International Journal of Business and Society, Vol.9 No.2, 2008, 1-8

ASIAN CSR PROFILES AND NATIONAL INDICATORS: INVESTIGATION
THROUGH WEBCONTENT ANALYSIS
Glen Kurokawa♣ and Darryl Macer
Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific Region,
UNESCO Bangkok,
920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, Bangkok 10110, Thailand

ABSTRACT
National corporate social responsibility (CSR) profiles in the Asian region have been found to have significant
differences. CSR webcontent from the largest companies in eight Asian countries was collected and analyzed andstatistically significant links between national indicators and CSR levels were found. We discuss how CSR
activity responds to country conditions through several possible mechanisms.
Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; Sustainability; Social responsibility; Asia; Website reporting; Webcontent.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a popular concept. The traditional view of CSR, mainly derived fromfields such as corporate finance, describe it as maximizing long-term value for shareholders (e.g., maximizing netpresent value (NPV) or the internal rate of return (IRR), well-known capital budgeting concepts). More recently,
there has been a change in the emphasis of the definition by some. Although it’s precise definition is the subject of
debate (e.g. van Marrewijk, 2003), a workable definition is the “company’s commitment to minimizing or
eliminating any harmful effects and maximizing its long-run beneficial impact on society” (Mohr, et al., 2001).
Such a working definition has included a wide spectrum of activities: human rights, labor standards,
environmental management, consumer protection, anti-corruption, fair-dealing and competition, advertising andmarketing, and others (Lantos, 2001; Garriga and Melé, 2004). We notice that such lists omit the more mundane
operational impacts of corporations on society, as well as failing to account for net impacts (which NPV/IRR
account for). Nevertheless, the above listed areas tend to be in vogue at the moment, perhaps in part reflecting
policy-makers' concerns.
It is observed in many parts of the world, including Asia, where it fast-growing (Chapple and Moon, 2005;
Ramasamy and Hung, 2004; KPMG, 2005 and Baughn, et al., 2007). Increasingly, public policy-makers and civilsociety are becoming engaged in policies and debates which involve CSR. It is useful, then, to describe how CSR
is related to country conditions to better inform CSR debates and policies. Here, we focus on Asia.
A number of empirical CSR studies have been carried out for Asian countries (Welford, 2003; Welford, 2005;
Chapple and Moon, 2005 and Baughn, et al., 2007). Chapple and Moon (2005) and others have found that Asia
CSR profiles show “considerable national distinctiveness”. Welford (2005) notes this same broad trend. Whataccounts for these differences? Baughn, et al., (2007) found that CSR is positively correlated with wealth,economic and political freedom, and low corruption levels.
We seek, however, to determine whether a more useful descriptive picture can be obtained by comparing national
CSR profiles in Asia with specific country indicators. Any policy research that depends on connections between
private sector social responsibility and country conditions would benefit from such information. For instance,
public policy-makers may want to know whether the private sector will respond to social problems such as healthand education when determining how much effort should be spent on these areas to improve conditions. They may♣

Corresponding author: Glen Kurokawa, Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific Region,
UNESCO Bangkok, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, Bangkok 10110, Thailand. Email: gskurokawa@hotmail.com

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Asian CSR Profiles and National Indicators: Investigation Through Webcontent Analysis

also want to integrate the private sector into public policies. Studies like this can also inform the ongoing debate
about what the role of the corporation is today, a part of the wider debate about what its role should be.
In this study, we compare specific CSR areas with various national indicators. We also describe and explain any
trends.

II.

