A Study On The Corporate Social Responsibility Of The Automotive Corporations In The Developed Countries

Along with economic globalization, resources tightening and acceleratingdeterioration of the human environment, a series of research subjects relating to howto reach “sustainable development, which implies meeting the needs of the presentwithout compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” isbecoming the researching focus of scholars, and corporate social responsibility is thefocal point of these. The scholars in Economics, management, law and ethics havedone a lot of in-depth studies on this issue in the context of resources shortening,environmental pollution and ecological deterioration, discussing whether and howcorporations can play a part in achieving coordinate and sustainable development ofeconomy, society, environment, resources and energy is the essential characteristic ofthese studies.The idea of corporate social responsibility has a long history, if leavingmodern corporation constitution aside, we can trace this in the ancient Greece times.But in the recent100years, scholars have been debating on whether corporationsshould taken corporate social responsibility. The concept of CSR requirescorporations making profits and meeting social needs at the same time, which seemscontroversy to classical economists thinking. On this issue, neoliberal economists,both Austrain School’s Hayek and Monetarist school’s Friedman have expressedobjections to this view. They advocated free market, opposed government’sintervention, and thus thought selfish behavior of individuals in economic activitiescan be optimized to maximized social welfare. If companies fulfill CSR, the base ofliberal society will be overturned. Admittedly, the liberalism’s avocation of freemarket economy, conservation of private entities and freedom, opposition to thegovernment’s excessive intervention in economy, is the theoretical cornerstone to freemarket economy. But in the circumstances of present market competition, thisstandpoint is debatable.On the other hand, some scholars and international organizations advocate that corporations should fulfill CSR so as to realize sustainable development. Zhangweiying(2007) argued that in a sound market system, there is no contradictionbetween companies’ pursuing of profit, creating value for customers and CSR.Moreover, Peitersen and Arvidsson(2013) proposed the concept of ethical economy,argues on can change the aims of companies, consumers, employees and otherstakeholders into social goals by ethics. On the basis of the newly “social contract”,business interests and social goals can be integrated into ethical economy.I think the divergence of CSR between the above mentioned scholars reflects thegap between theory and practice in the CSR research. As the largest single sector inthe manufacturing industry, the automotive industry means a great deal of importanceto a nation’s economy. On the one hand, in the manufacturing and using phase,automotive industry or car means big burden for environment; on the other hand, thevalue chain of the automotive industry is very long, and exerted great influence onnational economy. Therefore, this research will take the automotive industry as thestarting point to analyze the developed countries’ mechanism and auto companiespractice of CSR, in the hope of answering the question that whether through CSR canbe reached the coordinated and sustainable development of economy, society andenvironment, and providing the CSR mode for Chinese automotive companies.As the above mentioned, this dissertation will be focusing on answering whethercorporations’fulfillment of CSR is consistent with its profits’maximization, and I willdo my research on the organizational level in the automotive industry in thedeveloped countries. In order to realize this purpose, this research will be arrangedaccording to the following structures. Firstly, I will begin with the presentation ofresearch purpose: basing on the review of theoretical and realistic background, I willpropose the research intention of my dissertation, which will be elaborated in theChapter1. In the second section of analytical and empirical research, this section isthe core of my dissertation, which composed by theory basis formulation, CSRstrategically transformation of the developed countries’ companies, theimplementation route of CSR in the developed countries and its performance, and theempirical research sector including the evaluation of CSR performance and the casestudy. Finally, the last section of my dissertation is the summary and conclusion, inwhich I will propose some suggestions on the formulation and the mode of China’sautomotive industry CSR mechanism. Then, I will give a detailed introduction on theresearch contents, concluding and findings on a chapter basis. Chapter1“Preface” gives a overview of the research background, purpose,significance and method. Basing on the review and analysis of theoretical and realisticbackground, I will elaborate on the detailed context of my research. After theliterature review regarding CSR origin, debate and shortcomings of current research, Idefine the purpose of my research is to enhance the Chinese automotive industry’sCSR performance, given automotive industry’s characteristic. After that, I explicatethe research