ICQ have a significant positive impact on CSR. Second, we find that executive compensation positively affects ICQ; hence, we identify ICQ as a channel that can further improve the impact of executive compensation on CSR. Third, we discover that the documented effects are stronger in state‐owned firms than in non‐state‐owned firms. Fourth, we observe that regulatory changes have both positive and negative impacts on CSR. Our findings are less vulnerable to endogeneity and have key implications for policy makers.

Cultural inclusivity and corporate social responsibility in China

This paper aims to explore whether cultural inclusivity has a significant impact on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The research shows that firms located in regions with higher cultural inclusivity tend to take on more social responsibilities, suggesting that corporate humanistic care and environmental awareness are linked to cultural inclusivity. Furthermore, the effect of cultural inclusivity is more evident in large firms, state-owned enterprises, and firms with high board independence. The use of natural disasters as an instrumental variable in the analysis helped to address endogeneity concerns. Additionally, the outcomes indicate that regions with greater exposure to cultural inclusivity tend to exhibit more characteristics of “gender equality” and fewer characteristics of “power gap”, which have a strong correlation with CSR. These findings shed light on the impact of cultural inclusivity on corporate governance and help explore the informal institutional factors influencing CSR at the geographical level.

The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Financial Performance: The Case of Internet-based Enterprises in China

"With the development of the economy and society, enterprises are no longer just profit organizations. They need to meet the demands of people to fulfill their social responsibilities. The development of Corporate Social Responsibility in China has only been more than a decade, and it is still in the initial exploration stage. Most companies initially adopted a wait-and-see attitude towards it. This article will take the perspective of listed internet companies in China and construct a social responsibility evaluation index system to empirically analyze the relationship between social responsibility and financial performance of internet-based companies. It will explore whether the cost of Corporate Social Responsibility will have a negative impact on their economic benefits. Based on this, it will help internet-based companies correctly understand the important position of social responsibility in their management system and enhance their awareness of actively taking social responsibility."

A CiteSpace-based Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility Research in China

This paper applies CiteSpace, a visualization analysis tool, to analyze the inner relationship among documents collected from “Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index”, to unveil the present situation and future orientation of studies on corporate social responsibility in China.

Localizing corporate social responsibility in China: The role of geographic proximity to political and financial centers

Early studies on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in China focused on political factors, but recent research highlights the increasing role of markets and finance. This study aims to investigate whether politics remains the primary driver of CSR as the Chinese CSR market evolves. Specifically, it examines the influence of geographic proximity, particularly political and financial centers, on CSR performance in China. Analyzing political and financial attributes of various cities, the study identifies key drivers of CSR engagement. Using 24,399 annual observations of listed company headquarters' locations and distances from political and financial centers, the research reveals that the economy has replaced politics as the main driver of CSR in China. Firms closer to administrative and financial centers demonstrate stronger CSR performance. Additionally, the study emphasizes the significance of shared prosperity demonstration zones initiated by the Chinese government, which drive CSR activities. These findings highlight the impact of geographic location on CSR performance and the alignment between common prosperity and CSR in China. By contributing to literature on geographic location and CSR, this study provides insights into institutional factors influencing firms' CSR engagement.

Inhibiting or promoting: The industry heterogeneity of board interlocks and corporate social responsibility in China

The relationship between board interlocks and corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been much debated, and the limited understanding of the heterogeneity of board interlocks is considered a significant reason. Based on resource dependency theory, this study aims to investigate the impact of the heterogeneity resulting from interlocked directors’ presence in different industries on CSR. This study used a sample of Chinese-listed companies from 2012 to 2019 and employed multivariate regression analysis models. The empirical results suggested that the industry heterogeneity of board interlocks positively impacts CSR. Furthermore, the impact of industry heterogeneity is more significant in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) or companies that receive greater media attention in the Chinese context. This study contributed to the literature by confirming the importance of industry heterogeneity of board interlocks and provided some managerial implications for companies to promote CSR by selecting specific directors.

Research on the social responsibility performance and its contributing factors to multinational corporations in China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the social responsibility performance’s current situation, influencing factors and mechanisms of multinational companies (MNCs) in China. The paper is based on the MNC’s social responsibility performance factors to find some relevant reasons for unsatisfied performance and on the multiple perspectives such as institutional distance and stakeholders, to provide feasible solutions for MNCs to assume civic responsibility and the high-quality development of the host country.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses general literature review and empirical analysis to analyze the way and degree of various factors which are affecting the social responsibility of MNC in China, and supplements the deficiencies of previous studies.FindingsThe paper reveals the influencing factors and mechanisms of MNCs’ social responsibility in China through the regression results. In addition, based on Research Report on Corporate Social Responsibility of China (Huang et al., 2013/2019), the paper also summarizes the performance and dynamic changes of MNCs social responsibility in the Chinese market in the past decade.Originality/valueThe paper enriches research on the social responsibility of MNCs in the background of non-western countries, dynamically describes the performance of MNCs’ responsibilities in a 10-year span and solves the problem of inconsistent research conclusions caused by too long time span. The paper also creates the “local enterprise responsibility level” to quantify the development of the host country’s responsibility, and identifies the “responsibility demonstration effect” of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises.

