The Manufacturer Decision Analysis for Corporate Social Responsibility under Government Subsidy

Charitable donation and energy-saving R&D are two common approaches to fulfill corporate social responsibility (CSR). A recent survey in China shows that most firms prefer donating to investing in energy-saving research and development. To understand firms’ preference, we develop a game model to investigate the optimal CSR decisions and profit of the firm, which considers donation and energy-saving R&D approaches, respectively. Then, we analyze how the government subsidies for CSR, as well as the unit production cost and the R&D cost of energy-saving product, affect the firm’s CSR decisions and the CSR rate of return. Finally, we study the triple bottom line approach, i.e., considering donation and energy-saving R&D approaches simultaneously, and investigate the interaction between the above two approaches. The results show the following. (1) Government subsidy is an important driver for the firm’s CSR fulfillment and the triple bottom line approach is optimal if the government simultaneously provides two subsidies. (2) When the government subsidy for energy-saving product is moderate, the firm will choose the approach with high profit and high CSR rate of return. (3) The CSR rates of return of different approaches are also compared to reveal the efficiency of the CSR fulfillment and the firm may sometimes choose an approach with low CSR rate of return to pursue high profit. We identify why and when firms prefer charitable donation to energy-saving R&D approach and determine the threshold of the firm engaging CSR for the government to formulate CSR subsidy policies.