METHODOLOGY

Primary CSR data were taken from company websites following the method of Chapple and Moon (2005). Data
were quantitatively analyzed by comparisons with national indicators.
Data Collection
Websites of the twenty largest companies (by revenue) in 2005 of eight countries – China (excluding Taiwan andHong Kong), India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand(Yazhou Zhoukan, 2005) were examined for their CSR content. CSR webcontent was found mainly throughdesignated website sections such as “social responsibility”, “sustainability”, and “community relations”.
CSR areas studied included health, (compulsory) education, agricultural development, business and economic
development, environment, and children and youth.
If websites were not functioning, under construction, in a language other than English, or other problems were
present, they were excluded but not replaced with other companies. Often less than twenty companies were foundfor each country; the average was 17.5 companies per country. Since the largest companies tend to have adisproportionately higher concentration of CSR involvement (Chapple and Moon, 2005), larger sampling may notsignificantly reduce sampling error.
CSR webcontent sampling has limitations. First, since internet usage rates are different, companies in different
countries may include their CSR activities on websites to different extents. However, Chapple and Moon (2005)
note that “given a key theme in contemporary CSR is its reporting and accountability, we would not expect this tobe widespread”. Second, CSR may be over- or under-estimated in webcontent. Chapple and Moon (2005) are able
to conclude that it “can be taken as a basic proxy for the company’s CSR”. Third, the areas of CSR studied in thispaper only reflect those publicly disclosed on corporate websites. As such, they are limited to only beneficial
impacts reported by companies. There may be negative impacts and unreported beneficial impacts (e.g., byoffering value that local consumers otherwise would not receive, by providing a high level of job security for local
employees). However, as mentioned in the introduction, the CSR definition currently used highlights thebeneficial, not negative, aspects of CSR. There is an inherent limit of webcontent analysis to describe unreported
CSR activities.
Data Analysis
CSR data were analyzed quantitatively with country indicators obtained from the United Nations (UN Statistics
Division, UNESCO, and WHO), the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006(Lopez-Carlos et al. 2005), and the CIA World Factbook. Only those indicators with a set of data available for atleast six countries in the survey, with data after the year 2000, were used.
Data analysis involved correlations. As Spearman rank correlation coefficients (“ρ”) and tests are more reliable atlower values of n (n=8 in this study) than Pearson correlation coefficients, the former were used in most instances.
However, if dense clustering would lead to a suspicious ρ1, the normal correlation coefficient (“Pearson r”) was
substituted instead.
Associated p-values are also shown. This study uses a version of the standard p-value classification (Keller,
2005). If p ≤ 0.05, it is deemed very (or strongly) significant, and if 0.05 < p ≤ 0.10 then it is classified as weakly
significant. If p > 0.10, there is no significance.

Glen Kurokawa and Darryl Macer

III.

3

RESULTS

HealthHealth CSR included programs such as mobile health camps, building and/or maintaining hospitals, infant health,blood drives, financial support for surgeries, donations to medical charities, treatment of rare diseases, and others.
Infant mortality and life expectancy were tested versus health CSR. A positive relationship was expected between
health CSR and infant mortality, as increases in the latter may signify a decrease in health status and greater needfor health CSR. A negative relationship was expected between health CSR and life expectancy because increases
in the latter signify healthier populations and less need for health CSR.
H1a: health CSR is positively correlated with infant mortality
H1b: health CSR is negatively correlated with life expectancy
Table 1: Health CSR
Hypothesis
Health CSR vs. Infant Mortality*
H1a
Health CSR vs. Life Expectancy*
H1b
Note: *Taken from WHO World Health Statistics 2006.

Spearman ρ
0.55
-0.74

Significance
Weak
StrongEducation
Compulsory education CSR included school-building, school facility improvements, school supply provision, andothers.
Compulsory education CSR was tested for rank correlation with several education-specific indicators: it was
expected to decrease with increasing literacy, increase with increasing primary and secondary pupil-teacher ratios,
decrease with increasing educational quality – both public schools and education. Increasing literacy is thought tocreate less need for compulsory education CSR; higher pupil-teacher ratios are thought to be a sign of stress on
the education system, leading to greater need for compulsory education CSR; and better educational infrastructure
quality is thought to create less need for compulsory education CSR.
H2a: compulsory education CSR is negatively correlated with literacy rate
H2b: compulsory education CSR is positively correlated with primary pupil-teacher ratio
H2c: compulsory education CSR is positively correlated with secondary pupil-teacher ratio
H2d: compulsory education CSR is negatively correlated with public school quality
H2e: compulsory education CSR is negatively correlated with educational quality
Table 2: Education CSR
Spearman ρ
Significance-0.48
Strongz-0.80Compulsory Education CSR vs. Primary Pupil-Teacher Ratioa
H2b
0.64
Weak
a
Compulsory Education CSR vs. Secondary Pupil-Teacher Ratio
H2c0.86
StrongCompulsory Education CSR vs. Quality of Public Schoolsb
H2d
-0.88
StrongbCompulsory Education CSR vs. Quality of Education
H2e
-0.57
Weak
a
Notes:
Taken from UNESCO Institute for Statistics, bTaken from Lopez-Carlos et al. (2005) and zPearson correlation
coefficient.
Compulsory Education CSR vs. Literacy Ratea

