A Study on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reinforcement in China; Focusing on Chinese Automobile Industry

Currently the requirement for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is more and more growing in China. Chinese Government has tried to protect natural environment and low-income employees' right by making new laws, and requires the state own enterprises (SOEs) and multinational enterprises (MNEs) do more investments for making a practical contribution to local society development, so called a quality oriented development rather than a quantity oriented one. Therefore this paper tried to examine the CSR trend change in China and to draw out its implication. Firstly this paper organized the CSR trend of China by three stages with the passage of time since the ‘Open Door Policy’. Major approach for CSR in China has changed by the economic approach ⇉ institutional approach ⇉ strategic approach. The key issues for CSR have changed from the firm's profit maximization to the shareholders' value increase, and to the business & society integration. In addition this paper took the case analysis for Chinese automobile manufacturing industry in order to look at the recent condition of CSR activities in China. According to the result, more and more social issues of China are significantly affected by each firm's activities on value chain, and major issues of current Chinese society make much more effect on a firm's business activities than before.