title: ESSAYS ON CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN CHINA: THE ROLE OF ORGANISATIONAL AND CONTEXTUAL FACTORS
Creators: name: Chen, Yijie
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2029

description: Firms want to create job opportunities and generate profit but are not willing to place too much emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR) because many executives believe that CSR activities will eliminate jobs and profits. The impact of globalisation in China has been significant in terms of shaping business practices, irrespective of whether the firms are local or international. There are thousands of Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) clustered in contemporary China, especially in the Yangtze-River Delta Region. Local clustered firms within Global Value Chains (GVC) are able to link to global markets and the leading firms normally share their labour and environmental standards within the GVC. Thus, local clusters of firms who comply to these standards will be potentially influenced. It is critical to understand why and how an effective Triple Bottom Line (TBL) oriented management system would help the firm to achieve better performance. The complexity of promoting CSR activities in China is that the Government is a vital factor in successfully implementing CSR programs. Government involvement has two facets: political and cultural. With regards to political involvement, businesses often think that CSR activities are dictated by economic imperatives but in actual practice this is managed by the government in China. With regards to the cultural dimension, China is a high-context country. China’s Guanxi-based culture has influenced Chinese society for thousands of years. Guanxi is a double-edged sword in the Chinese market. This research identifies the contextual factors and organisational factors that may affect firms in their adoption of CSR and how the firms’ financial performance has been influenced by CSR promotion under government involvement and culture-related effects
 
With all this in mind, the key research objectives of this thesis are as follows. First, this thesis establishes a theoretical framework—a TBL-oriented management system framework—to develop theoretical linkages among the three empirical papers presented in this thesis (hereafter referred to as Papers 1, 2 and 3). While the three empirical papers are theoretically connected, they make independent theoretical contributions to each specific stream of research in the corresponding area. Second, this thesis determines whether the relationship between TBL and SME performance in China is influenced by organisational factors. Third, this thesis assesses to what extent contextual factors influence the relationship between SME performance and the adoption of TBL management systems in China. This study advances a conceptual framework that broadens and deepens our understanding of the complexities within which small firms operate in China.
The first research chapter (Chapter 3) identifies the potential factors that affect a firm’s choice of CSR practice adoption. The research investigates the institutional factors (Chinese social norms, government, social values and norms etc.,) which influence firms’ CSR practice using data collected in face-to-face interviews. Seventeen managers were interviewed from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. This study identifies relevant institutional factors that may affect firms in their adoption of CSR activities. The second research chapter (Chapter 4) examines the impact of social management systems on firm performance in China. The research findings indicate that the Social Management System does affect firms’ performances under the moderation effect of employees’ perception and organisational commitment (OC). This research makes several contributions to Stakeholder theory, including confirmation and theory extension. The third research chapter investigates the impact of the TBL-oriented Environmental Management System (EMS) on firms’ performance in China, and it puts forward a conceptual framework that demonstrates how TBL influences CSR activities. The findings imply that the Guanxi effect is weakened and may not help firms in achieving advantages over their rivals, and that the government needs to promote CSR by issuing relevant CSR policies.
This thesis proposes a conceptual framework for broadening the view with regard to CSR in contemporary China. It identifies contextual factors and it offers numerous future research suggestions with regard to relevant research areas in the field of business and management.