Driving Mechanism of Corporate Social Responsibility in United States and Mainland China

Abstract

This paper empirically explored the driving factors of corporate social responsibility (CSR) using survey data from USA and China.Based on the results from a Web survey of more than 400 executives from a diversified sample of companies, the influential CSR drivers betweenUSA and China were compared and contrasted. Factor analysis identifies the ranking of CSR drivers for China as (1) ethics/values, (2) performance, (3)international issues/consumers/reputation, (4) barriers, and (5)government/laws in descending importance. The ranking for USA is (1) ethics/values, (2) barriers,(3) performance, (4) government/ laws, and (5) consumers/reputation. Furthermore, it was found that China being in a coordinate market economy considers a broader group of stakeholders for CSR than USA being in a liberal market economy. The variables of financial performance, image,reputation, consumer, and media have more influence in CSR drivers for China than for USA.The variable of religion is not significantly influential in CSR for both China and USA. The above findings can guide executives andmanagers in developing effective strategies in addressing CSR issues in Western and Eastern companies.