An Empirical Study On The Influence Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Competitive Advantage

With the development of the times corporate social responsibility (CSR) is gaining in popularity. Currently many corporations have been aware of the necessity and urgency of CSR. And at the same time the cost and benefit producing from CSR are brought into focus. Therefore the research on the impact of CSR on competitive advantage (CA) is of momentous current significance and theoretical significance. By integrating normative and empirical analysis processes, this dissertation tries to explore the issue. The dissertation studies out the main objectives as follows:(1) Based on the stakeholders theory the dissertation discusses the content and structure of CSR, and then constructs and confirms the measurement model of CSR. (2) Verify the mediating effect of the relationship among corporation and its stakeholders in the influencing process of CSR on CA. (3) Through empirical research Verify that if the significant influence of CSR on CA exists. Thereby make clear the important effect of CSR on CA.The dissertation adopts deep interview, questionnaire investigation and other methods to collect data about CSR, the relationship among its stakeholders and CA. And verify the reliability and validity of the measurement scale. The data were analyzed by correlation analysis, factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM) and other methods by using the softwares of SPSS16.0 and LISREL8.70. Verify the relationship among variables in the conceptual model and confirm the hypotheses. The main conclusions include:(1)The corporations in China do well in the legal responsibility as a whole, but behave not so well at ethical and philanthropic responsibilities.(2)The content of CSR includes two dimensions:corporate-internal responsibility (including investor responsibility, personnel basic responsibility and personnel development responsibility) and corporate-external responsibility (including customer responsibility, business partners responsibility, natural environment responsibility, community responsibility and government responsibility).(3)The content of the relationship among corporation and its stakeholders includes two dimensions:corporate-internal relationship (including investor relationship and personnel relationship) and corporate-external relationship (including customer relationship, business partners relationship, natural environment relationship, community relationship and government relationship).(4) Being responsible for its stakeholders may be in favor of improving and maintaining the stakeholders relationship.(5)The actions of CSR on CA are as follow:corporate-internal responsibility→corporate-internal relationship→CA; corporate-external responsibility→corporate-external relationship→corporate-internal relationship→CA. The relationship among corporation and its stakeholders acts as a mediator when CSR influences CA.(6)The Chinese consumers are lack of CSR consciousness. So, not all CSR practices consequentially lead to consumers'identification and purchasing behavior.