Hypothesis
H2a4

Asian CSR Profiles and National Indicators: Investigation Through Webcontent Analysis

Agricultural Development
Agricultural development CSR included programs to increase crop yield, improve agricultural infrastructure (mostnotably irrigation systems), agribusiness initiatives, volunteering, technological aid for farmers, and others.
Well-known agricultural indicators measuring its importance were hypothesized to positively correlate with
agricultural development CSR. It was expected to increase with agriculture as a percentage of the economy,
agriculture as a percentage of the workforce, and agricultural area percentage – all because greater prominence ofagriculture in society could lead to increased attention by CSR programs.
H3a: agricultural development CSR is positively correlated with agriculture as a percentage of theeconomyH3b: agricultural development CSR is positively correlated with agriculture as a percentage of theworkforce
H3c: agricultural development CSR is positively correlated with agricultural area percentage
TABLE 3: AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CSR
Agricultural Development CSR vs. Agriculture as % GDP*
Agricultural Development CSR vs. Agriculture as % workforce*
Agricultural Development CSR vs. Agricultural area as %*Note: *Taken from CIA World Factbook.

Hypothesis
H3a
H3b
H3c

Spearman ρ
0.81
0.66
0.70

SignificanceStrongStrongStrongBusiness and Economic Development
Business and economic development CSR included programs such as loans, small and medium enterprise (SME)
development, venture capital development, and others.
Increased financial liquidity was thought to decrease need for business and economic development CSR, as thelatter were mainly involved with increasing financial liquidity. Thus:
H4a: business and economic development CSR is negatively correlated with ease of access to loans
H4b: business and economic development CSR is negatively correlated with venture capital availability
H4c: business and economic development CSR is negatively correlated with access to credit
Table 4: Agricultural Development CSR
Business/Economic Development CSR vs. Ease of Loans*
Business/Economic Development CSR vs. VC Availability*
Business/Economic Development CSR vs. Access to Credit*
Note:*Taken from WEF.

Hypothesis
H4a
H4b
H4c

Spearman ρ
-0.47
-0.47
-0.21

Significance
None
None
None

Environment
Environmental CSR includes activities such as designing environmentally and energy friendly products, recycling,
have environmentally friendly procurement policies, checking suppliers’ environmental management systems,
carrying out hazardous waste management, solid waste management plans, and others. As the sample sizes ofcompanies is not significantly large (and therefore statistical resolution would be problematic), all of these
activities have been aggregated as simply “Environment”.
Environmental CSR was expected to decrease with the stringency of environmental regulation because increased
stringency leads to decreased need for businesses to take voluntary environmental initiatives; increase withincreasing importance of environment in business planning because the latter can subsume environmental CSR;
and increase with increasing protection of ecosystems by business because these two objectives subsume
environmental CSR.

Glen Kurokawa and Darryl Macer5

H5a: environmental CSR is negatively correlated with stringency of environmental regulation
H5b: environmental CSR is positively correlated with importance of environment in business planningH5c: environmental CSR is positively correlated with protection of the ecosystem by business
Table 5: Environment CSR
Environmental CSR vs. Stringency of Environmental Regulation*
Environmental CSR vs. Importance of Environment in Business Planning*
Environmental CSR vs. Protection of Ecosystem By Business*
Note: *Taken from WEF.

Hypothesis
H5a
H5b
H5c

Spearman ρ-0.0600.00-0.036Significance
None
None
None

Children and YouthCorporations are frequently engaged in CSR programs targeted at youth through programs such as summer camps.
Children and youth CSR was expected to increase with three other indicators that reflect how many and how fast
the children and youth are becoming an important demographic force in a country: population growth rate,
fertility rate, and under-15 population percentage.
H6a: children and youth CSR is positively correlated with population growth rate
H6b: children and youth CSR is positively correlated with fertility rate
H6c: children and youth CSR is positively correlated with under-15 population percentage
Table 6: Children and Youth CSRChildren/Youth CSR vs. Population Growth Rate*
Children/Youth CSR vs. Fertility Rate*
Children/Youth CSR vs. Under-15 Population %*Note:*Taken from CIA World Factbook.

