Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Asia: A Seven-Country Study of CSR Web Site Reporting

Headnote

This article addresses four hypotheses: (a) that corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Asia is not homogeneous but varies among countries, (b) that the variation is explained by stages of development, (c) that globalization enhances the adoption of CSR in Asia, and (d) that national business systems structure the profile of multinational corporations' CSR. These hypotheses are investigated through analysis of Web site reporting of 50 companies in seven Asian countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand. The article concludes that CSR does vary considerably among Asian countries but that this variation is not explained by development but by factors in the respective national business systems. It also concludes that multinational companies are more likely to adopt CSR than those operating solely in their home country but that the profile of their CSR tends to reflect the profile of the country of operation rather than the country of origin.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility (CSR); CSR salience/profile; Asia; Web site reporting; globalization; national business systems

This article investigates corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in seven Asian countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand. It does so through analysis of Web site reporting of CSR by the top 50 companies of each country. The article addresses the following questions:

* Does CSR vary among the seven Asian countries, or is it relatively homogeneous?

* To the extent that any variation is found in the CSR of these countries, is this a function of indicators of development or of their national business systems?

* Is CSR in these countries enhanced or threatened by globalization?

* Do globalizing companies export their CSR to these countries, or do they adapt to the national styles of CSR in the respective countries?

The context for this research is that a great deal of research has now been conducted on CSR in Western countries but relatively little focuses on Asia (but see Birch & Moon, 2004). Moreover, relatively little CSR research has compared national systems of CSR (but see also Langlois & Schlegelmilch, 1990; Maignon & Ralston, 2002; Matten & Moon, 2004; Rossouw, 2005; Ryan, 2005; van Tulder & KoIk, 2001 ; Wieland, 2005), and even less has been comparative within Asia (but see Ramasamy...