purpose, meaning and methodology, of course, the innovations andshortcomings will be included.Chapter2“CSR and the Review of Relating Theory” is formulate the theorybase of the research by literature review. By defining the corporation, I think that thecorporation has its natural and social attributes. Then, I review the development andevolvement of CSR, and make a definition of CSR after reviewing the other scholars’definitions. Furthermore, According to the classification making by Garriga and Mele′（2004）, I will make a detailed review on stakeholder theory, resource-based theoryand sustainable development theory, in which the first two is chose from instrumentaltheories and the last one from ethical theories. This work will provide the theory basisfor CSR and sustainable development.Chapter3“The Evolution of the Developed Countries’ Automotive Companies’CSR and the Infuluencing Factors Analysis” will make a comprehensive analysis onthis transformation and the related influencing factors. Basing on the “Shared ValueTheory” proposed by Porter and Kramer, I argue that through putting CSR into thestrategic level of corporation, corporations and societies can share values. Afteranalyzing the CSR of the automotive companies in the developed countries, I findthese companies have transferred from focusing on the environmental issues, payingequal attention to environment and society, to the strategic CSR phase. This is mainlyaffected by the government’s institutional arrangement, the appeals of thestakeholders and the market mechanism. Meanwhile, technology, the industry’sdevelopment level and the innovation capacity are also playing an important role.Chapter4“The Path to Fulfill CSR of the Automotive Companies in theDeveloped Countries” is mainly about how to fulfill CSR. This study finds that inorder to coordinate the “economic man” and “social man”, these companies have paida lot of attention in the following fields: firstly, develop and implement CSR strategy,guarantee that social issues have been identified and considered in the CSR strategy;secondly, respond to the demand of the key stakeholders, such as investors, employees, and consumers, become a good corporate citizenship; thirdly, place moreemphasis on the characteristic of the industry and the product, launch environmentalmanagement, reduce the burden of environment, improve the environmentalperformance of product. These will be a reference model for Chinese automotivecompanies.Chapter5“The Measurement of CSR Performance of Automotive Companies inthe Developed Countries” measures the CSR performance of automotive companiesin the developed countries according to the GRI’s sustainability report Guidelines.How to measure the CSR performance objectively and accurately, spot the savinggraces, is very important to study whether “economic man” can maximize its profitsand improve the social welfare at the same time. Firstly, I review and make acomparison between the GRI reporting guidelines measuring method, sustainabilityindex, and questionnaire survey, then I chose the GRI reporting guidelines measuringmethod to measure these companies’ CSR performance, considering the researchpurpose and realities. The measurement covers the following major subjects:corporate strategy, governance, commitments, and engagement, economicperformance, environmental performance, and social performance. Moreover, thismeasurement will give a new approach to the CSR measurement.Chapter6“The Analysis of the Effects in the Developed Countries’ automotivecompanies” assesses the economic, social and environmental effects systemically, andadds a new outcome on the research of the relationship between CSR and corporatefinancial performance (CFP). The empirical findings suggest that through fulfillingCSR and improving CSR performance, enhance the corporate performance whichmeasures by ROA, Tobin’s Q and sales growth rate, and in turn, higher corporateperformance further enhance the CSR performance. This finding suggests that CSRand corporate performance are not inconsistent with each other to some extent.Chapter7“The Case study of Volkswagen AG” offers a case study of theVolkswagen AG’s CSR. As the biggest and the most influential corporation, VWattaches great importance to CSR. CSR forms an integral part of VW’s strategy2018,in order to put CSR into practice, it has also established a clear CSR and sustainabilitymanagement structure. By assuming the economic, social and environmentalresponsibility, VW has increased its performance. With this analysis of the typicalmicro-level corporation, I argue that the companies can increase its own profitabilityand the social welfare by developing and implementing CSR strategy. Chapter8“The Construction of CSR Mechanism and Mode for ChineseCompanies” is the section of policy recommendation. By drawing lessons from thedeveloped countries’ practice, I suggest that Chinese companies should develop theoutside institutional constraints and promotion mechanism, such as institutionalarrangements, institutionalized CSR information disclosure, and green marketcultivation. In the meanwhile, Chinese companies should also develop CSR strategiesand management system, strengthen technological innovation, manage environment atthe corporate level, reduce the environment effects, and meet the needs of keystakeholders actively.