Hypothesis
H6a
H6b
H6c

Spearman ρ
0.81
0.67
-0.18

SignificanceStrongStrongNone

ResearchResearch for social purposes consisted of research CSR. A frequent mode of contribution consisted of donations
for medical research. Another example included researching more environmentally-friendly technologies.
It was expected to increase with the capacity for innovation and intellectual property (IP) protection because thefirst is an indicator of research infrastructure and the second is an incentive for greater research infrastructure.
H7a: research CSR is positively correlated with capacity for innovation
H7b: research CSR is positively correlated with IP protection
Table 7: Research CSR
Hypothesis
H7a
H7b

Research CSR vs. Capacity for Innovation*
Research CSR vs. IP Protection*
Note: *Taken from WEF.

IV.

Spearman ρ
0.80
0.95

SignificanceStrongStrongDISCUSSION

Correlations were found in a significant portion of the results. Out of 18 hypothesized correlations, 14 were foundto give strong (11) or weak (3) correlations. While the percentage of correlations can vary depending on which
hypotheses are investigated, the number found, 14, indicates that CSR activities do appear to be significantly
linked to country conditions.

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Asian CSR Profiles and National Indicators: Investigation Through Webcontent Analysis

Significant correlations found can be explained as responses to indicators. In other words, there is likely causation
between CSR area and country condition. These can be divided into several mechanisms.
First, CSR areas may respond to deteriorating country conditions. For instance, health CSR increases in response
to increasing infant mortality because the private sector perceives higher infant mortality to be a greater incentive
to respond through CSR than lower infant mortality. In the results, health and education CSR fit this pattern:health CSR increases in response to deteriorating health conditions, and education CSR increases in response tolower or strained education. Further, this mechanism could not function in the opposite causal direction, e.g.
increased health CSR does not cause an increase in infant mortality.
Second, CSR areas may respond to issues of high national prominence. For instance, if agriculture constitutes alarge part of the economy, agricultural development CSR will be higher as agricultural issues will be prominent.
Corporations will also perceive its importance, and assign higher priority than if the issue were not as prominent.
In the results, agricultural development and children and youth CSR fit this pattern. In the latter, a higher fertility
rate and population growth rate may have made children and youth issues more prominent in those countries. Thismechanism does not function in the opposite causal direction. Corporate social responsibility activities inagriculture probably do not cause changes in the composition of the national economy; the amount of agriculturaldevelopment CSR appears to be far too small as a percentage of the total GDP from agriculture. Also, CSR
activities involving the young and adolescents probably do not cause national demographic changes.
Third, CSR areas may respond to infrastructural capacity. This is illustrated through research CSR. This wasapparent from the most frequent kinds of activities classified under research CSR: medical research andenvironmentally-friendly technology. These activities require and rely on research infrastructure, both human(scientists, engineers) and physical (laboratories, institutes). This mechanism can move in the opposite causal
direction, namely that research CSR can increase the capacity for innovation and IP protection. However, it islikely that the dominant direction of causation is where research CSR responds to, and relies upon, underlying
research infrastructure. Private sector funding for this CSR mode appears much lower than government and forprofit research expenditures such that any effect research CSR has on its relevant indicators, capacity forinnovation and IP protection, are likely to be insignificant and offset by research CSR responding to indicators.
Through these three mechanisms, significant correlations in the study can be explained. However, this does not
explain the correlations that were not found to be significant, primarily in the areas of business and economic
development (Table 4), environment (Table 5), and one of the children and youth (Table 6) entries. There areseveral explanations possible for why we did not find significant correlations for these CSR areas.
First, there may not be a genuine relationship between a CSR area and the indicator. This may apply to, forinstance, business and economic development CSR and capital availability (which all three entries in Table 4 test).
It might be that business and economic development CSR programs, such as entrepreneurial loans, might betargeted only in specific rural areas and ignore conditions of average national capital availability.
Second, a relationship between a CSR area and an indicator may be subject to interference from anotherrelationship between CSR and another variable. This can cause possible correlations to fail. For instance, inbusiness and economic development CSR, it might be that SME loans do not depend on capital availability, butrather more on variables such as the structure of the economy (e.g., the size of the SME sector to large
corporations). At other times, possible correlations may be weakened because of this mechanism. For instance,
health CSR may increase in response to decreases in infant mortality. This might occur in an industrializedcountry, where low infant mortality may coincide with greater recognition and/or incidence of industrialized
diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Health CSR may then increase, rather than decrease.
Further, the interfering relationship may be the result of context-specific variables that are difficult to measure.
There may be particular causes management of a company is involved with, which is a function of that company’s
history. Management may also have particular relationships with NGOs and government which influence CSR
activities of a company. Graafland and van de Ven (2006) has found that companies can be significantly
motivated by “moral” over “strategic” considerations; what is moral to one company may be different fromanother, and this may be an example of a context-specific variable that is difficult to measure.