Corporate social responsibility in China's airline industry: A longitudinal content analysis of related reports

As China has become the world's largest consumer market and leading exporter, researchers and practitioners urgently need to understand how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is socially constructed in the Chinese context, especially for international industries such as the airline sector. Building upon the triple bottom line model, this study offers a contextualized and dynamic understanding of Chinese airline CSR. Content analysis was performed to analyze 74 aggregate CSR reports (2007–2020) issued by different types of Chinese airlines. The findings reveal that in addition to the economic, social, and environmental responsibilities that are commonly seen in the West, Chinese airlines assume unique political responsibilities. This political dimension of CSR in China has become increasingly obvious in recent years. Driven by factors such as international pressure, industry competition, and more importantly, national policies, the focus of Chinese airline companies' CSR reporting has been changing over time. However, it has maintained a high level of content completeness over the years, and the social dimension of CSR has always been the aspect of greatest concern. This study contributes to the airline CSR literature by considering the particularity of airline companies and Chinese contextual factors and augmenting political CSR as a critical component of CSR in the Chinese context. Managerial implications are provided for international enterprises to cater more appropriately to the Chinese market and achieve cooperation with Chinese enterprises by implementing CSR strategies.

Do Reputation Incentives Matter? Busy Directors and Corporate Social Responsibility in China

This paper aims to examine the effect of busy directors on corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on their directorships’ reputation incentives. Using the panel data of Chinese-listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange between 2016 and 2021, fixed-effects panel regression analysis is employed as the empirical methodology. In so doing, we find that the effect of busy directors on CSR appears to be nonlinear. Then, by focusing on the relative size of the firms served by busy directors, our study further shows that busy directors can improve CSR in their relatively more prestigious directorships. Nevertheless, busy directors may induce negative CSR in their relatively less prestigious directorships. These results together identify reputation incentives as one factor in determining whether busy directors affect CSR. Therefore, we conclude that reputation is an effective mechanism that can motivate busy directors to monitor and advise CSR.

University Social Responsibility in China: The Mediating Role of Green Psychological Capital

Generation Z represents the young people of today. They are considered as "digitally literate" and were born between mid-to-late 1990s to early 2000s. Generation Z pays more attention to popular environmental issues such as global warming, high energy consumption, overgrazing, and university social responsibility (USR), which are present around the world. We formed a double moderated mediation exam from 910 college students in southeast China, used a new notion "green psychological capital", and proposed it as a vital mediator. In addition, we found that green organizational ambidexterity and environmental attitude are both boundary conditions in the green shared vision organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) link. These findings have unlocked a deeper insight into Generation Z's green conception and offered a more comprehensive investigation on USR research. Furthermore, the amazing findings can provide a worldwide blueprint for USR studies in the long term.

Social Responsibility in Environmental Protection of Clothing Brands in China: A Case Study of ANTA

Corporate social responsibility was proposed by Bowen in 1953, but Chinese companies began to attach importance to it in the 21st century. China is a big exporter of clothing and textiles in the world, but there is little research on the social responsibility of Chinese clothing companies. Environmental problems have always been hot and arduous. The process of clothing production will cause a lot of negative impacts on the environment, so environmental protection is an important social responsibility of textile and clothing enterprises. Through the case study of Anta Group, this study discusses how Chinese clothing companies can enhance their sense of social responsibility and become environment-friendly companies. The significance and specific feasible methods of the clothing companies to carry out green activities are mentioned in this paper. This study provides some ideas for other companies on how to fulfill their social responsibilities through a successful case of a large company. We hope that through case analysis, more enterprises will pay attention to environmental responsibility and more research will focus on corporate social responsibility in China.

