Political Embeddedness or World Cultural Pressure? Explaining Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China, 2005-2015

• In Event: 4366 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 9. Global Norm Formation

Abstract

We test empirically the usefulness of both world polity explanation and political strategy view in the context of the adoption of CSR reports in China. Specifically, we analyze the adoption of CSR reports compiled by 2,863 listed firms in China from 2005 to 2015 via an event history framework. Contrary to past studies, this article casts doubt on the assumption that all CSR reports contain similar forms and contents. As such, we seek to explain the adoption of two different forms of CSR reports, reports explicitly referencing global models and those written under the guidance of government agencies, treating them as evoking somewhat different sources of authority. To what extent is the adoption of CSR reports attributable to political signaling from party-government nexus or world culture pressures? Do the influences operate in the same way for the reports based on national governmental directives and those more explicitly linked to world society? If not, what accounts for the variation on the factors shaping CSR reporting initiatives in China as an emerging economy? We address these questions with the use of novel dataset we compiled from several original sources as well as employing an event history analysis. Our findings lead us to conclude that world polity perspective is better suited for explaining the adoption of GRI-based reports, whereas political strategy perspective is well attuned to the adoption of the versions consulted by government agencies. This article provides a unique theoretical contribution to discussions of the diffusion and local variations of global models.

Authors

• Jeong-Woo Koo, Sungkyunkwan University

• Dae-wook Kim