Glen Kurokawa and Darryl Macer

7

Third, there may be reason to increase support for an area CSR regardless of indicators. This might be applied tochildren and youth CSR. For instance, countries with younger populations may strongly support children andyouth CSR because they have incentive to take care of the large cohort of next generation leaders and citizens. On
the other hand, countries with older societies may also highly value their younger generation because they are ascarce resource; thus CSR may generate large per child/youth benefits.
Fourth, and related to the third, there may be saturation of a certain CSR area. This seems applicable toenvironmental CSR, as virtually every corporate website mentions environmental activities, and these wereclassified under environmental CSR. If virtually every corporation is involved in environmental CSR, correlations
between CSR and indicators will not be significant. Environmental CSR will appear independent of any
indicators.
As pointed out in the introduction, Baughn, et al., (2007) found variables such as per capita output positively
correlated with CSR activity. Our results do not appear to strongly support this, as we find conditions foundpredominantly in less developing countries, such as decreased population health, strained or lower education,
more agriculture, and younger population, lead to increased CSR. The exceptions are business and economic
development, environment, and research CSR – which might be explained by the above reasons. On whole, ourstudy seems to indicate that developing countries have more CSR activity than developed countries.
However, this is likely a premature conclusion. The CSR areas chosen for our investigation are found more in
CSR programs of developing country companies; in other words, the chosen CSR areas favor developing
countries. For instance, it is less common for a developed country company to be engaged in agriculturaldevelopment CSR; industrialized countries tend to have much smaller proportions of their economy composed ofagriculture. Corporations from more industrialized economies invest in CSR areas not covered by our study. For
instance, many western companies may invest significantly in human rights or advanced education (e.g.
scholarships). If more industrialized companies have more CSR in these areas, they will likely invest in more CSR
than developing country companies. This effect will be accentuated because Beliveau, et al., (1994) has found that
increased profit leads to increased CSR involvement; industrialized companies have higher profit amounts inaggregate and on average. Besides a more inclusive list of Asian countries, using indicators that less favor
developing countries will increase accuracy of future comparative CSR studies.

V.

CONCLUSION

This study shows how some CSR areas may be influenced by country conditions. At a general level, the key
findings of this study are (1) certain CSR areas respond to country conditions, (2) that they can be explained
through several possible mechanisms, but (3) that certain other CSR areas do not respond to country conditions,which (4) may be subject to a variety of explanations. These reactions to different country conditions can explain,in part, the differences in Asian national CSR profiles found in other studies (Chapple and Moon, 2005).
The Asian private sector appears to be responding to social conditions in areas such as health, education, andprominent issues of the country, such as agricultural development and children and youth. In research CSR,
corporations may not be addressing the underlying social condition of increasing research, but it may be
addressing and contributing to society through research results. However, in other areas such as business andeconomic development and environment, while there is CSR activity, does not appear to be responding to social
conditions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the institutional support of UNESCO Bangkok. Any views expressed inthis article do not necessarily reflect those of UNESCO.

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Asian CSR Profiles and National Indicators: Investigation Through Webcontent Analysis

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