Optimal Recycling Channel Selection of Power Battery Closed-Loop Supply Chain Considering Corporate Social Responsibility in China

With economic development and societal progress, the supply chain should not only focus on profitability, but also environmental protection, as well as undertake corresponding corporate social responsibility (CSR). The operational decisions of the closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) in the power battery industry should rather consider the impact of CSR. Thus, this paper studies the optimal recycling channel selection and coordination of CLSC in the power battery industry under the consideration of CSR efforts and uncertain demand. By considering the CSR efforts taken by the manufacturer, decentralized and coordination decision-making models under different recycling modes (including manufacturer recycling, retailer recycling and third-party recycling) are constructed to analyze the optimal decision of CLSC. After that, the models were validated through numerical and sensitivity analysis, followed by discussion and management insights. It is found that when consumers are sensitive to the level of CSR effort, CSR effort has a positive impact on the profits of participants in CLSC. Additionally, the coordination decision-making model always outperforms the decentralized decision-making model under the same recycling mode, so reasonable profit-sharing contracts are developed to ensure the implementation of coordination decision-making. Moreover, transfer price plays different roles in different decision situations and recycling modes, while recycling cost is critical to the overall profit of the supply chain and influences the choice of recycling channel.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Does Religious Community Matter?

Corporate social responsibility is crucial to the sustainability of a firm, yet its motivating forces remain obscure. Therefore, this paper uses 1130 listed firms over the period 2010–2021 as the sample to explore the effect of religious community on corporate social responsibility in China. Using a firm and year-fixed effects model for empirical analysis. The findings reveal that the number of religious communities around a firm within a radius of less than 10, 50, and 100 km all has a favorable influence on corporate social responsibility. Moreover, the results of heterogeneity analysis show that religious community has a smaller positive impact on corporate social responsibility in low-polluting firms than in high-polluting ones. Additionally, using the robustness test, it is conceivable to conclude that the findings presented in this study are reliable and robust. This paper contributes to and broadens the existing body of research on corporate social responsibility and religious community, which has significant ramifications for the importance of religious community in the conduct of business.

How does green credit policy improve corporate social responsibility in China? An analysis based on carbon‐intensive listed firms

AbstractFor China to become carbon neutral, green financing is seen as a crucial avenue, wherein the green credit policy, which was introduced in 2012, is a crucial tool. However, whether the policy would work and how to improve its effectiveness remain unknown. This study attempts to analyze the policy's effects on carbon performance, a crucial measure of Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR), particularly in carbon‐intensive industries, using a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2018. As a result, first, it's confirmed that the policy can boost carbon performance of carbon‐intensive firms. Additionally, this study has verified that firm's R&D investment intensity has no mediating role in the relationship between the policy and carbon performance, while debt financing cost partly mediating the relationship, implying the policy fails to stimulate technological innovation. Moreover, firms with stronger environmental regulation intensity, weaker financing constraints, poorer corporate governance and more analyst following have greater promotion in carbon performance after the policy execution. Finally, the policy significantly improves the quality of corporate environment information disclosure. Briefly, this study enriches theoretical grounding regarding strategies of green reform in carbon‐intensive industries and provides implications for emerging economies to improve green finance via enhancing CSR.

Executive alumni and corporate social responsibility in China

PurposeThis study investigates whether corporate executives, who are university alumni, influence each other's firm corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on social network theory, the authors hypothesise that a firm's CSR performance is positively associated with its peer firms' average CSR performance when the executives of the firm and its peer firms are university alumni. The study employs data from 1,685 listed firms and 4,906 executives who graduated from 585 different universities in China and runs multivariate regressions.FindingsThe results reveal a sizeable university peer influence on CSR performance. Such influence is even stronger for executives who graduated from elite universities (e.g. 985 or 211 universities), and universities or programmes that provide more opportunities for alumni reunions or networking (e.g. MBAs/EMBAs). Executives who are more influential in making firm decisions (e.g. CEOs/CFOs), as well as firms that are more likely to mimic the behaviour of others, also show higher degrees of university peer influence.Practical implicationsThe results highlight the role of education in ethical decision-making.Originality/valueThis study documents evidence on a new determinant of firm CSR performance. The study sheds light on the impact of non-institutionalised personal ties, for example, university alumni networks, on CSR performance.

Exploring the relationship between corporate social responsibility in China, auditor reputation and debt financing costs based on unbalanced data

As the second largest economy in the world, promoting corporate social responsibility in China has become an important issue, while debt financing is still the main means of external financing for most Chinese private enterprises; at the same time, the relevant accounting policy indicates the need to actively promote the firm's reputation mechanism. Therefore, this paper will select A-share listed companies in China from 2015 to 2020 as the research sample to explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility in China, auditor reputation and the cost of debt financing, and use empirical methods to verify the moderating effect of auditor reputation on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and the cost of debt financing. This empirical study not only broadens expert and individual research on auditor reputation at the professional level, but also provides new ideas for reducing the cost of debt financing through auditor reputation.